Seven years ago, Diane Sembler Kamins almost didn’t go look at the 2-year-old gelding who her then-trainer insisted was “the one.” After 28 years in the American Saddlebred world, Sembler Kamins was skeptical; she had bought and sold many horses, and had heard that description used too many times before. But when other plans fell through, she reached out at the last minute and said if she could see the horse before her morning flight the next day, she would do so.

“Thank God I did,” Sembler Kamins said with a laugh. “You could have been blind and known this horse was exceptional in our breed�"and that was at just two years old. His talent has never diminished. As our original trainer used to say, ‘I couldn’t teach him anything�"he came this way.’”

Since making his show ring debut in 2018, “Forrest” has nearly dominated the open three-gaited division. The striking dark bay has won the Three-Gaited World’s Grand Championship four years in a row, with three different riders, including Sembler Kamins’ daughter, amateur Erin Eichenbaum, who was riding against professionals.

“He has been remarkable,” Sembler Kamins said. “There are people within our breed who have been at it for 50 or 60 years, and they have said ‘he is the best we have ever seen as a three-gaited horse.’”

In 2024, in addition to securing his fourth World’s Grand Championship, Forrest was ridden by trainer Steve Wheeler to earn the open championships at Rock Creek and the Lexington Junior League Horse Show (both in Kentucky). With Eichenbaum riding, Forrest also brought home the three-gaited championship at the Bonnie Blue National (Virginia), and the ladies gaited championships at Rock Creek and the Ocala International (Florida). In recognition of his exceptional performances, Forrest was named a 2024 U.S. Equestrian Federation National Horse of Honor.

“I feel so blessed to own this horse,” Sembler Kamins said. “I’m sure people think it's a cliché, but it’s not�"God shined on me when he let Forrest be my horse. I won’t ever sell him. I’ve done everything I can to protect his legacy.”

Part of Forrest’s show ring panache comes from his strong personality. When he is not performing, Forrest loves his groom, children, and other animals; his owner jokes that he only tolerates most adults. The team at Wheeler’s Autumn Hills Farm in Simpsonville, Kentucky, where Forrest lives, works hard to ensure that he always feels comfortable.

“A happy horse is going to be a better performing horse, and they have done everything to make him a happy horse,” Sembler Kamins said. “He is special, and he knows it. Horses of that talent all have some intensity, and he definitely has a level of intensity.”

About two weeks before each competition, his trainers begin a specific show preparation program; when that routine starts, Forrest’s mind shifts.

“He knows when it is game day, because he has been worked in specific ways on a specific day,” Sembler Kamins said. “On show day, he takes care of himself; he stands at the end of the stall and shuts down to the world around him. After the class, he is back to his usual self.”

The combination of this inherent charisma with Forrest’s quality of motion makes him difficult to beat.

“His conformation and athletic ability are setting a new standard for our breed,” Sembler Kamins said. “When he hits the ring, he has such a motion and dynamics that you just know�"there is not a moment that you think he’s not going to win.”

Forrest will begin the 2025 show season in the ladies division with Eichenbaum; beyond that, the award-winning gelding’s future appearances are yet to be determined.

“He is nine now, and I know of five-gaited Saddlebreds who are 16 years old in the World’s Grand Championship, and they’re still excelling,” Sembler Kamins said. “But he will answer that question�"he will tell us what he wants to do. His legacy is so important to me, because he is so exceptional, and I want to be sure I do right by him.”