Jessie Naaykens and Chip Chocoholic bring out the best in each other.
Now they’re big time winners with the American Quarter Horse Association.
Naaykens, a member of the Horses of Hope show team, and Chip are the national AQHA award winners in all of the Equestrian With Disabilities walk/trot classes, which are showmanship, western horsemanship, hunt seat equitation and trail..
Naaykens is the national winning rider in each class, and Chip is the national winning horse in each class. They received their honors in March at the 2010 AQHA National Convention in Florida.
Naaykens has been on the Horses of Hope show team for two years. Chip was donated to the center by Mrs. Betty Murfin and Nancy Murfin Moxley, Wichita, about five years ago.
“He’s been a famous kind of guy,” said Shelly McColm, center executive director. “He’s been to the American Quarter Horse World Championship Show several times, and has had multiple top 10 placings.”
“He’s got pages and pages of winnings,” added Vallerie Sweeton, head certified therapeutic riding/driving instructor at the center.
However, these are the first AQHA Equestrian With Disabilities honors Chip has won.
“We try to get the right combination of horse and rider for the most success,” McColm said. “I tried Chip with another rider, and I think he basically just went to sleep with that rider.”
When Chip and Naaykens were paired, however, they just clicked. “They’re a really good team,” Sweeton said.
Last summer Naaykens were three-time world champions at the NSBA World Show in Tulsa, Okla., in western pleasure, hunter under saddle and trail, and were named world champion in the first Independent Horsemanship class ever held at the 2009 Palomino World Show in Tulsa, Okla.
“Jessie is just naturally talented to ride a horse,” McColm said.
“She helps me a lot with our therapeutic riders,” Sweeton said. “There’s one lady who loves the color pink, and she’s always wanting to have something pink for her horse. Well, we don’t really have much pink at Horses of Hope. Jessie bought a really nice pink halter with shiny studs and told me that it was for that lady’s horse. That was such a sweet, thoughtful thing for her to do.”
Naaykens enjoys riding, especially with her good friend Chip.
“It makes me more confident in myself,” she said. “When I’m riding Chip, I know he trusts me and I trust him. I feel safe when I’m riding him. He takes care of me, and I take care of him, too.”
