By Holly Clanahan

Smart Dual Olena was just at the Lazy E Area in Guthrie, Oklahoma, in June, on high alert, looking for cattle. After competing at the American Quarter Horse Association’s Versatility Ranch Horse World Championships and scoring some top-10 finishes, “Brewster” returned to his old stomping grounds in late September to compete at another world championship show, in another discipline altogether. 

And apparently the Western Dressage World Championship Show was a good fit, as Brewster and his owner/rider Jan Halter left with a world championship, earning a score of 76.96 in Basic Test 3 Amateur.

Jan, who is from Leonard, Texas, bought her 18-year-old sorrel gelding about a year and a half ago, sight unseen.  

“I saw him in a sale catalog the night before a sale in Billings, Montana,” she said. “I really loved his look. I loved his breeding. (He is by cutting superstar Smart Little Lena, out of a daughter of Dual Pep). I called the guy in the morning and wound up buying him on a phone bid.” True to his breeding, Brewster had competed in cutting, as well as working cow horse, and had lately been used as a turnback horse for other cutters. 

Jan herself had ridden classical dressage for most of her 20s, 30s and 40s on warmbloods, Arabians and crosses. Then she decided a change was in order, so she moved to western performance horses and loves to compete these days in ranch riding and Versatility Ranch Horse cattle classes. 

“We don't work on this really,” Jan said of Western Dressage. “I work on basics just to get him soft.” But dressage basics – working on suppleness, responsiveness and maneuverability – help in any discipline. Just two weekends before the Western Dressage World Championship Show, Jan and Brewster won their division at a Versatility Ranch Horse show in southern Oklahoma. “OK, now we’re going to slow it down,” Jan said of their preparations for Guthrie. In suitability, their first class at the Western Dressage World Show, Brewster was a little watchy, Jan said, “because the last time he was in that pen was in June for the Versatility Ranch World, and he was 11th in the cutting.”

So while they’ve both drawn on their varied backgrounds as they came together for their Western Dressage World Show debut, Jan and Brewster have also been strengthening their relationship. 

The equine chiropractor who helps keep Brewster in top shape commented to Jan, “He’s never had his own human, has he?” Since the gelding was owned for most of his life by a trainer, Jan agreed that was probably the case. She set about to rectify the matter. 

After she bought him, she was told that he can be standoffish. He’d do his job but didn’t really want to be in anyone’s pocket. “But, you know, I carry carrots,” Jan said. “When he does something good, he gets a carrot. We couldn’t catch him at first, and now he’s like ‘Oh! Take me!’”

Reflecting on their journey, Jan said, “I try not to get real emotional about it, but it’s just really hard not to. I just love him.” 

Photos used with permission of the photographers. Cutting photo is by Walk This Way Photography and Western Dressage photo is by Caitlin Demura Photography.