The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

In November, Puget Island resident Paula Quigley won the 2014 American Paint Horse Association World Championships in the amateur category with her two-year-old mare, JWR Shez Got Bling. The event is held each year in Fort Worth, Texas at the Will Rogers Memorial Center.

Quigley got hooked on horses when she was young, learning to ride as a three year old on the back of her sister's horse. In high school, she started showing competitively.

"It escalated over the years," Quigley said, grinning.

Quigley, whose energy seems endless, works two jobs to support what has become a very expensive vocation, but hopefully her dedication is beginning to pay off. Winning this award is just one more way of getting her name out there.

"I learned about artificial insemination from Mandy Knowles," Quigley said. "She was working at a breeding farm in Ridgefield and I went up and helped her collect one of the stallions."

Over the years, she has learned not just about color and configuration but lineage as well. She's well versed in the art and mechanics of breeding.

She just bought her fifth stallion, the first time with a partner, marking her first "stallion syndication." He's black and he stands 16 1/2 hands. According to Quigley, good black stallions are coveted and hard to find.

"I want to breed horses that people will want as soon as they hit

the ground," Quigley said. "They want color patterns. If you don't get a pattern, then black, buckskin, palomino are best because those colors sell and there is secondary association you can show them in. There are a million red horses. They are boring. Right now everybody loves black."

Quigley tries to compete in the APHA World Championship every year, but it's costly and time consuming. Competitors have to qualify for the event by earning enough points while showing and showing so many times each year. Competitors must pay class fees, judge's fees and for a stall. It all adds up, quickly.

"It's like a Miss America Pageant," Quigley said. Instead of fake eyelashes and fake tans, the trainer feeds the horse to bulk him up and then sweats the animal's neck, because thin necks are desirable. Some will use acupuncture, and according to Quigley, some have been known to use growth hormones so the horse will be big or grow faster.

"You are showing the horses at two years and younger," Quigley said. "For some, they can never be big enough.

"The boys in Texas have it down," she said. "It's hard for us to go back there and compete against them. By the time our horse goes three days in a trailer they've lost over 100 pounds. It's hard on them. They don't eat as good; they don't drink as much. You want to go at least a week early."

Quigley took note and sent JWR Shez Got Bling to a trainer in Texas last year.

"If I get her sold," Quigley said, "I will probably send something else down to him."

Quigley's herd is expecting seven foals this year. With her knowledge and a little luck, one of them might be representing her in Fort Worth two years from now.