NON-PRO HALL OF FAME
Sister Act, Part 1
Two sisters from Alabama make their goal of the Non-Pro Hall of Fame together. BY JENNIFER HORTON
W
hen it looked like the Non-Pro Hall of Fame was a reality, sisters Madalyn and Blakley Colgrove decided it would be special to achieve it together. “It’s very exciting,” said Madalyn. “When we found out we were really close with the money, that was our goal last year, to be able to get it done together. We thought we had gotten it done, but we weren’t 100 percent sure. Then when we got the email, we were pretty happy to be able to get in there and do it together.”
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The 20-year-old from Boligee, Alabama, said she and Blakley both showed, and shared, several horses through the years. “Three horses that stick out the most for me are One Catty Cupid, Sweet Baby Marie and Hes A Heapinspoonful. Those horses did a lot for me.” she said. Madalyn was 14 when she rode Hes A Heapinspoonful (Hes A Peptospoonful x Miss Hickory Hill x Doc’s Hickory) to win the 2014 NCHA Summer Spectacular Classic/Challenge Amateur. With Sweet Baby Marie (High Brow CD x Hangem High Pep x Hickorys Indian
Pep), she was the 2017 NCHA Derby Non-Pro reserve champion. They were also reserve champions at the Breeder’s Invitational Non-Pro. She said it would be hard for her to pick one accomplishment as her biggest, with non-pro and amateur championships at the Breeder’s Invitational, Cattlemens Derby and Cotton Stakes on her record. “I was pretty proud of the Mercuria win on One Catty Cupid [One Time Pepto x ARC Catty Dual x Dual Pep] at Augusta,” Madalyn said. “It was actually the last year that they had the Mercurias. I had shown in a bunch of them and made the finals and been second, but I’d never won one.” “So to finally be able to win one, the last year they had them, was pretty special to me.” Madalyn reached the Hall of Fame earnings threshold at the Southern Futurity in Jackson, Mississippi. She took both Sweet Baby Marie and X Marks The Spot (Woody Be Tuff x Oh Cay Shes Pretty x Oh Cay Quixote) to the finals in the Non-Pro Classic. “Cutting has had a big effect on my life, and my sister’s, and our perspective on things,” she said. “It’s a big discipline thing. It’s definitely taught us a lot and been our lifestyle for the past eight or nine years.” The Colgroves raise 30 to 40 foals a year, so Madalyn and Blakley have always helped with them, as well as working in the family’s directional drilling company. “There’s so many people to thank, I couldn’t even name every single one of them,” she said. “My grandparents [ Joel and Jane Colgrove], they are the ones who got us started in this and have taken us all over this world to show so we’re able to accomplish all these things; my parents, for allowing us to go with them and be gone as much as we were; the trainers, for training such good horses—Austin Shepard, Matt Miller, Tarin Rice, Sean Flynn. There’s a lot of them.”
TED PETIT PHOTOGRAPHY
Madalyn Colgrove showed DMAC In Good Faith (Metallic Cat x Wise Little Miss x Wise Play) at the 2019 NCHA Futurity, where they made the Non-Pro semifinals.
CUTTING HORSE CHATTER • MARCH 2020
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