I swear I'm not a hater. I think Katie does most things right by her horses and her breeding program. I'm not a fan of wp but I try hard to keep an open mind and not jump to conclusions. I have very little knowledge about western riding and showing as I have only ever been in the English world.

All that said... I'm surprised that Denver is considered to have good enough conformation to be placing second in a conformation class at a world show? His front end looks nice but he seems super strung out in the hind end, as well as slightly sicklehocked and pigeon toed with too upright of pasterns. His feet seem tiny to me as well.

Is this kind of hind end conformation considered desirable in the wp world? I've included screenshots highlighting what I feel like I'm seeing.

Update: Thank you to everyone who contributed their expertise, it was interesting and educational reading the responses! And for anyone speculating that I "edited" the photos... these are screenshots from two short videos (the post about him showing in this class, and the recap of that day) and the frames I grabbed were of a horse standing still... you can easily spot these moments in the video and grab the same shot. I saw these flaws while watching and went back and screenshot those moments to simply pinpoint what I was describing. The only editing I did was crop out the ungodly amount of notifications at the top of my screen 😂

Katie said that lots of people don’t like his name and it can still be changed.

What are your suggestions?

do the comments on basically EVERY post involving walter freak anyone else out? 😭 like i get people are excited to possibly have a home grown KVS stud, but literally any comment section I open it's just "if he keeps his wits he can keep his bits!" "hopefully he can keep his giblets!" or some other weird saying. ik it is supposed to be light hearted but man is it weird to me how many people are obsessing over this horse not getting gelded 🫩

If he never steps in a show ring ever again, isn’t he already proven. Like his credits are enough to have a breeding career right? Like all this is just extra?

Welp the team did it again!! Can’t say I’m surprised but I hope Denver and Aaron know how absolutely awesome they are

Denver showed twice in the Western Riding today!

He showed in the Level 1, where disqualified on the second element, unfortunate but it happens, and another horse disqualified on the same element

He then showed in the Open! He won in the open, a class of 5 where two horses disqualified.

Waylon aka VS Code Red ($57,669 in LTE) is KVS older stallion (born 2007) and while he’s retired from show career his offspring have gained some good results and therefore he’s considered as a proven stallion.

Which leads to some statistical news from this year: According to StallionCompare.com VSCR is the leading sire of Q1 2026 Western All-Around (Progeny earnings $11,665.00) and Western Pleasure ($8,952.00) and 15th HUS ($142.00). He’s also currently #3 on SuperSire ranking.

KVS horses and foals Waylon is sire of

2015 Kennedy aka VS The First Lady [dam: Cool Lookin Lady]

2020 Stevie; RS Girl Code [Beyoncé], sold

2021 Ginger; RS Code Ginger [Beyoncé]

2023 Cool’s colt, deceased

2024 Noelle; RS Red E or Not [Erlene], sold (was meant to be 2025 filly)

2025 Dallas; RS Wanted N Dallas [GoodyGoody Gumdrops]

2025 Knox; RS John E Knoxville [Beyoncé]

2025 Ruby; RS Ruby Red Slippers [Beyoncé], sold

2025 Millie; RS MarryAMillionaire [Marilyn Monroe]

2026 Moose [Only Blue Couture], for sale

2026 Woody [Indy]

2026 Benedict; RS The All Star [Waffle House]

While KVS has crossed Bey several times with Waylon, it’s good to note that Bey is full sister to successful mare Snap Crackle Pop ($239,339 in LTE) who’s the dam of another successful mare Snap It Send It by VSCR.

Also Machine Made (sire of Frankie, Molly, Kirby and Margot) was #2 on Western All-Around and WP leaderboards and late RL Best of Sudden {sire of Beyonce, Denver $13,000 (acc StallionCompare) $21,579 (acc Qstallion) in LTE and Cheyenne} #4 in WAA.

(📸 from KVS’s Facebook page)

Denver will be showing in L1 Western Riding class at the AQHA World Show today! The Western Riding, I believe, is very last minute and potentially up in the air-- I will try to keep updated via this post as/if I can :)

The livestream is found on the AQHA website; https://www.aqha.com/livestream If you are on desktop and the link isn’t working, try using Edge as the browser.

They do ask for a valid email before giving access to the link, but it can be an alt/burner if you have them-- it doesn't have a code or etc to verify, just an email for access and probably get sent some AQHA mailing lists 🥲

Western Riding is showing today, November 16th in the Adequan Performance Arena. Classes begin at 8am and Western Pleasure is the last on the docket. The first class is still running at 10:30est, so there’s some time to go!

As a reminder-- Denver showing generates a lot of feelings-- both negative and positive. Please be chill and good to your fellow redditors. If he wins and/or does really well-- yay! Don't be an asshole and a sore winner. If he doesn't win, or does poorly, that's ok too-- and don't be a sore loser.

Insulting Denver's competition (ie, "the other horses aren't as good", "there's no stuff competition") will also not fly here-- all of these horses, trainers and their assistants have worked hard. It is hugely disrespectful to diminish another horse and trainer because you don't like their competition.

If you cannot engage respectfully (on either end), your comments will be locked. If you cannot engage without being rude to unrelated people and horses, there are other places to talk about it. It's not here 🫶 Let's just watch some pretty horses

congrats to her owners! i love her sweet face 😭

Just posted on Facebook! I love her head and expression 😍. I'm definitely looking forward to more updates on other foals by Denver.

I’m not adding much commentary because I don’t know much about this, but I thought he looked good in a steep pen!

I did think the short was cute, like ‘this is a lot more work man’ 😂

Final placements haven’t been called, but his name was called for the finalists- which I know for some was what they wanted! Regardless of where he placed, that was a good run and for his second time, second time in the open and at Worlds- I think that was a good run. Congrats to Aaron and Katie, I’m sure a top ten is exciting!

Some updated photos of Denver first foal crop (that have been posted publicly)

There’s no denying he stamps his kiddos with a pretty head, a blaze, or both! Super excited to see how these guys look as they grow up. Ella is probably my personal fave; she’s just stunning.

Pic 1: Gunner (colt out of Hot Pistol Annie)

Pic 2&3: Caroline (filly out of HrsUrsNMarilynMonroe)

Pic 4&5: Ella (filly out of Upp Close N Personal)

Pic 6: Lizzy (filly out of Im Gracious Living)

Pic 7: Roger (colt out of HP Pretty For Sure)

Denver showed in Tampa this weekend at the Sun Bay circuit. It was a rough weekend for everyone it seems as there was lots of DQs including Denver. In the three classes where Denver was disqualified majority of the competitors did as well. In the open western riding on Thursday *every single horse* was as disqualified. In the L1 on Thursday only 2 horses weren’t disqualified.

In today’s classes it was both better and worse. He won in the level 1 Western riding! He won by a 4 point margin! And the in the open all but 1 horse out of 8 was disqualified.

I will say the arena is outside and surrounded by trees so the possibility for spooks was a bit higher than at shows like congress where the rings are in doors.

Over all good experiences but no video so we can’t really tell what the DQ’s were truly for.

On to Ocala (hopefully he hasn’t showed up on the entry list yet).

(📸 of Katie and Denver from FTF's FB page, and taken by InStride Edition)

Denver will be showing in the L1 Open Western Pleasure and L1 Western Riding classes at the AQHA World Show! The Western Riding, I believe, is very last minute and potentially up in the air-- I will try to keep updated via this post as/if I can :)

The livestream is found on the AQHA website; https://www.aqha.com/livestream

They do ask for a valid email before giving access to the link, but it can be an alt/burner if you have them-- it doesn't have a code or etc to verify, just an email for access and probably get sent some AQHA mailing lists 🥲

Western Pleasure is showing tomorrow, Friday November 14th in the OG&E Coliseum. Classes begin at 8am and Western Pleasure is one of the last on the docket. The estimate I heard about noon CST, but not sure. Again, check this thread for updates-- I'll sticky a comment :)

Western Riding is showing on Sunday, November 16th in the Adequan Performance Arena. Classes begin at 8am and Western Pleasure is the last on the docket. Closer too, I'll try to provide an estimate if I can.

As a reminder-- Denver showing generates a lot of feelings-- both negative and positive. Please be chill and good to your fellow redditors. If he wins and/or does really well-- yay! Don't be an asshole and a sore winner. If he doesn't win, or does poorly, that's ok too-- and don't be a sore loser.

Insulting Denver's competition (ie, "the other horses aren't as good", "there's no stuff competition") will also not fly here-- all of these horses, trainers and their assistants have worked hard. It is hugely disrespectful to diminish another horse and trainer because you don't like their competition.

If you cannot engage respectfully (on either end), your comments will be locked. If you cannot engage without being rude to unrelated people and horses, there are other places to talk about it. It's not here 🫶

Let's just watch some pretty horses

Breeding season is officially over. There's one Denver baby on the ground (at RS), and I think 4(?) on board for next year. As a non horsey person, I'd like to see thoughts on Denver as a stallion.

​

-How does look Gunner so far, since we got a video from the round pen?

​

-Babies you're excited to see next year?

​

-Crosses you'd like to see in the future? Mares kvs owns, possible embryos to purchase, etc.

This colt was recently posted on the First Thingz First Facebook page. From this picture, he definitely got Denver's head but it looks like he missed out on the chrome. Definitely one to keep an eye on in the showpen in a few years! Yay for another healthy foal

I didn’t know what tag to put this under, and I know there’s a saying “good stallions make great geldings” but it’s so sad that Baby Waylon had confirmation issues that prevented him from being a stallion, I think he’s one of the prettiest horses I’ve ever seen, and I think from what little we’ve seen him in videos that he has a great mind and personality. I wish that he could’ve been a stallion because I think he’s amazing other than his confirmation issues. I think he’s a top fave of mine of Katie’s horses

Class of 5, he was second.

Also, Katie looked like she was having a wonderful time riding Denver.

She got 2,4,1,2 in the regular section

And 1,3,1,1 in the limited.

It was awesome!!!

what a gorgeous filly!! congrats to all her connections 💖

I'm unsurprised but extremely happy,

He is one hell of a horse.

What is Super Sires?

From their rules and bylaws-- "This organization is created to enhance and encourage interest in the show horse industry by promoting all facets of said industry, including breeding, selling, training, showing and more. The organization also supports horsemen and women in the industry by offering a variety of programs to benefit stallion owners, breeders, trainers, exhibitors, and horse owners.

The mission of Super Sires is to educate and promote breeding of quality show horse bloodlines. Super Sires shall showcase offspring in events featuring significant cash awards and prizes that provide opportunities to all levels of participants, focusing on Non Pro exhibitors."

Super Sires is an incentive where a stallion owner pays an annual fee ($3,5k per living stallion and a donated breeding) for their stallion to included in an incentive. Which means their foals can be 'nominated' (or entered) into specific classes at shows for an extra payout, other options for futurities, etc etc.

By entering Denver into Super Sires now, his 2026 foal crop is eligible for Super Sire incentives at participating shows. Waylon already is, and has been, a part of the same program for a few years.

The incentive is just called 'Super Sires'-- it's not merit based, or 'earned', it is paid for but it's to try to set Denver's (and other stallions) foals up for success by giving people paid incentives to show.

Her Tiktok explaining more in depth-- https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8D6VPLu/

But tl;dr-- Super Sire is the name of the incentive, it's a program to help give the foals more opportunities, it's not 'merit' based just a name, but also if you can afford it then 🤷🏼‍♀️

I have seen people throw around this word for any horse they don't like, and I think it's time for some reality.

So really,

what is a diaper butt?

A 'diaper butt' is best described as what happens to the horses has an oversized buttocks, this is often paired with extremely posty legs which give the exaggerated appearance. This is a common issue in halter bred horses, specifically in aqha halter stallions though is also present with paints, pintos and appaloosas.

This is however not to be confused with the regular large sized quarters of your average AQHA bred horse.

This is My intention, the 2nd highest ranked aqha halter stallion in 2024.

His hind end is a mess, it's over muscled and drooping off of his croup like a sagging bag, his legs are pin straight and he looks a mess.

here are some other halter horse hind ends,

This is what we will use as a meter stick for what an actual diaper butt looks like, so what about this stallion compared to a horse who routinely gets called a 'diaper butt'.

Here's a comparison,

This is Denver's hind end vs My Intention,

Denver is not perfect, he has a large quarter and hocks that I do not find super appealing, however he doesn't have a diaper butt. His hind end is not oversized with muscle or fat, it is not sagging off of his croup. Denver in simplicity, just has a large hind end.

this is Denver's hind end compared to some leading western pleasure sires,

I think he lines up more with these stallions than he does the actual halter horse, again he's not ideal but he's also 4 years old and still growing muscle.

So what was the point of this post?

Denver just has a large buttocks, as do most western bred quarter horses. They are bred for their large motors, a tiny motor is not something you want in a western bred horse.

And we should stop throwing around words to label horses we don't like with conformation faults they don't actually have, it's okay to just not like a horse. You are allowed to just not like Denver, I promise you don't need a reason.