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4.5.2026
Almost everyone has a favorite show, the one with the best food, the one with the coolest parties, the one with the best competition. Each show has its own charm, but no person (or barn) can go to every single one. That being said, nearly every show has a youth contest, and it's completely understandable that writing a speech, studying for a test, riding a pattern, and judging a class is a lot of work just before a horse show. Especially when you add school on top of everything, it can seem like too much work even despite the opportunities for scholarships, recognition, time with other cool horse people, and so much more. But what if you didn't need to do one at every single show? It gives you all of the above benefits while also not being too much to balance. Then it begs the question, which show(s) should you compete at? Well, that's the topic of this Next-Gen Morgan blog post!
This post will include the shows that I have been to personally, but feel free to reach out to me (emilykatysandy@gmail.com) and share your YOTY highlights!
The first youth contest of the year is usually Connecticut Morgan and this show has the best swag, and is a great way to prepare for the New England Youth Contest with great speech topics, live judging, and has a nice lunch to meet the other participants.
The next show hosting a youth contest is New England. At this show, the champion and reserve champion of the youth contest open the session on Monday night after the awards are announced the day before at a catered dinner. The tests are tricky but include knowledge that is practical for horse people through their career. The speech topics are slightly more in-depth but allow you to show your creativity and personal horse experiences.
Oklahoma, Grand Nationals
The best of the best come to compete in the World Championships. Not only do horse and rider pairs work towards MGN, but the Youth contestants do as well! AMHA hosts a Youth of the Year competition, in which the qualifying contestants throughout the year come to compete. We sat down and asked this year's Youth of the Year Champion some questions.
Biography:
My name is Caprice Tondalo, and I am the 2025 Youth of the Year. I have been a proud member of the New England Morgan Horse Association for over half my life and owe a lot of great childhood memories to this horse show. I began riding at Hunter’s Glen Morgans under Karen Bobbi at eight years old and instantly caught the “Morgan bug”. Since that very first riding lesson, my entire life has revolved around horses, but more specifically Morgan horses. Although Karen has been one of the most important figures in this journey, I must acknowledge her late mother, Eileen Hunter for her importance to not only Hunter’s Glen Morgans, but the breed as a whole. Eileen Hunter was known for her dedication to supporting the youth and I will be forever grateful for her influence at the farm. For twelve years, I have owned and showed Willow Hill Pollyanna, more affectionally known as “Miss P” showing in Hunter and Western Pleasure. If you know me, you know how much I adore this petite mare and I like to think she adores me just as much. When I am not physically at the barn, I am reading my (almost complete) collection of Morgan Horse Magazines, looking through the Morgan Registry, and researching Morgan history…I am truly horse crazy!
As a student who studied Advertising and Integrated Communications, did any of your academic skills (presentation, strategy, communication) contribute to your performance in the competition’s speech or written exam components?
Honestly, I feel like it was the other way around! I feel as if my participation and growth through youth contests helped better prepare me for the business and communication world. Youth contests require entrants to creatively answer and display their thoughts with sometimes super niche topics. I feel as if creativity and “how best to stand out” is a huge component of advertising, so it certainly helped to look back to the strategy of these contests (although creativity with horses is way more fun!). I also strongly believe the presentation component of youth contests is very beneficial for your future career. At 10 years old, I began speaking my creative thoughts to a panel of judges. It sounds intimidating, but doing this allowed me to become comfortable public speaking in a safe place. Youth contests do far more than just help you within the horse industry, they better prepare you for “the real world”.
Looking back at the Grand National & World Championship Morgan Horse Show in Oklahoma City, what was the most challenging part of preparation—and what was the most rewarding?
There are so many small challenges within youth contests, but I feel as if the biggest challenge I personally faced was staying committed and enduring hardships. I think something that some people don’t understand about youth contests is how much time and dedication it takes to participate. As a kid, sometimes the components feels like homework, and who wants homework at a horse show? Although I was always interested and determined, sometimes it was extremely difficult to stay dedicated to studying and writing a speech. It takes a lot of time and patience to be comfortable with the format of the contests and retain the knowledge. Not to mention, sometimes you just feel defeated! There could be outcomes that make you feel disappointed, frustration with process, and boredom with the repetition, but it’s important to push through those feelings. I can’t count on both hands how many times I studied the skeletal system, and no matter how hard I tried, I could never remember the ilium bone! I do feel as if challenges are always tied to rewards, so I would have to say the most rewarding part is looking back on the journey. I am forever grateful I pushed through those hardships and stayed resilient to see all my hard work paid off in my last year of eligibility!
Now that you’ve achieved this major milestone of in the Youth of the Year program, how do you see this preparation influencing your future involvement in the Morgan community or your career path?
Now that I am officially retired from youth contests, I am thrilled to support the upcoming youth in any way I could. In the upcoming year, I plan to volunteer at local youth contests as well as speak in a Youth Clinic at the 2026 New England Morgan Winter Getaway. Not only that, but the American Morgan Horse Association allows the opportunity for the Youth of the Year to donate a portion of their prize package back into the industry. It was a no brainer to me to donate this to the New England Morgan Youth Contest as it was in integral part of not only my journey, but my childhood as well. I believe this program is so important to keep thriving to harvest the future generation of the Morgan community. Although it makes me sad to close this chapter of my life, I am eternally grateful to be a part of this program in another way.
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