Shaw Laney - Awardee 2003

Shaw Laney's interest in horses began as a very young child. He basically would eat, drink and sleep "horses". At the age of eight, he started riding lessons at a nearby farm that specialized in Thoroughbreds and Paso Finos. There, Shaw first learned to ride hunt seat and began showing Hunter Jumpers on the local level when his interest turned to a two year old Paso Fino gelding named Bailarin Cohetezon.

In July of 1982 Shaw's parents, Clyde and Judy Laney, surprised him with Cohetezon for his tenth birthday. From that day on, Shaw had the Paso Fino Fever. He started showing his gelding that same year, with the Grand National Show being the second ever for the pair. Although Cohetezon was not really considered to be a top notch show horse, they both were quite successful in the Piedmont Regional Shows.

When Shaw's sister went off to college in the late 80's, he began showing her horse, Bailarin Elegante, who was already by then a 4-time National Champion. In the two years of showing Elegante, Shaw was the 1987 Highpoint youth rider at Nationals and the Piedmont highpoint for all of the junior youth classes and the majority of the gelding classes.

Shaw started professionally training horses for others by the time he was sixteen years old. What had started out as a hobby had suddenly turned into a full-time business. To date, Shaw and the horses he has trained and shown have won a combined number of over 50 National and Reserve National Championships.