Av8tion Sport Horses

Show season, here we come!
💙🖤🩶

Celtic Strider
3/18/2003-12/4/2025

Today one of the most incredible horses crossed the rainbow bridge. Strider was one of the cornerstones of Av8tion Sport Horses and we are saddened to let everyone know of his passing.
He passed this morning surrounded by people who love him, and is now laid to rest next to his father, our namesake, A. V. Eight.

Strider lived an incredible life and did everything you could have ever thought a Thoroughbred to do. Eventing. Dressage. Jumpers. Western saddle trail rides. Beginner lessons. AA shows. He was truly one of the most talented horses with the biggest heart.

While his loss is an irreplaceable and gaping hole, we can only be so lucky to have known a horse like him. He will truly be missed, but the memories he made for so many will continue on.

Have a great time up there, buddy. We’ll hold down the fort here. ✈️🕊️

During these scary times, I’m following suit of other farms and giving a bit of a spiel on everything we’re doing to keep our equine friends safe!

1. All horses have been fully boostered as per our vet’s recommendation.

2. The horses who were out of town at WTHJA were fully boostered in July, as were all horses at the show per USEF rules. We were not at an even that would have cross contamination from the inciting incidents.

3. Since returning home we have been a fully closed herd with no known cross contamination, and any human traveling between barns has been instructed to fully sanitize and boot dip, or not come at all.

4. We are fully self quarantined. No horses in, no horses out until after Thanksgiving at the earliest. Even horses coming from “safe” facilities. Biosecurity first! If there’s any question of safety risk, our show season will be complete.

While this is terrifying for many reasons, just like Covid, if we all work together we can be back to showing soon! ❤️

So thankful we got to spend some time with amazing young ladies and teach them about how special horses and their care is!

Oh St Louis, how you treated us RIGHT!

🐝Marlowe and Spirit stepped into their first rated show in the Children’s Ponies and put in some GORGEOUS rounds for placings in the top five!

🦀Charlie and Linus also made their rated debut bringing home blues, a champion AND a reserve champion!

☘️Ella and Strider ALSO ALSO made their rated show debut, as well as Ella’s first ever jumping show, and came home with top honors in the .65m classic on Sunday!

👑Ava and Kenan showed the world that even at 17, you can still win big with 5th in the week 1 derby and FIRST in the week 2 2’6” derby! 🥳 Not only that, they were Limit Eq champions!

Thank you thank you thank you Prime Time Shows and the St Louis Charity Horse Show for AMAZING experiences. We absolutely will be back!

💙🩶🖤

Proud, grateful, and elated… full details to follow but WOWZA am I a lucky trainer.
(Marlowe not pictured 🦄)
THANK YOU Experience Equestrian League - EXEL!!!!

So excited to be here with our amazing team! Ready to kick off with the jumpers tonight!

Kicking off the Summer Spectacular 🌟

The Av8tion Sport Horses family has grown by another 4 legs!
Huge huge congratulations to the Hicks family on their ownership of Casuall! We cannot be more excited for Ava and her future with this new guy!
Big thanks to Southern Traditions Farm for the wonderful experience and great guy. We could not be more excited!

WOW! What a month it’s been! Every time I turn around and think I should post more amazing things pop up for us.
Please grab a snack and read the recap of our Late April and May below!

Experience Equestrian League - EXEL’s April show was INCREDIBLE!!
-Marlowe and her own Bless This Mess officially joined the AV8 team and killed it in the cross rail jumpers!
-Ava Hicks’s first show with us was also a rousing success on her own Kenan, preparing for the next week’s Memphis in May.
-Lisa Edge and her own Juno made their first trot down Center Line and placed FIRST!!! We could not be prouder of their accomplishment of a huge goal in getting in the show ring.
-Lainey Shelby had beautiful rounds in the Caveletti classes for some incredible placings on Truly Scrumptious
-And Charlie Enns and her new partner Limitless SF had an awesome first show together! They’re going to be an absolute power team this summer.
-ALONGSIDE all that - many of our horses and riders came out with year end awards from 2024!! All that hard work, rain or shine, has paid off in dividends.

Now on to Memphis In May I!
-Kenan was Champion in the USHJA 2’9” with Alex, and he and Ava absolutely SMASHED their rounds in a competitive Pre-Child division!
-Corretto placed third in a HUGE 3’ handy class
-Intuition had absolutely beautiful rounds in the training jumpers to prep for her move up to the 1m division.

Arkansas Hunter Jumpers In May saw the entrance of a very deserving rider in the show ring, Miss Audrey Hunt who has been a student of mine for years. I could not be ANY prouder of her hard work to get her horse show debut in!
Marlowe also made a reappearance at AHJA And Arkansas Dressage Society - taking top honors in multiple classes for multiple champions. The growth of her confidence in just a month has been so spectacular to be a part of!

Lainey also made her CROSS RAIL DEBUT at AHJA May 2 and we could not be more excited for this move up for her.

AND FINALLY:
Ava Hicks today has aquired a new family member - Welcome to Av8tion Casuall!!!!

Whew! Bring it on, June. We are SO READY!!!!!!

As always extreme thanks to our families and team for making all this possible for our riders and myself. The daily work that goes into making this machine run does not go unnoticed.

It’s been a crazy week preparing for Exel next week but I’d be remiss to not give Emily Wade her flowers and congratulations on the purchase of Last Shot of Shine, or Sutton!

We are so excited for years of friendship and success with this beautiful young horse, and so proud of Emily on the purchase of her first horse!

Thank you to River City Training Stable as always for an amazing buying experience!