TWICE AS SWEET

Kelsey Love Thomas claims her second World’s Greatest Horsewoman title at Art of the Cowgirl.

BY JENNIFER DENISON | PHOTOS BY KATE BRADLEY BYARS

It was a “dream week” for the dream team of Kelsey Love Thomas of Rising Star, Texas, and her great mare Kit Kat Jerrie (Kit Kat Sugar x Jerries Dual Legacy x Smart Little Jerry) at the fifth annual Art of the Cowgirl held January 18-22 at Horseshoe Park & Equestrian Centre in Queen Creek, Arizona. The pair dominated the arena, winning their second championship in the Kimes Ranch World’s Greatest Horsewoman competition, presented by Western Horseman

Thomas also was on the champion team in the All Women’s Ranch Rodeo, presented by Cowgirl Magazine, with Codie Brown, Becca Gagan and Whitney Hall. She received the top hand award for the rodeo.

More than 50 women from all over the United States and Canada entered this year’s World’s Greatest Horsewoman competition. They competed in the preliminaries in four events: reining, herd work, steer stopping and fence work. The top 10 riders returned for the Finals where they vied for cash, prizes and an entry in the Western Bloodstock/High Brow Cat/ Hashtags World’s Greatest Horseman competition held during the 2023 Kalpowar Quarter Horses Celebration of Champions in Fort Worth, Texas.

Thomas led the field of riders coming into the Finals. Then she and “Elvira” scored a 148 in the herd work, 145 in the reining, 142.5 in the steer stopping and an explosive 153 in the fence work to take the championship. Morgan Holmes of Stephenville, Texas, and her home-raised horse Monster Truk secured reserve.

“The competition at Art of the Cowgirl has gotten tougher,” said Thomas. “Getting to do all four events in the Finals and having the chance to mark a better composite in the Finals than the long round is encouraging, because I feel like [Elvira] gets better as we go.

“I tried not to over- or underthink anything and work the cow for what it was,” continued Thomas. “The cow was fast and kind of pushy, but I just tried to be patient and put [Elvira] in the right position, and she turned it herself. She read that cow so well and was so smart.”

Thomas also noted that she threw on of her best head loops in the steer stopping.

Since winning the first World’s Greatest Horsewoman title in 2020, Thomas says that she and Elvira have spent the past four years getting more experience in cow horse competition.

“I feel like we’re more mature now,” she said. “The first Art of the Cowgirl was one of our first shows together, and I’d only been to one National Reined Cow Horse Association show at that point.”

That show was the inaugural Cowboy Class Invitational at the National Reined Cow Horse Assocaition Snaffle Bit Futurity® in 2019, and the dynamic duo won it. The win came months after Thomas and her husband, Buddy, bought the 4-yearold broodmare from Parke Greeson, who had raised the horse on his family’s Sarco Creek Ranch in Goliad, Texas, and shown her in cutting.

Since their first World’s Greatest Horsewoman championship, Thomas and Elvira have won the NRCHALimited Open Bridle class at the 2022 Celebration of Champions and the Cowboy Class held during the 2022 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity®.

After a disappointing performance at the 2022 World’s Greatest Horsewoman competition, where she overspun in the reining, Thomas was determined to do better this year.

“The second win is just as sweet, maybe even more, than the first,” she said. “It’s a bigger event now and there are some really handy girls here. Last year, I felt like I had let Elvira down and I wanted to come back and show how good she is. When you have a big win like this, there’s a lot of momentum that comes with it. I’m just trying to enjoy the moment and everything that comes with it, because it doesn’t happen every day.”

Preparing for the World’s Greatest Horseman can be daunting, but Thomas takes it in stride.

“I’m going into it with the same mindset I had at Art of the Cowgirl,” she said. “I’m riding for the moment, working the cow we draw and showing to the best of our ability. We’re going to push ourselves, but not overshow, and have fun.”

At the 2023 World’s Greatest Horseman, Thomas did not make the Finals; however, in the Kalpowar Quarter Horse Celebration of Champions, the pair earned the Intermediate Open Bridle World Champion title.