For 13-year-old Gardnerville resident Cassidy Champlin, competing horse shows has always been somewhat of a way of life.
Her family breeds and raises them, her mother, Laurel, is a multi-time world champion and her older sister was a youth world champion. All six of the Champlins' show horses have, at one point or another, won a world title. Needless to say, the bar is set pretty high.
That's why, when Cassidy captured a pair of titles at the 2010 American Paint Horse Association Summer World Championships in Fort Worth in early July, it wasn't hard to spread the excitement.
"I was so excited and my family was so excited for me," Champlin said. "What we do, it's a big time committment. So much goes on behind the scenes that it can be hard to tell someone who's not involved in it what you've actually accomplished.
"My family, though, they understood very well. It was a really cool feeling to win an event like that."
The titles were made even more impressive by the fact that July's show was only Champlin's second on such a big stage.
"I went to the All American Quarterhorse Congress last October, which was really my first exposure to competing in such a big show," Champlin said. "The nerves got to me there. They took control of me and I just didn't do too well.
"Coming into this, I wasn't sure what to expect. I really felt the nerves heading in, but I just took a deep breath and it worked out."
The World Championship Paint Horse Shows feature one of the finest gatherings of Paint Horses from around the globe. The APHA hosts two annual "world" shows with this year's Summer Worlds featuring nearly 600 horses and more than 2,000 entries.
Champlin, a student at St. Teresa of Avila Catholic School in Carson City, won the Youth Solid Paint-Bred Hunt Seat Equitation on her mother's horse, Grateful Debt. In the the event, competitors are judged on their ability to have their horses perform a pattern while maintaining correct posture in the saddle.
She also won the Novice Youth Hunter Under Saddle 18 & Under on her own horse, Art Show. Horses in this class are evaluated by a panel of judges on their smoothness of gait and response to the rider at a flat-footed walk, brisk trot and smooth canter under traditional English tack.
While one title is essentially awarded to the rider and the other essentially goes to the horse, Champlin noted the horse is being judged on what the rider has been able to train into the horse.
"It is a ton of work," she said with a laugh. "I wake up early every morning to ride, work with the horse every day. It's a big committment.
"It's year-round, the season never stops. It's my everything."
In both events, Champlin had to advance through a round of preliminaries in order to get to the finals.
"You get out there and there are 24 horses in the arena for your preliminary," Champlin said. "You're trying to do your thing, but it can be pretty chaotic. The judges bring six through for the finals, so that's a little less to deal with, but you're in the finals, so the stress is still high."
Champlin began competing in shows when she got her first horse at the age of six.
"I started doing walk-trot shows and I just followed my mom, even before I started showing," she said. "I'd go with her everywhere. It was pretty fun."
Her yearly circuit takes her through the western states and even as far away as Virginia and Kentucky.
In preparation for the summer worlds, the Champlins left for Texas a week before the show.
"I went to a trainer there, at a place called High Point Performance, just to do some last-minute technique work in preparation for the show," Champlin said. "It was a lot of work, but it paid off."
Champlin said she plans to compete again at the All American Quarterhorse Congress in Columbus, Ohio this fall.
"We'll see how it goes this year," she said. "It's an even bigger show, so to do well there is really special."
