Caroline Latture and Hannah Gelbs Win AQHA Level 1 Central Trail Championships

By: Brittany Bevis

Today’s classes at the AQHA Level 1 Championships Central in Oklahoma City are all about poles and patterns, and rounding up an occasional stray cow or two. First up, 16-year-old Caroline Latture rode Eye On The Ball to a big win in Youth 14-18 Trail with a score of 222. Latture’s partner for the class today was the 8-year-old gelding named Beans.

This team hasn’t been a pair for very long; their first horse show together was the Dixie Nationals in February. They currently compete under the guidance of Dean Saul. “Dean told me to breathe; that was the main thing,” Caroline says. “I think he really plussed the lope-overs, because he’s really calm and he flows through it. We did tick on our trot-overs, but that was the only one we had. Also, we’ve been working on our gate at home, and it was a lot better at this show.”

“My favorite class is Trail. There’s so much going on. You have to think, and your horse has to be thinking too. It’s really a team event.”

Just yesterday, Caroline won her first big title at a Championship show when she was named the Reserve Champion in 14-18 Showmanship. Tomorrow, the team will compete in Horsemanship and Western Pleasure. In August, they plan to compete at the AQHA Youth World Championship Show in Showmanship, Trail, Horsemanship, and Western Pleasure.

Youth Trail 14-18:

1- Eye On The Ball/Caroline Latture

2-Design By Leaguer/Kade Gower

3- Just Say Gold/Canion Cavazos

4- Im Fully Vested/Emily Prugh

5- Remarkbale Can/Holly Strevey

In Amateur Trail, Hannah Gelbs was named the Champion aboard Zip Back N Yak. The team scored a huge 231.5 for the win. Here at the show, “Vinny” is pulling double duty competing in amateur classes with Hannah and Select classes with Hannah’s mother, Thalia.

“We’ve had Vinny for about three months, and he’s actually my Mom’s horse,” Hannah says. “I have a habit of stealing her horses; that’s been going on for a while! Today, it worked out good. I’ve shown him once before to get ready to come here. He’s a very easy horse to show.”

Later this afternoon, Vinny will enter the pen once more, this time with Thalia in Select Horsemanship. Also, both ladies are looking to qualify for their respective Amateur and Select World Championship Shows later this year. They currently compete under the guidance of Reid Thomas.

“Because Vinny is an oldie, but a goodie, he has old man tendencies,” Hannah says. “He likes to try to dive down on the poles a little, so Reid said to make sure I kept my inside leg on him and didn’t let him dive. He was a good boy with that. Also, last night when I trotted in to the stop, I hit the pole every single time. Today, I didn’t, so I was pleased with that. After that, I think I took a deep breath.”

“This morning, Reid challenged us. He said we both needed to win trophies today. We have the first one, and it’s mom’s turn now!”

Amateur Trail: 

1- Zip Back N Yak/Hannah Gelbs

2- Rageous Blaze/Lacee Keller

3- RU Radical/Michelle Speck

4- HP Ima Foxy Dreamer/Brooke Ingstad

5- Tai Me High/Scott Creed