Kaleena Weakly of Shelbyville, Illinois, announced recently the loss of her successful all-around horse, Moonlite Cruiser.
At the 2024 AQHA World Championship Show, the two of them were amateur world champions in showmanship and trail, placed sixth in performance geldings and eighth in hunt seat equitation and were finalists in horsemanship. Kaleena was also named reserve all-around amateur.
“Cruiser,” a 2010 bay gelding by Only In The Moonlite and out of A Radical Blaze by Blazing Scorching, was owned by Josh Weakly of Shelbyville, Illinois, and was bred by Steven and Susan Thompson of Hillsboro, Ohio.
He previously earned a reserve world championship in amateur horsemanship with Kelsey Evans in 2021, as well as a world championship in amateur trail in 2019. He had a total of 1,997.5 AQHA points.
Kaleena posted a tribute to Cruiser on social media: “I hope you know how much we all loved you, because to know you was to love you. You were perfect in every sense,” she wrote. “The vet took out a 5-pound stone that ruptured your intestines. They said it would have taken years to form. You never showed us discomfort or any signs of colic until the last minutes, because that’s who you were: a gentleman, mighty, fierce, a king. Please pray for the Gilliams and the Jungs; our hearts will never be whole. It was a privilege to send a piece of me with him. I will meet you in heaven with all the peppermints you’ve dreamed of; please share with Tag.”
