Steven Rissman and Starring Mr Hoyt triumph at 2025 APHA World
As Steven Rissman loped his horse toward the out gate of the John Justin Arena, gold trophy, Gist buckle, and all the trappings of a World Championship in hand while the audience cheered loudly, he smiled and shook his head.
The World Championship title he and Starring Mr Hoyt earned in Masters Amateur Horsemanship at the 2025 APHA World Championship Show on Sunday, June 29th was a shock for him, he admits, when asked what was going through his mind.
“I’m thinking – I can’t believe this is real, and I’m thinking about all the people who have helped me along the way. He’s such a special horse, and I’m thinking he deserved this,” he explains.
The sense of wondering if you belong, as it is for most horsemen, is valid for Steven, too, and the success he’s had at this year’s show made him realize a great deal. “You start to finally believe you can reach that level you’re being acknowledged for,” he says. “It’s only then you start to go, ‘I guess I belong here, and I guess I can play.’ It’s so strange because I’m confident and fairly relaxed, but you never really believe it until someone says you belong here.”
Earlier in the week, the team also won Reserve Championships in Masters Amateur Trail and in Masters Amateur Showmanship, and for Steven and partner John Andersen, it has been a long time coming with the horse they call “Hoyt.”
“We got him when he was three, and now he’s 13,” explains Steven. “Sandi (Morgan) always said he was going to be a World Champion, and you start to wonder, but we stayed with it, and it happened.”
Hoyt is named after John Hoyt, he adds. “He was one of the old “greats” in terms of horsemen. He was a good horseman, a good man, and I interviewed him one time and decided right then and there I would name this horse after the great John Hoyt. Coincidentally he is from Hoyt, Kansas.”
When Steven isn’t riding, his passion lies in his career as a naturopathic physician specializing in men’s health. bettering the lives of men and helping men to live a bigger life than sometimes they allow themselves. “I have the only men’s health program that exists. We’ve made such amazing strides (and have a long way to go) getting women and girls where they need to go. But we have so many men who are living very restricted, and I’m trying to help them.”
See complete results for all three of this team’s buckle classes:
Masters Amateur Showmanship Results:
Masters Amateur Trail Results (Steven also rode their young horse, Walt Longmire, to a Seventh place finish:
Masters Amateur Western Horsemanship Results
