Kara Mikkelson, 18, and her Clydesdale, Tilly, 5, recently captured top honors at the 2026 Montezuma County Fair horse show last weekend. They will compete for Master Showman at the county fair Aug. 1
Mikkelson and Tilly earned Grand Champion in Showmanship and Reserve Champion Horseman based on overall points. CeJae Snyder placed Reserve Champion in Showmanship and earned Grand Champion Horseman.
The fair’s horse show started with Showmanship. In this portion of the competition, riders lead their horses in patterns directed by the judged at a walk and a trot, perform backups and turns, and present the animal for inspection. One important aspect of this part of the show is the horse’s cleanliness, and Mikkelson told The Journal that cleaning Tilly’s white legs took a lot of extra time.
Following Showmanship, Mikkelson and Tilly competed in English Equitation and English Control before switching to Western riding gear for Western Horsemanship, reining and Ranch Horse. In the Ranch Horse class, horse and rider were required to cut a calf from a small herd of calves, separate it, drive it across the arena and pen it within a time limit.
The duo overcame difficulties due to Tilly’s draft horse size, and Mikkelson came out of the competition excited about their performance.
“Showing Tilly is different from my competitors, because she’s quite a bit bigger than other horses. Her strides are longer, so it makes it harder to maneuver the courses and patterns that I am judged on,” Mikkelson said. “I am super excited about how I did this year. Tilly and I have put in a lot of work to get to this point, and I really look forward to our future together.”
As the Showmanship Grand Champion, Mikkelson will advance to the Master Showman Competition, alongside Snyder, on Aug. 1. In this competition, Mikkelson and all the other Grand Champions and Reserve Champions in the animal contests will demonstrate their knowledge and skill in showing other animals at the fair. The individual with the best performance will be named Master Showman.
“My goals are to have fun and do my best at showing the other animals,” she said.
In addition to the horse competition, Mikkelson will participate in the upcoming .22 rifle and market sheep competitions.
Mikkelson recently graduated from a homeschool program, a path she said she took to pursue her passion for horses. She has owned Tilly since birth, and also owns her mother.
She began training Tilly at just 13 years old.
“When she was two-and-a-half, I rode her about five or six times, teaching her the basic commands of how to turn and stop,” Mikkelson said. “Then I turned her out for the winter so she could just continue to grow. When she turned three, I resumed her training, teaching her to respond to my hands, legs, voice and weight.”
Now, she has mastered picking up leads at a canter, opening gates, side passing, spinning, performing rollbacks, jumping and working cows. They are now exploring roping.
Mikkelson’s approach to training involves communicating through body language, just like how horses “talk” to each other.
“When horses want to tell another horse something, they pretty consistently do it by using their body language,” Mikkelson explained. “First, they ask for what they want, like they will flatten their ears at another horse to say, ‘get away from my pile of hay.’ If the other horse keeps coming for the hay, they will tell them more firmly to stay away by biting at them. If that doesn’t work, they’ll make sure they go away by kicking them. I use the same idea when I train.”
She said Tilly seems to like this method of learning, and there are multiple steps Mikkelson will take during training.
“I ‘ask’ nicely for what I want Tilly to do, using my four aids – my hands, legs, voice and weight. If she does it, I ease up. If she doesn’t, I ‘tell’ her by using my aids more insistently. If she listens, I ease up,” Mikkelson said. “If she still doesn’t listen, I ‘make’ her by using my aids pretty dramatically, so she does what I want. Then the next time I ‘ask’ her nicely, she usually does it and I don’t have to get any tougher.”
Their years of training together have formed a strong bond.
“Every time I go out to ride her, she runs up to see me, and if I ride another horse first, she stands at the fence watching me until I finish with the other horse and go see her,” Mikkelson said.
The work she and Tilly have done together have given her the base to start training other horses, including her 3-year-old mustang named Simone.
She also gave advice for younger members of 4-H desiring to work with horses.
“My advice to younger students interested in horses or joining 4-H is to have fun, find a good mentor and learn as much as you can,” Mikkelson said.
bduran@the-journal.com
