Last week I had the privilege of attending the 2023 Nutrena AQHA East Level 1 Championships in Wilmington, Ohio and the World Equestrian Center. This facility is a state of the art facility with numerous riding arenas and practice arenas to accommodate all the horses and riders. They even have a “Ride Thru” for Starbucks that you can ride your horse through to grab coffee in the morning!
This year I had the best team to work with to hand out awards! Darcy Woods, 2021 Congress Queen and Jacqueline Woods, 2021 Queen Mom, were our awards experts for the show! It was wonderful being able to spend all week with Darcy and Jacqueline and share our queen experiences and stories!
I was also able to meet some of our newly crowned queens for 2023! We had two returning queens, Jessica Blevins from Indiana and Caitlyn Chistman from West Virginia, and four new queens, Jessica Pickersgill from Northern Ohio, Rachel Bowers from Michigan, Riata Rouch from OMI, and Ashton Show from Ohio, help us present awards all week! It was a huge help to have so many queens to help out while 3 arenas were running at once (and usually ending at the same time!). The Level 1 Championships are also a great time to get to know these amazing queens and help answer any of their questions they have about the Queen Contest in October!
The Level 1 East Championships is one of my favorite shows because it is often riders’ and their horses’ first big wins! The excitement each exhibitor had receiving their finalist medallion, top ten ribbon or top 3 trophies is what makes traveling as Congress Queen so rewarding. I am honored to be a small part of the winning moments these riders have when they accomplish their goals they worked hard all year for.
Some other super fun parts of the Level 1 Championships were catching up with Congress Queen Royalty, Amy Cash, 2016 Queen, Mariah Sherer, 2019 Queen, and of course Darcy Woods, 2021 Queen! Sweet Shop also satisfied my sweet tooth everyday. From their famous cinnamon rolls to their delicious brownie sundaes, they never disappoint! Thank you for your continuous support of the queens! AQHA also hosted an ice cream sundae night and pizza night for their exhibitors which was a hit after a long day of showing! I also had the honor of meeting some future Congress Queens… Finley and Kendall. These kiddos tried on the Congress Queen cowgirl hat and crown and Congress Queen sash and were full of excitement. They plan on competing sometime in the 2040’s, so keep an eye out for these up and coming future queens!
Thank you AQHA and OQHA for having me represent the All American Quarter Horse Congress as their Queen at the AQHA Level 1 Championship! It was an honor!
