It’s been a busy few weeks! Thursday morning I had an early flight out of BWI. After getting through security, I ran into four young girls from Maryland headed to the American Rodeo in Texas. They actually recognized my hat box and saw “Congress Queen” on my jacket and asked me about what I was queening for. I gave them my autograph cards and told them all about the Congress! It is so exciting to see youth that are involved in our industry. They are our future!
To kick off my trip to Scottsdale after we landed, I had a photoshoot with Ali Hubbell at Pima-Dynamite park trail right down the road from WestWorld. Ali always does an amazing job with my queen headshots, so I wasn’t surprised at how awesome the photos turned out! The park had amazing scenery with cacti the size of our trees on the East Coast. The sunsets were unreal, too! Check out my pictures below! There were also lots of awesome restaurants in the Scottsdale area. We had authentic Mexican cuisine, Italian and, of course, Cheesecake Factory during our stay in Arizona.
On Friday, I met the Volunteer Coordinator, Carol, and her husband, Ray, took me on a personal golf cart tour of the WestWorld facility! There were sometimes 7 arenas going on at one time! They also had pens full of cattle for their cattle classes and rodeo that was held concurrently with the Sun Circuit. We don’t get to see cattle much at our east coast shows, so I thought that was pretty awesome! Once I got my whereabouts, I went to check out the vendors in one of the large indoors and had the privilege to catch up with some of our amazing Congress Queen Sponsors, Select the Best and Rock’n J Farms!
Arizona QHA put on an amazing show! I was busy helping with their Final Four and West Coast Breeders awards presentations during the 3 days I was there. The Final Four is a tournament style competition in Horsemanship, Equitation and Showmanship in each division. The Final 2022 Ranking List names the 64 exhibitors in each division who are eligible to participate in the tournament at the 2023 Sun Circuit. Rankings are compiled by a nation-wide panel of trainers and judges who have had all year to watch and note the accomplishments of exhibitors. It was a privilege being able to see these top notch competitors go head to head to compete for the championship title! I also had the honor to help pick the winner of one of the awesome Sun Circuit golf carts given away at the show, and Angela Fox was the lucky winner!
Sun Circuit has been one of my favorite trips thus far during my Congress Queen travels! It is definitely a show to add to your horse show bucket list! AzQHA was so welcoming to introduce me to the show and had wonderful hospitality! I enjoyed getting to meet so many new people during this trip and even seeing some familiar faces from the East Coast! Thank you AzQHA for your hospitality and I look forward to visiting again sometime soon!
