“Winning with Bud at the Congress is so special. When I came out of the class, and heard my score, I started crying. I was so happy.”

“He went unanimous in all three of his Amateur classes. I’m not going to be able to live with him,” Kaleena jokes. “He’s just going to be unbearable!”

This year, the competition certainly did not disappoint. Nearly 200 entries were shuffled through ten splits, two semi-finals, and a finals to determine the winner this evening.

In order to qualify for Grand and Reserve today, “Premo” was named the Congress Champion in Amateur 2-Year-Old Stallions. Given that Premo was named the Reserve Grand Champion Amateur Stallion in 2012, Prince was definitely hungry for that Grand Champion title today.

There is another reason that Thurston’s smiling face was also filled with tears this afternoon. What sparked the initial conversation was a pink breast cancer pin she wore on her hunt coat during the class.

“She’s really good in her neck, and she’s really tight-built. You really don’t have to worry about making her go slow. She just goes slow naturally.”

The crowd applauded a touching moment when Starnes’ proud husband gave his wife a kiss while she was still on horseback.

Tearney says Goober definitely lives up to his nickname by partaking in all sorts of crazy antics. He’s something of a class clown.