Just before the American, the Melby family purchased Shameon U "Gator," a horse trained by Shannon Tidwell and owned by Annesa Self at the time of purchase. Self trained Dillon, who carried Self, Carlee Pierce and then Callie duPerier to the NFR (with duPerier capturing the world title), so there was no doubt Gator was a good one. Melby said they were a good fit from the start, and is the horse that she has the most confidence in.
"We wanted to buy him when he was done with his futurity year, so we just kind of followed him around and kept in touch," Melby said. We'd had our eye on him and been trying to buy him for two years.
He doesn't like muddy or deep conditions, so Melby picks another horse for those situations, but besides that, Gator has been her go-to ride as she's racked up the checks this year.
