As featured in the Winter 2025 issue of Arabian Horse World.
Now in its 29th year, Totally Tops honors outstanding professional trainers and amateurs from the U.S., Sport Horse, and Mid Summer Nationals. Additionally, we have added Scottsdale to these results.
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 2024 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 2024
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 Plleasure, Country English Pleasure, Driving.
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 | Kristin Hardin |
| TOP TEN | Colby Powell Katie Steiner Noelle Roberts Jessica Bein Hannah Finch Jill Mitchell Gordon Potts |
Jim Hitt
Halter
| CHAMPION | Andrew Sellman |
| RESERVE | Sandro Pinha |
| TOP TEN | Ted Carson Rodolfo Guzzo Mike Wilson Jeff Schall Lucho Guimaraes Austin Colangelo Joe Alberti Joao Carlos Sousa |
Andrew Sellman
English
| CHAMPION | Rene Ramirez |
| RESERVE | Jason Krohn |
| TOP TEN | Jessica Clinton Wyatt Budd Leah Beth Golladay Ashton Kiesner Jonathan Ramsay Shan Wilson Peter Stachowski Gabe DeSoto Austin Eversman Joel Kiesner |
Rene Ramirez
Hunter
| CHAMPION | Isabella Heath |
| RESERVE | Kirsten McKillop |
| TOP TEN | Wendy Griffith Potts Stephanie Sage Walker Shannon Beethe Joshua Shino Sally Randle Justin Cowden Tamera Burkman Caralyn Schroter |
Isabella Heath
SHOW HACK
| CHAMPION | James Lowe |
| RESERVE | Sophie Yih |
| TOP TEN |
Jonathan Ramsay Cynthia Burkman Kasey Moffat Leah Beth Golladay Austin Eversman Devin Miller Diane Louw Kristi Stewart John Rannenberg Todd Ehret Kathleen Stevens Laura Rodel Lauren Stephenson Wendy Griffith Potts Tamara Collins |
James Lowe
NATIVE COSTUME
| CHAMPION | Julie Daniel |
| RESERVE | Kasey Moffat |
| TOP TEN |
Skylar Gunlicks Eric Kobernusz Eddie McCain Georgina RamirezLauren Stephenson Mikayla Michels Todd Hickerson Dallas Nicole Joiner Mandi Jorgensen Elizabeth Desarle Katherine Showers Kelcie Beck Wyatt Budd Elizabeth Pizzonia Shannon Feinroth |
Julie Daniel
TRAIL
| CHAMPION | Jim Hitt |
| RESERVE | Jessica Bein |
| TOP TEN |
Jill Mitchell Lou Roper Michael Damianos Dale Sullens Scott Scheyli Sterling Bradley Anita Dublin Jessica George |
Jim Hitt
DRESSAGE
| CHAMPION | Hannah Finch |
| RESERVE | Jessica Wisdom |
| TOP TEN |
Debbie Canaday Patience Prine-Carr Lacie Smith Randall Chrystal Coffelt-Wood Noelle Roberts Brooke Fuchs Shea Johnson Nicole Rowley Katie Steiner Jennifer Tobie |
Hannah Finch
WESTERN PLEASURE
| CHAMPION | Joe Reser |
| RESERVE | Colby Powell |
| TOP TEN |
Stanley White III Josh Quintus Zane Bucher Brett Becker Jody Strand Ali Brady Greg Harris JT Keller |
Joe Reser
Working Western
| CHAMPION | Jim Hitt |
| RESERVE | Colby Powell |
| TOP TEN |
Gordon Potts Gary Ferguson Skylar Powell Jesse Chase Jessica Bein Anita Dublin Stacey Turner John Dublin Jeffrey Wilms |
Jim Hitt
Amateur
| CHAMPION | Delaney Haight |
| RESERVE | Katie Russell |
| TOP TEN |
Lyra Waggoner Sophie Yih Ingrid Bentzen Jennifer Palermo Carol Roberts Diane Franklin Bonnie Bunker Mignon Stetman |
Delaney Haight
Sport Horse Halter
| CHAMPION | Katie Steiner |
| RESERVE | Jackie Alkin |
| TOP TEN |
Aaron Hardy Ronald Bartholomew David Conner Lawrence Jones Jennette Aubert Chrystal Coffelt-Wood Kaitlyn Quillin Victoria Shaw |
Katie Steiner
Sport Horse Performance
| CHAMPION | Kristin Hardin |
| RESERVE | Paris Mahoney |
| TOP TEN |
Noelle Roberts Cavan Smith Hannah Finch Ronald Bartholomew Brittany Jenkins Katie Steiner Griffin Alexander Raven Gropp Shea Johnson Arabella Ferris |
Kristin Hardin
Sport Horse Amateur
| CHAMPION | Paris Mahoney |
| RESERVE | Cavan Smith |
| TOP TEN | Hannah Darby Caitlyn Saranchak Molly Schwister Karen Fischer Paige Schmidt Mary Kate Fahy |
Words from our totally tops winners
I’m truly honored to be included in the prestigious list of Totally Tops halter trainers! The real victory here is shared with our customers and friends that allowed me to show their magnificent horses and my incredible coworkers who put their hearts into the mission of making our horses as happy and beautiful as they could possibly be! These titles were won but horses who had talented and dedicated people giving them their best shot! Thank you to AHW for this amazing award!
Andrew Sellman
This year proved to me that I’m right where I’m supposed to be - in a place with great people and phenomenal horses. I feel incredibly lucky!
Isabella Heath
I just want to thank Sara Glazer for Malachi KW. What a great horse! Mamage did it again. Malachi is all show horse, I just try to stay out of his way.
Jim Lowe
I feel truly blessed to have had such incredible clients and horses in my journey. It’s inspiring to work with clients who are just as passionate about the process as they are about achieving big wins. I’m grateful for the opportunity to help shape dedicated horsemen and horsewomen along the way.
Jim Hitt
I’m truly grateful to my incredible clients for trusting me with their amazing horses. Your unwavering support and dedication make moments like winning the Totally Tops award for Native Costume possible—thank you for being part of this journey!
Julie Daniel
I am beyond grateful for the incredible opportunities I’ve been blessed with. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way, especially my mom and Jim Hitt, for believing in me and trusting in my abilities. Your unwavering encouragement and guidance have been the foundation of everything I’ve achieved. Here’s to an exciting future—I can’t wait to see what lies ahead!
Delaney Haight
Honored to be part of the Totally Tops Top Ten Multi-Discipline Pro and Champion for the Sport Horse Halter. I am so grateful for such amazing horses and customers to give me the opportunity to do what I love- training and showing their horses for them. Humbled by the recognition, but proud of all the hard work, care and success earned in 2024.
Katie Steiner
2024 was a fantastic year for the Arabians I was competing with. They started the year off with a bang in Scottsdale and really peaked as planned in Ohio in September at Sport Horse Nationals with each of them winning roses. I’m really proud of all my horses, they gave me 100% and this award.
Kristin Hardin
