Aussie Liam Sykes tied for the Rookie Professional [1] championship aboard Hope N A Prayer Thursday evening at the SWRHA Futurity, marking a 72.5.
“She’s a really nice mare,” Sykes said. “She’s really well-trained, and my good friend Max Morin put a really good start on her. Teddy and Summer Gerrald bought her as a four-year-old and used her as a practice horse. She was super broke, but she’s never been shown, so she was super green in the show pen.”
Sykes has been riding the mare for about a year, gradually getting her comfortable in the show pen.
“She can be kind of electric sometimes. She’s got a lot of feel, and because she’d never been shown she could get a little restless [in the pen]. This horse show she started to relax, so she could do the maneuvers without her worrying about it,” Sykes explained.
With the help of Trent Harvey, Sykes has learned how to be smarter about showing Hope N A Prayer (Whizkey N Diamonds x The Love Bud), helping her with maneuvers such as her left circles.
“I definitely want to thank Teddy and Summer, they’ve given me a ton of opportunity and let me show other horses. And of course, Trent Harvey. He’s been my biggest mentor since I moved to America from Australia three years ago. He’s always trying to [make] me better,” Sykes said.