As featured in the Winter 2024 issue of Arabian Horse World.
Now in its 28th year, Totally Tops honors outstanding professional trainers and amateurs from the U.S., Sport Horse, and Mid-Summer Nationals.
The tallies are based on the number of wins each trainer or amateur has accumulated as specified below. Congratulations to those who have made the list — numbers don’t lie, you really are Totally Tops in the Arabian breed. Congratulations from all of us at Arabian Horse World.
Join us as we salute our Totally Tops 2023 winners. We thank them for their fine examples of horsemanship and for taking the Arabian to even higher levels of performance.
Totally Tops Disciplines – How we tallied the Tops for 2023
Things you should know about how we compiled the rankings:
All disciplines include purebred and Half-Arabian wins.
Points are awarded as follows: Championship: 10 points; Reserve Champion: 7 points; Top Ten: 4 points.
A rider/handler must have at least two Top Ten wins or one Reserve Championship to be listed.
Totally Tops charts count only the horses actually shown by these individuals; every effort is made to confirm each rider/handler’s point tally.
Amateur classes are tallied separately from all other disciplines.
Classes not included:
Sidesaddle, equitation, or exhibition classes; carriage pleasure driving classes; supreme classes; JTR and JOTR classes; U.S. National AWPA, AHPA and AEPA futurity and maturity classes.
Classes included in each discipline:
All amateur and junior classes are excluded from the following disciplines.
Halter — purebred and Half-Arabian halter, futurities.
English – Park, English pleasure, country English pleasure, driving, informal combination.
Hunter Pleasure – All hunter pleasure classes.
Show Hack – All show hack classes.
Trail – Trail, trail junior horse, trail futurity, English trail.
Western Pleasure – All western pleasure classes.
Working Western – Reining, cutting, working cow, reined cow, ranch horse riding, and herd work.
Native Costume – All native costume classes.
Sport Horse Halter — Sport Horse In-hand, Hunter type and Dressage Type.
Sport Horse Performance – Working hunter, sport horse under saddle, hunter hack, jumper, and hunter/jumper.
Dressage – All dressage classes.
Multi-discipline Pros – All trainers with points in two or more disciplines.
The following disciplines are limited to classes designated by ATH, AATH, AAOTH, ATR, AATR, AAOTR, AOTH, AOTR, ATD, AOTD or AAOTD:
Amateur Overall – All classes designated amateur from the halter, English, hunter pleasure, show hack, trail, western pleasure, working western or native costume disciplines.
Sport Horse Amateur — All classes designated amateur that would otherwise fall into the sport horse halter or sport horse performance categories.
Multi-Discipline Pros
| CHAMPION | Jim Hitt |
| RESERVE | Colby Powell |
| TOP TEN | Ronald Bartholomew |
| Jonathan Ramsay | |
| Jessiva Bein | |
| Noelle Roberts | |
| Gordon Potts | |
| Hannah Finch | |
| Kaitlyn Quillin | |
| Brooke Fuchs |
Jim Hitt
Halter
| CHAMPION | Ted Carson |
| RESERVE | Andrew Sellman |
| TOP TEN | Grant Krohn |
| Joseph Alberti | |
| Jeff Schall | |
| Sandro Pinha | |
| Claudinei Machado | |
| Rodolfo Guzzo | |
| David Boggs | |
| Keith Krichke |
Ted Carson
English
| CHAMPION | Jonathan Ramsay |
| RESERVE | Joel Kiesner |
| TOP TEN | Matthew Siemon |
| Jessica Clinton | |
| Joel Gangi | |
| Nestor Gonzalez | |
| Dalton Budd | |
| Leah Beth Golladay | |
| Shawn Rooker | |
| Rene Ramirez | |
| James Stachowski |
Jonathan Ramsay
Hunter
| CHAMPION | Wendy Potts |
| RESERVE | Jonathan Ramsay |
| TOP TEN | Cassandra Gillespie |
| Nestor Gonzales | |
| Elizabeth Bentley | |
| Justin Cowden | |
| Megan Jenkins | |
| Stephanie Sage Walker | |
| Joshua Shino | |
| Kirsten Mckillop | |
| Taryn Lundquist |
Wendy Potts
SHOW HACK
| CHAMPION | Jonathan Ramsay |
| RESERVE | Cynthia Burkman |
| TOP TEN | Kristi Stewart |
| Kathleen Hart | |
| James Lowe | |
| John Rannenberg |
Jonathan Ramsay
NATIVE COSTUME
| CHAMPION | Brooke Fuchs |
| Caralyn Schroter | |
| Lian Oteiza | |
| Stephanie Reitter | |
| RESERVE | Rose Huckfeldt |
| TOP TEN | Joshua Shino |
| Leslie Palmer Garvis | |
| Michael Perry | |
| Nestor Gonzalez |
Brooke Fuchs
TRAIL
| CHAMPION | Jim Hitt |
| RESERVE | Jessica Bein |
| TOP TEN | Jill Mitchell |
| Lou Roper | |
| Sterling Bradley | |
| Scott Scheyli | |
| Dale Sullens | |
| Particia Gerdes | |
| Michael Damianos | |
| Lisa Halpain |
Jim Hitt
DRESSAGE
| CHAMPION | Brooke Fuchs |
| RESERVE | Mikayla Clement |
| Mimi Stanley | |
| Robert Bartholomew | |
| TOP TEN | Kaitlyn Quillin |
| Chrystal Coffelt-Wood | |
| Jeann Upchurch | |
| Hannah Finch | |
| James Fehr | |
| Joann Williams | |
| Andrea Pappano | |
| Amy Miller | |
| Lisa Kiser | |
| Roberta Eisenberg | |
| Marilyn Weber | |
| Taylor Allen |
Brooke Fuchs
WESTERN PLEASURE
| CHAMPION | Joe Reser |
| RESERVE | Brett Becker |
| TOP TEN | Colby Powell |
| Zane Bucher | |
| Greg Harris | |
| Dale Brown | |
| Gordon Potts | |
| Steven Scoggins | |
| Jody Strand | |
| Rick Gault | |
| Cody Gillespie | |
| Elizabeth Bentley | |
| Josh Quintus | |
| Abram Cotton |
Joe Reser
Working Western
| CHAMPION | Colby Powell |
| RESERVE | Jim Hitt |
| TOP TEN | Jesse Chase |
| Gordon Potts | |
| Doug Stewart | |
| Crystal McNutt | |
| Jessica Bein | |
| Skylar Powell | |
| Nathan Kent | |
| Gary Ferguson | |
| Tye McDaniel |
Colby Powell
Amateur
| CHAMPION | Tracy Dowson |
| RESERVE | Delaney Haight |
| TOP TEN | Diane Franklin |
| Mack Elwood | |
| Michelle Pease-Paulsen | |
| Katie Russell | |
| Gabrielle Sitomer | |
| Chelsea Cantero | |
| Brooke Bellville | |
| Lyra Waggoner | |
| Susan Read | |
| Katie Harvey |
Tracy Dowson
Sport Horse Halter
| CHAMPION | David Conner |
| RESERVE | Ronald Bartholomew |
| TOP TEN | Kaitlyn Quillin |
| Shannon McCormick | |
| Aaron Hardy | |
| Annie Wiggins | |
| Mikayla Clement | |
| Jennette Aubert | |
| Brooke Fuchs | |
| Mary Loden | |
| Lawrence Jones |
David Conner
Sport Horse Performance
| CHAMPION | Noelle Roberts |
| RESERVE | Ronald Bartholomew |
| TOP TEN | Alexis Forster |
| Hannah Finch | |
| Anleigh Ahlert | |
| Cavan Smith | |
| Paris Mahoney | |
| Raven Groupp | |
| Estrella Smith | |
| Kristin Hardin |
Noelle Roberts
Sport Horse Amateur
| CHAMPION | Molly Schwister |
| RESERVE | Alexis Forster |
| TOP TEN | Kimberly Graves |
| Hannah Darby | |
| Taylor Craft | |
| Alexis Starer Doughty | |
| Cara Barron-Shirley | |
| Megan Frantz | |
| Tracy Vann | |
| Abby Tymchak | |
| Alissa Donnell | |
| Caitlin Heinz | |
| Cavan Smith | |
| Madeline Pielage |
Molly Schwister
Words from our totally tops winners
“The 2023 show season was a great success for Fox Performance Horses. In Dressage, we had multiple horses showing from Training to Second Level this year. With multiple regional Champions and Reserve Champions we went into Sport Horse Nationals strong and ended with two Reserve Championships and multiple Top Tens.
EF Moonshine is the Mounted Native Costume horse who just kept getting better with each show this year. He gave me his very best at US Nationals, and was named National Champion.”
— Brooke Fuchs, Totally Tops Champion Dressage and Native Costume
“This year’s success can be attributed to great trainers. Jim Hitt has put off surgeries until after U S Nationals for a few years now. He has gone through more pain for roses than anyone else I know. Mitch Sperte brought a very special (and difficult) horse along when everyone else had given up on him. I schooled dressage with Leslie Bean to keep my riding skills sharp when I was not able to ride with Jim or Mitch.”
— Tracy Dowson, Totally Tops Champion Amateur
“2023 was a great year in the working western pen for my team. We earned championships at Nationals in Reining, Ranch Riding, and Ranch Rail. Excited to be Totally Tops!”
— Colby Powell: Totally Tops Champion Working Western, Reserve Multi-Discipline Pro and Top Ten Western Pleasure
“It is such an honor to win the Totally Tops award. When I was a little girl, I used to dream of winning a national championship and being recognized in the year end awards like Totally Tops. This show season is one that will go down in the record books for me. I had the privilege to show not only my horse ,but also show my trainer’s horse and a few of my friends’ horses. In 2023, I was fortunate to travel from Scottsdale, AZ to Lexington, VA and a few places in between to compete. But the highlight show of the year for me was Sport Horse Nationals. My trainer and I worked diligently to make everything as perfect as it could be before the show. Which meant a lot of long days in and out of the saddle. It all came to fruition at Nationals when I had the show of a lifetime!.”
— Molly Schwister, Totally Tops Champion Sport Horse Amateur
“I am blessed to do what I do every day, for the the clients I have, and for the horses I get to show.”
— Jim Hitt: Totally Tops Champion Multi-Discipline Pro and Champion Trail
“2023 was amazing year. I got the opportunity to put some amazing horses, and with some amazing people in the arena. most of all I would like to thank everyone at Stachowski West for everything you do.”
— Jonathan Ramsay: Totally Tops Champion English Pleasure and Show Hack
“It is such an honor to win Totally Tops in a division as it truly goes off your accolade’s for that particular year. I am grateful for the recognition!”
— Wendy Potts: Totally Tops Champion Hunter Pleasure
“I am humbled and grateful for all the success the 2023 show season brought me. Not only did I have an incredible group of horses to train and show, their owners were very supportive of the goals we set out to achieve. The Shamrock Farms Team of trainers, caretakers, veterinarians, farriers and alternative care practitioners are second to none and allow me to have happy, healthy horses to work with. I have so much appreciation of the Shamrock Farms owners, Carrie and Leslie, for giving me the opportunity to work for their business. And I owe a big thank you to my family for their love and understanding of the sacrifices we make to achieve my dreams. ”
— Joe Reser: Totally Tops Champion Western Pleasure
“2023 was a great year for my entire program and we enjoyed lots of wins at both MidSummer and Sport Horse Nationals, but HF Drama Queen’s Championships were a highlight. I’ve had her since she was 4 and always believed in her talent, so to see her be successful at the Open and and Junior rider level was incredibly rewarding.”
— Noelle Roberts, Totally Tops Champion Sport Horse Performance
“I am thrilled and honored to have won the Sport Horse In-hand category for Totally Tops! 2023 was another incredible and exciting year, highlighted by winning the 3 & Over Supreme National Championship with the amazing purebred stallion, Zee Kahili (pictured)! I am so thankful to all of my wonderful support system and clients that have made this feat possible.”
— David Connor, Totally Tops Champion Sport Horse Halter
