No one could tell, not even Cats  Starlight, but Taylor Carbo’s nerves were taut as pigging strings going into the Senior Youth Scholarship finals on Saturday.

“I won it last year and no one has ever won it twice in a row,” said Carbo, who was 2010 NCHA Senior Youth World Champion, as well.

“A few people asked me what I thought about that and it made me real nervous, especially since I made it back to the finals by the skin of my teeth.”

Carbo had scored on the bubble with 215 points in the go-round, which was won by McCall Hansma with 223 points. Jordan Thompson, who would place as reserve champion to Carbo in the finals, scored 221 pointsto claim second place in the go-round.

“After I showed, I was watching all those good riders and horses,” said Carbo, a 2011 high school graduate from Plaquemine, LA. “But it made it fun having to wait.”

While Carbo and Cats Starlight had been racking up points together for over a year, reserve champion Jordan Thompson, Crossville, TN, stepped aboard Mylanto Lano, owned by Ray Baldwin, Fort Worth, TX, for the first time on Tuesday,

“She’s awesome,” said Jordan of Mylanto Lano. “She took such good care of me and was there for me every time I asked her. I will always remember this.”

Jake Baca, 9, Vega, TX, claimed the Junior Youth with 224 points aboard his own horse, Jewelin Jo Chita, while Andrew Viola, 11, Forth Worth, TX, was reserve champion with 220.5 points on Purdy Bet.

“It was fun,” said Jake. “I would like to come again.”

In addition to cutting, Jake has also earned a buckle in “mini-bull riding.” When asked which buckle he would wear, the one for cutting or the one for bull riding, Jake said, “I don’t know. That’s a tough choice.”

Andrew was also a finalist in the 2011 Super Stakes Amateur Classic and helped establish an NCHA record for the biggest age-spread in an event in Will Rogers Coliseum, when he and Don Lee Smith, 74, both made the finals.

Read today’s Daily Chatter here.