Stop Talking Earns Super Sires Title in Western Riding Debut with Spencer Groth
Earlier this week, Stop Talking, owned by Amy Engle, was piloted to a win in the Super Sires L1 Junior Western Riding by Spencer Groth of Show Horses by Shannon at the 2025 Arizona Sun Circuit.
The team earned a combined score of 140.50 and a $1500 Super Sires payout. Spencer explains that the five-year-old gelding, “Truman,” by RL Best Of Sudden and out of Presidential Affair, was bred and raised by head trainer Shannon Walker.
“He’s been in our program from day one, which is kind of cool – Aaron Moses actually had him for a little while to do the pleasure, and then we started with the trail and lead changes just to see how much we could get done with him,” Spencer explains. Truman started at NSBA World as a three-year-old, and he won a lot of money in that event, but he’s been on the back burner, as trainers’ horses tend to be, until one of their customers bought him.
“Now he’s kind of starting to go on the road again, so he actually hasn’t been to a horse show since NSBA World last year, so this was his maiden Western Riding debut as well,” explains Spencer. “I think it was pretty cool he was pretty good all three rounds and really good on the day it counted!” He hopes to keep him “green” for another year to give Truman an opportunity to become even better than he is.
Spencer’s strategy with lead changes depends on the horse and what stage they’re at, he says. “In the beginning, we practice almost daily – you could start a few minutes every ride, but once it gets broke it actually becomes a lot more about schooling on the framing and kind of taking their mine off the anxiety of the lead change until they’re nice and relaxed.”
He says it helps a lot in their progression to be able to attend a big show like this, with plenty of room and all the arenas to ride in so they can work on lines in the center, etc.
As far as what this win meant to him, Spencer says they had a very busy day Wednesday ending with their customer photo shoots, so learning about it was a nice surprise to the end of the day. “I hadn’t looked at the scores – I knew he was good, but he’s green and he’s maiden, so I didn’t know where he’d end up. We were just doing the Western Riding, so it was exciting and I’m glad it worked out!”
He explains their barn tries to get their horses enrolled and eligible for every program they can, and they love and supports the Super Sires program.
Top Three results for the Super Sires L1 Junior Western Riding:
1-Stop Talking with Spencer Groth for Amy Engle
2-VS Bettin N Spades with Colton Pylman for Mr and Mrs William Wilkes
3-KM Once Upon A Time with Sara Simons for Firefly Ridge
