Stella Dorsey Seizes the Day – And A Gold Globe
By Delores Kuhlwein
The video on social media of Stella Dorsey taking a jump with one hand on her Gold Globe and the other hand on the reins of DGS Vintage, aka “Luke,” in her victory lap after winning the L3 Hunter Hack at AQHYA Youth World speaks volumes of her tenacity as a horseman and of their partnership.
Watch their victory lap video on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1D3ZVBofyb/
Who Stella is (her timeless name with Latin origins literally means “star”) shone through Friday, the first day of the 2026 AQHYA Championship Show, when she and DGS Vintage bested a field of 39 teams to win a World Championship.
It’s hard to believe she started going over fences less than a year ago, but she and DGS Vintage, a 2014 bay gelding (DGS Vestastic – DGS Indyspirational by Indian Artifacts) raised by Robin DeGraff, have become a genuine team, which showed today in their performance.
It’s also true Stella loves to go fast; her first Gold Globe was won in the L3 Reining 13 & Under at the 2024 AQHYA World Show with Pro Mis Q Ous. In fact, she has two reiners at the show, one all-arounder, and two jumpers, and she admits she’s a busy girl. “I’m incredibly adrenaline driven,” she explains. “I love anything fast, anything that gets my heart rate up. I just love intensity.”
But there’s much more to Stella as a horseman that’s apparent when asked about what her relatively short time jumping has taught her. “So the over fences is funny because not only is it like a big adrenaline rush, but you have to ride,” she reveals. “If you don’t ride for one second, you’re gonna be in the dirt, you know? Every event is difficult in its own ways. But the jumping has really taught me how to stay with one and how to ease up and when to ask for more and when to lighten up because you’re jumping over fences and you have to make decisions really quick.”
She’s so dedicated to her sport, she’s been in online school since sixth grade, which enables her to ride six or seven horses a day, including the reiners she trains herself, and her horses at Jessica Johnson’s barn. Stella says Brian and Darla Lee, who have been her trainers since she was little, also help her.
“I want to say a big thank to my parents; to my dad for providing me with all these horses, and to my mom, who is a saint; she drives me to Jessica Johnson’s three times a week. She drove me 14 hours through the night here,” says Stella. “I also want to say a big thank you to Jessica because she’s taught me so, much, and to Brian and Darla Lee because they’ve been teaching me since I was like 7 years old. I want to thank all my family including family back home, like my grandma and grandpa, who are always my biggest supporters.”
Her advice to others wishing to achieve this level of competition is remarkably mature and wise. “My advice is to not burn yourself out. It’s really easy to forget why you do it and to always just think about winning,” Stella reveals. “I struggle with that a lot myself. I’m a very competitive, adrenaline-driven person, so I when I ever I don’t do as well, I can get really down, and I can overwork myself and burn myself out.”
She adds that it’s most important to remember you do this because you love it, and not because you want to win, even though everyone wants to. “You have to do it for your horse. You have to do it for you loving it, not because you just want to win, or you just want to beat the horse that you didn’t beat last time. And I would just say, never give up because anyone can mess up. I went into the L3 Hunter Hack today and won it and then came out as a finalist in L2. If you really love the sport, you just gotta keep going and keep trying.”
At her young age, she has also learned other important life lessons, the essence of a horseman. Stella says, “I have failed 1000 times more than I have won. I probably ride almost as much as a trainer does every day and last night I was getting ready for the hunter hack, and I couldn’t get down the line. I was chipping up to it. I was going too fast. I was going too slow. It was a hot mess. But you know, you just got to have trust in yourself that you tried the best you did and wake up tomorrow and try even harder.”
Watch Stella’s winning ride with Luke, courtesy of AQHA:
Finals results: Untitled Report
Score sheets: fe6e13bf-af83-8fb9-4f5a-a6dfd364dcd7
