Equine Chronicle » An Emerging Youth Halter Contender: Jamie Mangum and Passion On Q

An Emerging Youth Halter Contender: Jamie Mangum and Passion On Q

February 22, 2011

By: Brittany Bevis

Photos courtesy of Cristy Heck, Caption: Jamie Mangum and Passion On Q at the 2011 Dixie Nationals.

For Jamie Mangum, showing halter horses isn’t just a hobby, it’s his whole life. According to his trainer, Monte Horn, this talented youth exhibitor eats, sleeps and breathes halter horses, which seems to have paid off in spades following a very successful show at the 2011 AQHA Dixie Nationals this past weekend.

This was the eighteen-year-old’s first time showing his new mare, Passion On Q, which he successfully led to three firsts and a second, and three Grands and a Reserve in the Youth 3-Year-Old Mares. But Mangum isn’t just a talented showman, he also excels in his home schooling, runs his own lawn care business and just happens to have cerebral palsy.

“Because I have cerebral palsy, it’s a little bit harder for me, but it took me eighteen years to get to where I want to be and be able to show a horse like I can today,” Mangum says. “I’ve been showing horses all my life, since I was seven or eight years old, but I just got back to where I could trot a horse on my own.”

“My mom always showed pleasure horses, my dad team roped and my uncle has shown cutting horses, so I’ve been in the horse business since before I was born. Monte and his wife, Mrs. Anna, found this mare for me. We bought her from Mrs. Candace Jussen. We call her Candy Cane. Mrs. Anna and I named her that because we bought her from Mrs. Candace, and we wanted to name the mare after her.”

Despite the limits of his physical disability, Mangum is hard-working, dedicated, fiercely competitive and extremely passionate about the halter horse industry. Last year, he attended the AQHA Youth World as a spectator, but this year he plans to make a big splash at his first and last Youth World as an exhibitor.

“You know how it is,” he says. “You can’t win all the time, but I want to win 99.9% of the time, if you know what I mean. I practice every weekend at Monte’s, because I live about three hours from him. This will be my second year showing with Monte, but I have know him my whole life. I’ve bred horses to his stud over the years and I met him about ten years ago. He is one of my favorite guys in the halter horse industry and I really appreciate all that him and Mrs. Anna and the crew down at Monte Horn Show Horses do for me. They have helped me a bunch.”

After his very first appearance with his new mare, Mangum is lacking only one point needed for him to qualify to compete at the 2011 AQHA Youth World. Even though he is so close to qualifying very early in the year, Mangum certainly has no plans to slow down and take a little break before the big event this summer. As far as Mangum is concerned, practice makes perfect.

“We had a really good horse show this weekend, so I am just lacking one point to qualify for the Youth World this year,” he says. “I am going to Tunica in two or three weeks to try to finish up qualifying. Monte helps me because he always tells me what to do when I go in the pen, and then he will tell me what I do wrong, so that next time I can fix it. For the past month and a half that I have had her, I probably set the mare up about a hundred times and it really paid off at the show.”

In fact, his trainer Monte Horn, says Mangum is by no means, “off the hook.” He plans to have Mangum compete at several shows around the country throughout the course of the year, so he can gain more experience before the Youth World.

For Horn, finding a horse that would fit all of Mangum’s special needs, but at the same time would be competitive enough for him to reach his high goals was no small undertaking. Horn says the search to find this special mare took over a year.

“Honestly, I have been looking for that horse for over a year and luckily we were fortunate,” Horn says. “Candace had the mare and thought that she would work for him, and she has worked perfectly. We had to look for something that could be competitive, but that would also take care of him, stand up, and track well. Our biggest struggle is getting Jamie through the track, because where he has his disability is on the right side of his body, which is closest to the horse. This horse needed to have a level head and take care of him, but still be competitive, and that is not the easiest thing to find.”

“This boy wants to do big things,” Horn says. “As long as I’ve been doing this, I’ve never met another person who loves halter horses that much. He eats, sleeps and breathes halter horses. He knows the breeding, who has what, who had what, where they have been and what they have done. He definitely has a grasp of what is going on in the industry and he truly loves it.”

Horn is very proud that he has been able to mentor Jamie over the past few years, but he is insistent that the real reason Jamie has turned into such an outstanding competitor and young man is because of his grandfather, Mr. Hawkins.

“Jamie first came to my barn when he was five or six, when his granddad brought a mare to breed,” Horn says. “His grandfather is a lot of the reason that Jamie has turned out the way he has, because he has worked really hard to afford him everyone opportunity. Mr. Hawkins is a great person and without him, none of this would have been possible. Without Jamie’s mom and Candace, none of this would have been possible.”

Horn believes that the halter sector of the horse industry is the perfect avenue for beginners, or for those like Jamie, who may for various physical reasons or age have difficulty competing in riding events.

“I think the halter horse industry is an entry level place where people can come in who have never laid hands on a horse, and it is a great place for them to start,” Horn says. “We also find people who can’t ride anymore and this is an exit place for them. I think we offer more opportunities to the biggest demographic that any other facet of the horse industry.”

Fellow exhibitor, Cristy Heck, has a few inspiring words to say about her young friend, Jamie Mangum.

“He is a very special young man,” Heck says. “He showed a very gentle gelding last year, but wanted to find a horse that would compete at the World this year. He is very competitive, and not only wants to show, but wants to win. He has tremendous fortitude, positive attitude and great self-esteem. He also has an incredibly supportive family. His mom, Angie, shows in amateur, and his grandfather, Mr. Hawkins, helps with his horses and Jamie’s lawn care business when Jamie is traveling to shows. They are a special family. He may have cerebral palsy, and it may slow him down a bit, but it will not stop him.”

Mangum’s current goal is to qualify for and take the AQHA Youth World Show by storm, but that doesn’t mean that his horse aspirations end there. He also plans to show as an amateur and get more involved in the World Conformation Horse Association, with their new halter horse futurities. In the future, he hopes to buy a place closer to his mentor, Monte Horn, so he can become even more involved in the process of preparing his halter horse for competition.

“One day I’m going to get me a place down by Monte and Mrs. Anna,” he says. “I told Monte the other day that he could turn some of his broodmares out there on my place. I really love Monte and Anna. They are my really good friends.”

Also, did we mention that Jamie is an avid Equine Chronicle fan? He specifically requests that Monte save him extra copies so he can read the magazine from cover to cover to learn more about the industry that he loves.

On behalf of The Equine Chronicle, I would like to congratulate Jamie, his family, and the Horns, on their team’s recent success and wish them good luck at the 2011 AQHA World Show.

An Emerging Youth Halter Contender: Jamie Mangum and Passion On Q

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