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Tennessee Walking Horse On Line Congratulates Adult Supreme Champion Pat Gill, Oregon Super Sonic Triumph
It was back in 1983 when Sun Edens Super Sonic, Pat Gill's black stallion, won the Supreme Versatility Championship. At that time, the fantasy of having a son or daughter of this magnificent stallion achieve the coveted award as well passed through her mind. Now, four years later, the fantasy is fact. Super Sonic Triumph, a three-year-old son of Sun Edens Super Sonic, is a Supreme Versatility Champion in his own right. When this beautiful animal was delivered in 1984, Pat was aware that he was something special. Certainly, his breeding was solidly founded in the performance of his parents. The sire, Sun Edens Super Sonic, was undefeated as a two, three, and four-year-olds on the northwest show circuit as well as a proven sire and Supreme Versatility Champion. The dam, Merry Mystique, was a winner also, claiming wins at the Northwest Futurity as a weanling, yearling, and two year old. Older brothers and sister had won regularly in both performance and lite-shod competition. Early on, Super Sonic Triumph ("Odie" for short after the Norse god Odin) showed promise. His initial performances yielded the Weanling Colt Open Championship and Futurity Weanling Colt Championship ribbons that fall. (It was the largest weanling colt class ever held at the Western International Walking Horse Show and Futurity.) As he developed, he showed promise and, after three successful shows late in his second year, the dream was rekindled. That winter Pat put the challenge to her trainer, Jake Price: Supreme Versatility Champion with a three year old in one year. He would be the youngest ever and the first son of a Supreme Versatility Champion to be so honored. Price rose to the occasion and the pair went to work. It is Pat's contention that a professional trainer is at least as important in bringing a young lite-shod horse along as he would be in the management of a performance beginner. Yet it takes miles in the saddle as well and that is where Pat came in. Hard work, patience and time, coupled with a very talented animal began to pay off. Actually, showing Super Sonic Triumph became a family affair. Pat's husband, Dr. Sam Gill, drove and showed Western Two Gait. Jake presented "Odie" In Hand, Trail, Water Glass, and Three-Gait competition, while Pat handled the Two-Gait English classes and all championships. Even Lisa Gill, Pat and Sam's daughter, gave a hand as needed. Having four separate riders of varying skills guide this three-year-old through an arduous and competitive show season says a great deal in itself for Super Sonic Triumph's versatility! Along the way during the 1987 show season, in addition to earning his Supreme Versatility Championship, Super Sonic Triumph won more points in the Walking Horse Exhibitors' Association of Oregon year end awards than any competitor in history during a single year. These included High Point Championships in Driving, Trail, Model, Two-Gait Lite Shod, English and Western, Three Gait Lite-Shod, English and Western, and a Two- and Three-Year-Old Plantation, as well as Reserve Champion in Three and Over Halter, Two-Gait Plantation and Three-Gait Western Plantation. The latter, of course, involving competition against the heavily shod plantation horse. Finally, he collected both the coveted President's Cup for plantation horses and the High Point Versatility Horse award for the state of Oregon. This imposing list obviously required a blend of talent - the knowledge and skill of trainer Jake Price, and the assistance of his wife, Shirley; the patience and persistence of Pat Gill, and a bit added in by Lisa and Dr. Gill. Most important, however, was the magnificent effort by a truly great champion. Super Sonic Triumph is lite-shod and natural. He can sparkle in the show ring and then carry you back home down the road. Most important to Pat, however, is his walk - not a hint of pace. His gait is completely natural and that can only serve to further the development of our magnificent breed. Congratulations are definitely in order for the owners and trainer of Super Sonic Triumph There couldn't be a more deserving young horse to have the distinction of being the youngest Supreme Versatility Champion, or the first Supreme Versatility Champion sired by a Supreme Versatility Champion! Reprinted from Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse magazine, January 1988 |
