Shiflet Stables bring home 9 world horse show championships

ASHEBORO —  Clayton Shiflet and Macho Camacho defended their world championship in the Five-Gaited Pony class at the World Championships Horse Show held in August at Louisville, KY.

Clayton, a 13-year-old seventh grader at Southwestern Randolph Middle School, rode Macho Camacho last year for his first, and Macho’s ninth, world championship. And they did it this year back-to-back on the schedule with his father, Matt Shiflet, and American Kiss winning the world championship in the Sweepstakes Park Pleasure class.

“It may be the first time a father and son have won back-to-back championships,” Matt said.

In all, Shiflet Stables of Asheboro took home nine world championships. This in a year when Matt’s uncle Doug Shiflet, also of Asheboro, retired after 48 consecutive years as the official photographer of the Kentucky State Fair World Championship Horse Shoe.

Both father and son won the world championship and champion of champions awards. According to wchorseshow. com, a world champion has won first place in its class. A world champion of champions is a higher honor awarded to the winner of the championship class in a given division.

Clayton also won with a new horse the Shiflets bought in May, Melrose Madeline, in the Three-Gaited Show Pleasure for 13-and-under. The team won championship and champion of champions.

Matt, riding Arrowhead Phenomenal in the Five Gaited Gelding class, won the qualifier and came in second overall as the reserve world champions. He rode Dios Mio in the Fine Harness class to another world championship.

Other Shiflet winners were Drew Taylor Bradford in her first professional world championship with Soul Man in the Junior Park class, and Phyllis York Brookshire riding Kalarama’s Cosmic Apollo in the Ladies Five-Gaited Gelding Section 1.

“We took 24 horses to Kentucky,” Matt said. “We’ll take 14 to the NC State Championships in Raleigh” this weekend. 

Matt, who is the third generation Shiflet involved in championship horse shows, said, “A lot of people live a lifetime and not win a championship. So we won nine in one year.”

The walls of the Shiflet Stables office on Old Lexington 64 are covered with family photos of Shiflet horses prancing in shows. Many are champions.

Shiflet Stables was founded in 1972 by Claude Shiflet, Clayton’s great-grandfather. Over the years there have been more than 100 championships won by horses from the stables. So it’s become a family tradition as Matt and his wife Whitney as well as grandparents on both sides have shown American saddlebred horses.

People send their horses to the stables and the Shiflets train them and care for them year-round.

“It takes a whole team,” Matt said. “Everybody has to get the job done. One of the most important is the caretaker, who spends hours a day and has a relationship with the horses.”

Also included on the team are blacksmiths, veterinarians, horse haulers, trainers, riders and, of course, the horses. 

After his second world championship show, Clayton said, “It feels amazing, like nothing else.”

Asked about the pressure of performing in front of so many people, Clayton said of Macho, “He loves it just as much as I do and that takes a lot of pressure off. The more they’re into it, the better it gets.”