In 2021, amateur hunter rider Caroline Leeth was aimlessly scrolling through her Facebook feed, not in search of anything in particular. After glancing through several friends’ posts, she noticed a for sale ad pop up for an Appendix Quarter Horse called Good Thing Im Best on a Quarter Horse sales page. Curious, she clicked on the steel gray yearling’s ad. 

“There was just something about him,” Leeth said. “His ad had a video of him longeing, and honestly, I loved his canter.”

Leeth, a large-animal veterinarian who lives and runs a small practice in Blacksburg, Virginia, couldn’t get the yearling off her mind. At the time she wasn’t looking for another horse for herself, but now it seemed this one had just fallen into her lap. Leeth had grown up competing in the local Virginia 3’ hunter and adult amateur hunter divisions, and had never before ridden western, but her daughter Eleanor Leeth, then 9, had recently begun riding western with her Paint, Monty, and Caroline thought it would be fun to have a horse to compete in the same shows with Eleanor. So she made a call to a local vet in Wisconsin, had “Joe” vetted, and bought him. 

“Yep, I’m that person,” Caroline said. “But it worked out for me—he’s a good boy.”

More than a good boy, actually. In August, 4-year-old Joe (Good Better Best—Unbridled Contessa) won the 3-, 4-year-old hunter championship at the Virginia Young Horse Festival and swept his additional 4-year-old hunter classes.

It was a bit of a full-circle moment for Caroline, whose first horse was a Quarter Horse she showed in the hunters. 

She’d grown up in Norfolk, Virginia, with a horse-crazy aunt who passed the pony bug to her, but didn’t get a horse of her own until she started vet school at Virginia Tech. VT Flexible Flyer, an AQHA gelding born and bred at the college, was 3 when Caroline purchased him in 1998. 

“I realize that may not have been a great time [to get a horse] for most people, but it was perfect for me,” said Caroline, who competed “Flex” in the 2’6″ hunter division at local shows while working toward her degree. “He was my salvation from vet school.” 

Starting her career, which began with small-animal veterinary medicine and evolved into returning to school for a doctorate in molecular biology, followed by work at a research facility and then a teaching positing at VT, brought with it an extended hiatus from riding. It wasn’t until 2017 that she owned a horse again—an Oldenburg gelding called The Great Gatsby who she competed in the adult amateur hunters. But when daughter Eleanor started seriously showing in western and ranch classes, Caroline struggled juggling both Eleanor’s and her separate show schedules. 

“At that time, ‘Gatsby’ seemed like he was ready to step down [in fence height] as well, so I found the perfect home for him teaching young riders the ropes at 2’6” and under,” she said. “I also thought it would be more fun to bring a young horse along and show with my daughter, which was how I ended up with Joe.”

Teamwork Builds A Show Horse

Caroline, 48, is not a professional trainer—along with her equine veterinary practice, she also works remotely for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to help with new animal drug approvals—but she has a great support system around her, which has helped her to succeed with Joe. 

Elizabeth Hyde, who manages Paris Mountain Stables, the boarding barn where the Leeths keep their horses, used to be very active at the Quarter Horse and Pony of the Americas circuits and also helps train Eleanor. 

“I would not have bought a horse that young if I did not have Elizabeth as a resource; she is so knowledgeable,” Caroline said. “Elizabeth showed me some groundwork to do with Joe when he was younger, but I didn’t do a whole lot with him in the first six to eight months I owned him. 

“Joe did get lots of hands-on training,” she added. “We have a bunch of high school students who work [at the barn] and they were able to lead him out, lead him in, put all his blankets on, and do everything with him. I’m a do-it-yourselfer, so I am very involved with him as well. Joe was very good; I think the chaos of growing up in a boarding barn has helped him because there’s not a whole lot that fazes him.”

In July 2022, Caroline sent Joe to a local Blacksburg colt starter named Joe McDonald to back him. When the gelding returned, Caroline found the task of riding a 2-year old to be daunting. 

 “At first, I was like, ‘Oh my God, there’s no steering, no brakes, I’m in a western saddle and I’m having trouble with that, even though that’s all he knows,’ ” she said. “So then I had Elizabeth get on him first and then I would get on, and that worked out much better. It was a little intense for a little while, but Joe is a good boy.”

After working with Joe for almost eight months, Hyde and Caroline decided he would be ready to contest the $30,000 3-Year-Old Maiden Hunter Under Saddle Futurity at a March 2023 Quarter Horse show held at the Virginia Horse Center.

“His sire is Good Better Best, who is the leading Quarter Horse hunter under saddle sire,” Caroline said. “I felt like we had a shot to do well. So I took him, and it wasn’t as great as I had hoped, but we did not ruin anyone else’s ride. 

“You wouldn’t believe it: These other 3-year-olds, they’re in the coliseum inside, there’s loud music playing, there’s a lot of people in there because it’s a big deal—and they don’t even flick an ear,” she added. “My horse was a bit excited by all of that, and that’s OK. We were last, but they assured me that I would make my entry fee back. It was still fun—that was Joe’s first Quarter Horse show experience.”

Caroline took Joe to several more local Virginia hunter shows and Virginia Quarter Horse Association shows over the course of 2023 to give him confidence. She’d enter flat classes, and at the Quarter Horse shows, pattern and western walk-jog classes as well.  At the end of the year, Joe won the VQHA’s level 1 hunter under saddle title—”his canter is just too good,” Caroline said. 

This spring, once Joe was 4, Caroline decided it was time for the gelding to learn to jump. Mandolin Whitten, an up-and-coming eventer who was a senior at Virginia Tech University, started him over fences for Caroline.

“She would take him to the Virginia Tech arena and jump him over little flowerboxes and such, and I would stand there and watch,” Caroline said. “I would jump Joe a little bit too, but I’m an amateur weenie; I’ve never jumped higher than 3’. It’s not like Joe was bad at all; I was just worried that I was going to mess him up. Typical amateur worries; I didn’t want to ruin him. I’ve gotten a lot braver, and I can jump him now.”

Young Horse Festival Success 

At first, Caroline didn’t plan to enter Joe in the Virginia Young Horse Festival. Eleanor had a busy show schedule in 2024, and Joe got left on the back burner a little bit. It also was difficult to find Quarter Horse shows offering over fences classes. 

Kayleigh Burke, who has recently started helping Caroline with Joe’s jumping training, offered to take him to a local hunter/jumper show to school him while Caroline was in Georgia for the 4-H Southern Regionals with Eleanor. 

“She sent me a video of her schooling Joe over a 2’6” course and then I was like, ‘Well, maybe I should take him to the [Virginia Young Horse Festival],’ because that’s the next show coming up, and I knew I was going to be there as the attending veterinarian anyway,” she said. “I was also OK if it didn’t work out—if Joe didn’t end up showing because he had a green moment or something happened, I was OK with that too. There was no pressure at all.”

Burke was busy that weekend, so Caroline asked another local trainer, Heather Weaver, to ride him at the Young Horse Festival. 

“I think Heather came out to my barn and sat on Joe on the Monday or Tuesday before the show,” Caroline said. “She didn’t even jump him or anything. She was just like, ‘Oh, we can do this’ and I was like, ‘OK, let’s go.’”

In the combined 3- and 4-year-old division, Joe was second in the under saddle class, won the hunter hack (which is different than the under saddle class—it involves two jumps and a flat phase), and then Joe won the first over fences class to take the division championship. 

The following day, Heather and Joe competed in the 2’6” 4-year-old young hunter division and won all of their Classes. 

“He went in there, and Heather just took him right around,” Caroline said. 

As the attending veterinarian of the show, Caroline didn’t get to see Joe show much that weekend—she was busy measuring ponies. “I did see a little bit of Joe competing on Saturday, but I didn’t get to see the under saddle or anything like that. I’m really not in many of the pictures either!”  

A Quarter Horse In The Land Of Warmbloods

Caroline credits Joe’s English and western training for making him a more well-rounded horse. 

“People that sit on him are like, this is the straightest 4-year-old I have ever ridden,” Caroline said. “Joe is very educated on the flat. And I feel like it’s because he’s been ridden all of these different styles and he knows how to do a slow jog, he knows how to extend the trot, he can do a fairly slow canter. He’s just as good in a western saddle as in an English saddle. The western shows do a lot of pattern work, which is very accurate and it’s all about your transitions, the smoothness, and the obedience. So even when you pick up the trot, it has to be seamless and look effortless. Same with the canter—head can’t go up, ears can’t go back, tail can’t swish. So there’s a lot of focus on the finer details in the western world than in the English hunter world—we’re focused more on going forward than they are. There is definitely a difference.

“Joe is much better at being a regular hunter; it is hard for him to collect,” Caroline continued. “And it’s hard for him to be that obedient as needed in western classes all the time. He’s young and he still has his moments, but Joe will do whatever you ask him to do. His breeding is for that, his trainability is so high. He’s been such a fun horse to work with because once he gets it, he gets it. I think that’s bred into him—the Quarter Horse people are breeding for something different than the warmbloods are bred for. It’s not so much athleticism as it is trainability and that kind of thing.”

“He’s young and he still has his moments, but Joe will do whatever you ask him to do. His breeding is for that, his trainability is so high. He’s been such a fun horse to work with because once he gets it, he gets it.”

Caroline Leeth

Looking toward the future, Caroline’s plans for Joe include competing at the local Southwest Virginia Hunter Jumper Association’s year-end show at the end of October, and then she hopes she can take Joe to compete at the Florida Gold and Gulf Coasts Shows at World Equestrian Center—Ocala at the end of December. 

“We’re really looking forward to that,” she said. “I also would love to show Joe in some of the USHJA 5-year-old and under hunter classes at USEF hunter/jumper shows, but I haven’t really looked into the details of all of that yet.”

Once the news of Joe’s win spread on social media, many Quarter Horse owners and riders became inspired that their Quarter Horses might also have a shot competing against the warmbloods at some hunter/jumper shows. 

“I saw this a bunch as his wins got shared,” Caroline said. “It was cool to be the inspiration there. Joe impresses me with his brain; it’s much more fun with Joe than with a warmblood. My eventual hope is that he and I can compete in the 3’ adult amateur hunters because he could definitely do that and be successful.”