How a little golden horse changed my life

17th June 2015
Beryl Shuttleworth
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It’s a very long story of how I became the owner of Copy Cat Rascal, but in short we purchased him in 2011 in Israel, yes Israel, till then I didn’t even know there were horses in Israel!

The plan SAQHA (South African Quarter Horse Association) had was to grow the sport of Reining by testing and selecting Quarter horses in Europe and making them available for buyers in South Africa to purchase in agreement that these horses were to be shown around the country. Although I have owned horses and competed for nearly 30 years I was brand new to Reining and Western Performance riding and the thought of owning an imported horse seemed unimaginable !!

But alas…all happened very fast, SAQHA pulled out of the whole plan, but I decided to still import Copy Cat even though he wasn’t fully schooled (finished) as I was hooked on Reining and the Quarter horse!

Horse with a story.

I am soooooo grateful, everybody said I was lucky to find him….I think it was meant to be and so my journey with this amazing stallion began….in short the highlights.

The Discipline Association – Reining Horse and Western Performance Association of South Africa (RHSA) had a plan of action to qualify Reining riders (hopefully a team) and compete at the World Equestrian Games (WEG) in 2014  in France……..a VERY LONG shot, well almost impossible….almost….

RHSA managed to secure enough funds to host FEI CRI’s and begin the journey to the dream.

  • November 2012 Copy Cat and I competed in first ever FEI CRI 1* event to be held in South Africa and along with 6 other riders successfully qualified to move to the next level.
  • November 2013 we competed in the FEI CRI 2* event and I was the only rider to qualify to advance to the next level riding the best horse at the show
  • June 2014 we competed in the FEI CRI 3* and low and behold…this amazing horse made ALL my dreams come true, we qualified to compete at WEG !!!

To say it was a whirlwind of emotions and planning from there will be stating is very softly……WEG was ONLY 2 months away! In short again….I secured a horse in Europe (in Reining you do not have to ride the horse you qualified on, it’s based on the Rider’s level) as there was no time to get Copy Cat to Europe.

I don’t have enough words to convey how it felt to be at WEG, it’s a dream to be amongst the world’s best Equestrians, and to be a part of it is just unbelievable….. LIFE CHANGING…….AND ALL of this was made possible by my little golden horse!!

Horse with character

A heart of gold…pure solid gold !!!

Temperament that you would NEVER expect from a stallion

So soft and kind

So Forgiving…..he is the best teacher is the world

Pulls the most awful face when he eats just in case you want to steal his food…..but always in the mood for a chin scratch!!

 

Our journey is not done, he is truly an amazing horse….a dream horse….ONE IN A MILLION!!

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