Kamanyawannadance and Ryan Painter Win Congress Open Hunter Classic

By: Brittany Bevis

Ryan Painter and the 12-year-old gelding, Kamanyawannadance, bested a field of 21 horse and rider teams to claim the title of Congress Champion in the Open Hunter Classic late this evening. We chatted with longtime trainer, Leslie Lange, to find out more about the very decorated “Collin,” who belongs to one of her clients, Peyton Bivins.

“I caught-rode him as a two-year-old for Troy Compton at the Scottsdale Classic Horse Show, and I really liked him,” Leslie says. “I went to several clients who were looking for horses, but nobody wanted to buy him. I ended up buying him for myself. I sent him to Chuck Briggs as a youngster, a 4-year-old, to do the fences and I showed him myself.”

Collin would later go on to win the title of Reserve Super Horse at the AQHA World Championship Show when he was only five years old. “He was a Reserve World Champion in Amateur Hunter Under Saddle two years in a row with Peyton, and they were Reserve Champions here in Hunt Seat Equitation. In a kind of ironic twist, she won the Novice Amateur Hunter Hack here last year, and she hasn’t jumped that much. Also, she made the finals in Horsemanship last year at the World Show, so he’s pretty versatile.”

Last night, Painter and Collin were named the champions in Senior Working Hunter as well. Later on in the show, Collin will compete in Hunter Hack and Hunter Under Saddle classes. How is he able to be so consistent? “He’s great minded, very trainable, and I think he likes his job,” Leslie says.

In another “ironic twist,” as Leslie refers to it, she bred and raised all of the Open Working Hunter Champions here at the Congress, and they’re all related to Collin. “The horse that won Green Working Hunter, was second in Green Working Hunter, won the Progressive Working Hunter, won the Junior Working Hunter, and was Reserve in 14-18, I bred and raised all of them. They’re all either out of his mother or his full sister, so they’re all related: Dance Somemore, Dance If You Wanna, Dancin N the Dirt, and Kamanyawannadance.

Green Working Hunter Congress Champion- Dance Somemore/Linda Crothers

Green Working Hunter Reserve Champion- Dancin N The Dirt/ Chuck Briggs

Progressive Working Hunter Congress Champion- Dancin N The Dirt/Chuck Briggs

Junior Working Hunter Congress Champion- Dancin N The Dirt/Chuck Briggs

Youth Working Hunter 14-18 Reserve Champion- Dance If You Wanna/Noel Meadows

Senior Working Hunter Congress Champion- Kamanyawannadance/Ryan Painter