The Year of the Comeback
Brenda McCarthy and Ay Bay Bay didn’t give up – even after the gelding almost passed away in January 2024. This year marks Brenda’s first APHA World Championship – in fact, she and “Chris” have earned two World Champion buckles at this show.
By Delores Kuhlwein
Like many horsemen, Brenda McCarthy has experienced some gaps between World Show buckles throughout her show career. In fact, the period between a 2004 Reserve World Championship in Amateur Hunter Under Saddle and a 2023 Reserve World Championship in the Masters Amateur Western Pleasure seemed like a long one – 19 years to be more specific.
Brenda, however, has hit her stride, earning two World Championships so far at the 2025 APHA World Championship Show with her gelding, Ay Bay Bay, a 2018 bay overo gelding by John Simon and out of Dark Impulse (A Scenic Impulse x Good Dividends).
“My first world championship at this show was in the Masters Hunt Seat Equitation,” she explained, right after winning her second world championship in Masters Amateur Trail early Saturday afternoon.
The two APHA World Championships were thirty-some years in the making, she adds. What has made the difference? “Not ever giving up,” Brenda says. “I’ve had some really nice horses and just had some bad luck at times, but you just keep grinding it out.”
She also credits her trainer, Karen Qualls, who she has been with as a client for almost 40 years – since 1988. “But we won’t talk about how old we are,” she jokes.
Brenda, Karen, and Premier Performance Horses all had a huge scare that was no joke when Ay Bay Bay was hospitalized in Scottsdale while they were at WestWorld of Scottsdale for the Copper Country Paint-O-Rama last year. “He almost died January 1st of 2024 in Scottsdale,” Brenda says. “He had to have emergency colic surgery, and he was in the hospital for five weeks.”
But now, she says, they are back and she is grateful for “Chris,” who she says she loves most for his wonderful personality. “He’s just a good boy. Horses are amazing.”
See complete results for both their World Championship buckle-earning classes so far:
Masters Amateur Hunt Seat Equitation:
Masters Amateur Trail:
