For this three-time World Champion, it’s the partnership she has with It’s Only Butter that makes them a great team.
KINGSTON – For this three-time World Champion, it’s the partnership she has with It’s Only Butter that makes them a great team.
Logan DeCourcey, 14, of Kingston, can be found most days at Horseplay Stables in Middleborough, doing chores and working with Butter and her owner and trainer, Terri Hoy. She’s been going to Hoy’s farm since she was 11 after taking up riding the year before.
There’s no secret to her success at Worlds at the junior basic level. DeCourcey puts in the time and effort with Butter, a 10-year-old Palomino quarter horse mare.
“I spend almost every day here, and I put in a lot of hard work,” she said. “I learned that hard work really pays off.”
It was DeCourcey’s first time at the fifth annual Western Dressage World Championship Show, so while hopeful they would do well, she didn’t expect to do as well as she did.
“It was crazy,” she said.
The show was held Sept. 28 through Oct. 1 at Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma. She was happy to have mother, Katie, and grandmother, Paula Secia, there with her to watch her win the three world championships and two reserve world championships.
Her accomplishments include grand world champion in the junior basic division, grand world champion overall as the junior rider with the highest score, grand world champion with the overall highest score for a quarter horse and the highest score of all 817 rides of the entire show at all levels.
More than 800 riders participated in a long weekend filled with exhibitor parties, fun costume freestyle competitions and stall and golf-cart decorating contests. The show drew exhibitors from 29 states from coast to coast, five Canadian provinces and New Zealand.
The educational not-for-profit Western Dressage Association of America welcomed nearly 40 horse breeds and both beginner and expert riders to Oklahoma for the show.
DeCourcey said she wanted to do well in the competition, but she went into it focusing on the experience so she can get better. She’s already looking forward to next year.
“Even if you don’t win, it’s good experience for the next time,” she said.
Hoy said she expected maybe a top 5 finish, but Logan and Butter were perfect. She said Logan has worked hard to earn Butter’s trust. She said they have a very strong connection.
“I think it’s made Logan a better rider and a better person,” she said.
DeCourcey said Hoy can be hard on her at times, but that’s because Hoy knows what she’s capable of, and it all pays off in the end. Hoy said it’s rewarding as DeCourcey’s coach to see how confident and focused she was in the ring and how Butter responded to her and their training together.
She’s passionate about what she’s doing, DeCourcey said, because she just loves horses and loves to be around them.
She attends Bristol County Agricultural High School for its large animal science program. She wants to go veterinarian school and hopes to own her own barn some day.
Follow Kathryn Gallerani on Twitter @kgallreporter.
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