
04/07/2025
Congratulations to Julie and Blackjack for winning the 2'6 Hunter Derby at the Heritage horse show!! You guys deserve it!! These two have worked hard to get to this point to compete as a team together in shows and this was their first Hunter Derby together. Most don't know what it took for them to make it to this point today. But I can tell you it wasn't as easy as just practice and go! Julie suffered from a bad back injury which took her years to recover from. After finally making headway back from that and getting back into the shows. Julie's horse started to struggle with some issues, that led to a bad fall, causing Julie to suffer from a concussion. Julie was forced to retire her mare, leaving her without a horse. That's when I told her she could ride and take lessons on my horse Blackjack. He was her saving grace, her therapy! Julie had to overcome some ptsd issues and some bad habits due to her horse Satin, but after some time, lessons and a couple practice shows they made it here today! I am so happy for you Julie!! Blackjack isn't some fancy, expensive Warmblood, but he will perform with the best of them and loves his job! He is 19 yrs old and has quite the story himself. Would you believe I was originally hired to break him to then train him to be a roping horse!? Lol, well he wanted nothing to do with cows or anything Western. So I started putting him over jumps and he has loved it ever since.