Pettyjohn Quarterhorses is headed back to the AQHA World Show, but this time it’s the second generation.

Elizabeth “E” Pettyjohn-Thrall is following in her mother’s horseshoe prints and even taking her place in the saddle, as she heads the AQHA Youth World Show in Oklahoma City, July 31 through August 5. Cheryl Pettyjohn, Elizabeth’s mother, went to the AQHA World Show in 1993, placing 11th in the World in Team Penning, along with Cheryl’s sister, Deanna Pettyjohn, and Steve Lamb.

Elizabeth is not only the second generation Pettyjohn to go, but she will be competing in one of the same events and will be riding one of the same horses her mother rode at the World in Team Penning, “King Ebony Lynx,” aka “Snickers (age 22).” Elizabeth will also be riding “A Shine Of My Own” aka “Star” (age 8) in two other events, Ranch Sorting and Reining.

Ranch Sorting and Team Penning are events that require working cattle with partners. Elizabeth will ride in Ranch Sorting twice, with different partners and different horses. She will partner with Elijah Schultz, 16, of Windsor one time and partner with Cody Simpson, 14, of Mattoon the other time. She will partner with both of them in Team Penning, a 3-person event. Reining is a solo event and Elizabeth will ride “A Shine Of My Own” in that event.

Elizabeth,16, is the daughter of Larry Thrall and Cheryl Pettyjohn of Westervelt. She will be a junior at Shelbyville High School, where she is on the flag squad and participates in FFA. She has also participated in 4-H for several years. She has a part-time job at Double D Tack in Shelbyville. Double D was originally owned by Dean Utsler and now is owned, by Elizabeth’s mother. Despite all these other interests, horses are her main interest. That’s not a surprise, because she has been on the back of a horse since she was just a couple of months old.

Elizabeth started out riding Cowboy, a miniature horse, then moved up to Sparkey, a pony who has been a primer for many young horsemen at Pettyjohn Quarterhorses and who is still competing. She then started riding Buzz in Western Pleasure, followed by Sugar. She continued to ride Sparkey for some speed events, then stepped up to Snickers (King Ebony Lynx). Star (A Shine Of My Own), her sixth horse, is her mother’s horse that Elizabeth has retrained in Reining.

Reining is the Western-style cousin to dressage. Dressage, a French term, was originally an aristocratic European style of displaying a horse’s training in pageants. Dressage, commonly called “Horse Ballet,” is also an Olympic event. The Western version, Reining, involves guiding a horse through a precise pattern of circles, spins and stops (circles, roll backs and slides) and is done at the lope and gallop.

After several years of riding, Elizabeth decided to give reining a try.

“Reining is a good challenge,” Elizabeth said. “You have to be more under control and at a faster pace than other clssses. To do it is tough. If you are doing it, it’s because you’re really good. It’s something you graduate up to, because it is the most difficult class in Western riding.”

A Shine of My Own was purchased from Gene Merriman of Decatur and she was originally trained in reining. Then when she was 3-of-4 years old she started being used for working cows.

“We went back to Gene last January,” Elizabeth said. “I learned reining and “Star” had to relearn it.”

Elizabeth and A Shine Of My Own then went to four shows at Gordyville and qualified for the AQHA Youth World Show to go as one of the four participants in reining on the Illinois team.

Elizabeth qualified nationally in Team Penning and Ranch Sorting on her own at shows at Cascade Ranch near Rantoul. Then she and her partners qualified to be Illinois state participants at events at Cascade Ranch and at Big Creek in Decatur.

Schultz, the same age as Elizabeth, has been a rider at Pettyjohn Quarterhorses for a few years and is a local Shelby County 4-H rider. Elizabeth met up with Simpson, two years younger, at April Walk’s Coyote Creek Stables when she would go there on Friday nights to practice Ranch Sorting. Now the trio is headed to the Youth World.

Pettyjohn has a ton of local accolades from the Silver Spurs 4-H Club Fun Shows, including winning the High Point Buckle at the 2008 Shows in the speed events. She also has Shelby County 4-H Fair honors and honors at shows in Vandalia. She has won one Reining competition at Gordyville and was second in another. She and Sparkey qualified for Versatility at the 4-H Illinois State Fair (2002).