Pam Hargesheimer takes first place in World Championship Appaloosa Show

Equestrian show veteran Pam Hargesheimer of Valley Center has waited a long time for this.
Hargesheimer and her appaloosa Skipa Maxi Treat won the Non-Pro Masters Hunt Seat Equitation division in the 2010 World Championship Appaloosa Show, which took place in Fort Worth, Texas, from Oct. 22–30.
“It’s been a long journey,” she says. “My mom was a horse trainer, but I had never really won any medals. After eighteen years of trying, and after spending the last year training after work, riding in the dark, and walking on treadmills just to be ready, it finally worked out.”
Hargesheimer has come close to winning the championship, after she won the Reserve Champion award for taking second place in 2006 and 2009. But taking the first place prize has been something she admits has been on her “bucket list” for a long time.
In addition to taking the win, Skipa Maxi Treat, known to the Hargesheimers as Daddy Max, was the Reserve World Champion in the Hunter In Hand Four & Older Stallion division, took sixth in the Aged Stallions Halter division and finished ninth in the Novice Non-Pro Western Equitation division.
Pam and her husband, Dean, have been showing appaloosas since 1992, coincidentally the same year that their champion, Skipa Maxi Treat, was born. Both Hargesheimers are used to being around horses, especially Pam, whose mother was Peg Richardson, the founder of TLC Riding Center in Norco.
“I grew up with a mom who was horse crazy,” Pam says. “When I was thirteen, my grandma bought me my first horse, and that was it.”
Pam and Dean both spent their childhoods around horses and horse shows, and they found a mutual connection through their love of all things equestrian. Even though they both say they got a little sidetracked with marriage and raising children, their mutual interest in horse showing came through again.
“It was our daughter’s fault. She told us, ‘I want a horse!’ and we got her one,” Pam says with a laugh.
Along with their champion stallion, who is double registered as an appaloosa and a palomino, the Hargesheimers also have another appaloosa named Couldn’t Get Much Hotter.
“He is loud,” Pam says of the young horse’s dramatic coloring. “He’s the typical appaloosa; white with polka dots.”
The Hargesheimers work with the Calizona Appaloosa Horse Club, supporting and promoting club events and competing in open shows. They also sponsor youth riders on occasion, saying that equestrian sports are a good outlet for kids.
And the Hargesheimers also have a secondary passion, currently in the form of a 1948 Plymouth convertible still in mid-assembly in their garage. Dean estimates its progress at about 60 percent, and Pam jokes about whether or not they will put a trailer hitch on it to haul their horses back and forth to competitions.
“Very funny, Pamela,” Dean replies.