Showsight - July 2017

AgedOut, But JustGettingStarted A Former Junior Looks Forward to Judging If it’s true what they say about youth being wasted on the young, it’s clear that Lydia Frey didn’t get th memo. The 19-year- ld fromWellington, Florida, has received more accolades “in dogs” than most of us could hope to achieve in a lifetime — and she’s just getting started. Last month, the former junior handler stepped into the ring for the first time without a show lead when she was selected to be the surprise judge of Best Junior in Cluster at the Grayslake Summer Cluster in Grayslake, Illinois.

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Lydia grew up in Hume, Virginia, an unincorporated crossroads in horse and hound country. “My late father, Russell Frey, was a renowned hunter rider and judge,” Lydia says. “Growing up, my weekends were spent at horse shows all around the world.” In 1998, her father and Swept Away were the First Year Green Hunter Champions at the Cosequin Palm Beach Masters for Mr. & Mrs. Bertram R. Firestone. “He also showed in the jumpers and had a training business of his own,” Lydia adds. Only last year, Russell Frey won the $50,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby aboard Kodachrome for owner Nina Koloseike Moore. Lydia’s mother, Kimberly Prince, is a successful horse woman in her own right who trains and shows Grand Prix show Jumpers. As Lydia notes, “She has represented the USA on many occasions.” So it should come as no surprise that the daughter of two competitive horse people would become a competitor herself. The only surprise, perhaps, is that Lydia chose dogs instead of horses to show. In 2007, Lydia stepped into the Junior Showmanship ring for the first time. She started with Standard Schnauzers and in her parents’ livestock tradition Lydia wanted to produce the animals she would show. “I bred my first litter and finished my first champion at 12-years-old,” she notes. Lydia eventually discovered the Bedlington Terrier and has bred three lit- ters to date. “From my first Bedlington litter I finished my first champion by going Winners Dog at two national spe- cialties,” she claims with justifiable pride. Of the many Bedlingtons she has bred or shown, the most celebrated has to be

Lydia with “Tony.” P HOTO BY A MBER A ANENSEN

148 • S how S ight M agazine , J uly 2017

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