I had the privilege to attend the Region 6 Super 6 Show last weekend in West Springfield, Massachusetts at the Eastern States Expo. First thing Friday morning, I met the lady in charge of awards, Jill, and Lauren, who showed me around the facility. Such a welcoming crew! The Super 6 Show is one of the largest shows in the New England area, and there is no question why because they have so many fun events planned during the week! Unfortunately the day prior to my arrival, I missed one of the super fun events, the Barn Aisle PotLuck. Each barn provides a signature dish of food and everyone at the show walks down the barn aisle to try everyone's food! It sounded like an awesome event. Friday evening they had an exhibitor dinner and awards ceremony for the youth team tournament that they have during the first half of their show. They give out such great awards to encourage participation in the youth event like Apple Watches, buckle displays, Hey Dudes, coolers, and more!
I was quite busy during my time at the show. They present awards through top ten and give all the class winners belt buckles! Jill was the best to help me keep all the awards straight as I presented them to the class winners. It was a pleasure working with her for the weekend and getting to know her. Something really awesome I learned about Jill was that her daughter works on a dude ranch out in Washington State and leads trail rides and cattle drives for people who visit. She showed my mom and I photos, and it is now added to my bucket list! I also worked closely with the photographers at the show, Bryan Nigro and Brandon Currier, to make sure we had the BEST angles for arena awards shots of the exhibitors. The awards team and photographers all become a unified team by the end of a show like this one. Thank you Bryan and Brandon for your help!
One of my favorite parts of being Congress Queen is getting to meet people during my travels. For example, a lady in one of the line ups told me that I was her grounding moment when she won a trail class at the Level 1 Championships back in April and told her that it was real life! She just so happened to win that class that day, too! It is an honor to be a part of those special moments with people when they achieve those championships they have worked so hard for. There was also a young girl in a walk trot class that started riding through YEDA and this show happened to be her first ever quarter horse show, and guess what?! She won the class! It is so exciting to see new people joining the fun we have at AQHA Shows. I also met a SUPER excited future Congress Queen, Aubrey. I ate lunch with her and answered all the questions that she had for me about the contest, my travels, and more! She even helped me set up awards prior to each class, which was awesome. I love being able to inspire little girls to set goals to become queens someday like I did!
Thank you Region 6 for being wonderful hosts and for an amazing show! Definitely a show to add to your bucket list if you live in the New England region. Next stop is the AQHYA Youth World Show in Oklahoma City! I can’t wait to see golden globe dreams come true!!
