What does it feel like to be the all-around amateur champion?
Francine: Oh, my gosh! A dream. Never expected this in a million years. I just came here to show, and I had no idea even this award could be possible. There are so many others out there that have been riding for years and are phenomenal riders and I just never thought … (Tearing up, Francine pauses for a second to collect her thoughts.) Ace has the stuff for it. I didn’t know I had the stuff for it. Q. Go through each of your classes and tell me about them. Francine: In the showmanship, we made it to the finals, which was my first class. I ended up fifth in that. I was going, “OK.” And then we did the western riding, and I scored really well. I had a phenomenal ride. I’d never had a ride like that. Whether it was first or last, it didn’t matter because it was the best ride of my life and ended up being first. We were practicing for horsemanship, and I heard my name called out, and I’m going, “Oh!” That was the first time I had even thought about the all-around because that was not a go
