Christina Shanahan Recaptures the World
You know her as a horseman and a World Champion. What you may not know is that Christina “Tina” Shanahan is also a retired Navy Rear Admiral and registered nurse of 30 years who served in Desert Shield and Desert Storm—and she’s a highly decorated officer at that.
In 2019, APHA Member and Decorated Naval Veteran Tina Shanahan was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame.
So when she secured a World Championship and the Intermediate Championship title earlier this week in Masters Amateur Junior Hunter Under Saddle with The Company You Keep at the 2026 APHA World Championship Show, it might have seemed like another impressive accomplishment.
But this particular win was so much more, Tina explained afterward. “I picked him out as a baby, bought him from Spike Brewer, and raised him from a weanling. I sent him to Keith [Miller] and then I was going to show him for the first time at Congress in 2025.”
At 2024 APHA World Championship Show, Keith and AJ won 2 YO Hunter Under Saddle.
But the night before she was scheduled to show at QH Congress, she awoke in the middle of the night with excruciating abdominal pain. and ended up needing emergency surgery. As a result, a long recovery period loomed ahead of her, so she sold “AJ” to another of Keith’s customers so he would be able to stay in the barn.
“Then this year, she gave me the opportunity to buy him back,” explained Tina. Spike Brewer, who owns Boo Yah Custom Clothing, had made Tina a hunt coat before her surgery, and in the lining, the words read, “Made Especially for Tina and AJ.”
Tina reveals on the day of her win, “And I never wore it, so I wore it today. And we won like it was full circle.”
As she showed AJ in their Masters Amateur Junior Hunter Under Saddle this week, she says he felt like a million bucks. “He’s the most fun horse I’ve ever ridden. He’s knows what to do and he just makes you look like you know what you’re doing.”
And it has been a while since she’d won a world title in Fort Worth – approximately 2016 was the last time. She says, “Let’s say it has been a while.” So the goal this fall is for Tina and AJ to continue their winning streak at the 2026 All American Quarter Horse Congress if all goes according to plan.
To top it all off, Tina showed her Senior horse, Ima Fancy Machine, in Amateur Masters Senior Hunter Under Saddle 45 & Over this week, and they earned Reserve and Intermediate Champion honors.
She could have quit after such a devastating blow in 2025, but in the true fashion of one dedicated to not only her country, but the horse, she persisted. For the rest of us horsemen, it’s more than inspiring. As John Quincy Adams once said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
