RED DEER COUNTY – Caroline Tester is 58-years-old and has been riding and showing horses for the past 50 years.
She’s also had a huge dream for many, many years, and that is to stand tall and proud beside her horse as the winner of a world equestrian championship.
Today Tester is exactly that.
She and her horse Cooper became world champions at this year’s American Paint Horse Association World Championship Show in Fort Worth, Texas. She and Cooper were there competing from July 2 to 5.
“It was an absolute dream come true. It was a bucket list thing to win it and to go down there and actually win. It is very tough, especially for Canadians,” said Tester. “The fact that he was home-raised is a big plus because a lot of people buy them already trained. Her was born here at the farm, and I had to bottle feed him for the first two days.”
Tester was the handler for her one-year-old yearling gelding, whose show name is TF Real Sweet Invite. He was born and raised on her farm along the Cottonwood Road just went of Innisfail. Cooper is his barn name and he is addressed by that by everyone back home.
“And this was only the third show he has ever gone to,” said Tester, whose journey to Texas was her third time competing at the world championship. In previous runs she had one top 10, and one top five.
“The worlds used to be in September but then they moved them up to June, which makes it very hard for Canadians to compete, because we don't have any shows until the middle of June,” she said. “So, you have to enter everything before you have gone to a show.”
Tester entered herself and TF Real Sweet Invite into the yearling in-hand trail competition. It required each competitor to lead their horse through a course with about 12 obstacles and perform compulsory maneuvers.
“It's about the horse not making any mistakes. Each obstacle is scored by the judges on how well you do it,” said Tester. If you do it exceptionally well, you get plus scores. If you don't do it very well, you get minus scores.
“If you hit any of the obstacles with its feet, then you get penalty points. And he never got a single penalty point in his runs. He did exceptionally well and he plussed every obstacle,” added Tester, noting her young horse did not display any signs of nervousness. “Yes, some of them (horses) get nervous but he was just as cool as a cucumber when we got to Texas. It's like he knew exactly what his job was to do. And he did it.”
Better yet, they are world champions, and in two different divisions.
In the open division the Innisfail-area handler and horse were world champions while in the amateur division they claimed the reserve world title.
“We had full faith that he was very talented and was going to do well,” said Tester. “And then he floored us all by winning.”
