Randolph sixth grader wins horse show world title

ASHEBORO — Twelve-year-old Clayton Shiflet is a world champion, joining his parents, grandparents and great-grandfather in a family tradition.

Clayton, a sixth grader at Southwestern Randolph Middle School, rode Macho Camacho, known affectionately as Oakie, as a World Champion and World Champion of Champions for five-gaited pony in Louisville, KY, held during the World Championship Horse Show from Aug. 16 to 23. 

It was Clayton’s first world championship but the ninth for Oakie, owned by Nissa Sultan of Florida who is a senior at Wake Forest University. Sultan won with Oakie in his first world championship titles in 2020 and 2021.

“We met Nissa at a horse show,” said Matt Shiflet, Clayton’s father.

“I’m lucky they took me in,” said Sultan, who keeps Oakie at the Shiflets and leased the horse for Clayton’s show season.

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 show American saddlebred horses.

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

Clayton and Oakie won in the five-gaited pony division for riders 13 years of age and under. There were 11 horses competing in the division that requires that the animal be 14.3 hands and under in size, or listed as “pony.”

According to Whitney, “Saddlebreds are show horses. They are capable of competing at five distinct gaits. A walk, trot, and canter and an additional two gaits known as the slow gait and rack. The slow gait and rack are a four-beat, lateral gait.”

Showing horses for three years, Clayton has competed at the world championships for two years. But he’s been around horses his entire life.

In fact, he first sat on a horse at the age of one month just after the horse had won a world championship. He started riding horses when he was 2 and began competing at age 7.

He said he hasn’t announced his championships at school except to a couple of friends and “they think it’s cool.”

Asked if he felt pressure to compete in horse shows, Clayton said, “I like to live up to (the family tradition). It encourages me. I like the challenge.”

Does he want to continue riding horses such as Oakie? “I have a really good chance to do it as I get older. I want to stay around horses.”

In fact, Clayton hopes to continue working in the family business of keeping and training horses. “I hope to take over Shiflet Stables,” he vowed.

While working with American saddlebreds takes up much of his life, Clayton also has other interests. “I like to play baseball and golf. I like to fish and I do a little bit of hunting.”

He has also developed friendships with people from all over. “I have friends I’ve met at horse shows. We hang out and throw a football or baseball. We compete in shows and then we’re friends again.”

Clayton said he has friends from West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia as well as North Carolina.

“It’s an opportunity to meet people from all parts of the world,” Whitney said. “They form friendships that last a lifetime.”

Asked what a rider is doing during a competition, Clayton said he gives the horse cues by the pressure on the reins, a touch to the neck or a leg to the flank. He gives different cues for different movements.

Whitney added, “The rider also talks a lot. These horses are unbelievably intelligent and they’re so attuned to emotions.”

Whitney won with Oakie in the ladies five-gaited World Championship and World Champion of Champions in 2023 against much larger horses. 

“It’s pretty unique for a mother and son to win on the same horse,” she said.

Oakie, at 11 years old, is a natural at competing. Whitney said, “He loves to train and to perform before the crowds. The more they cheer for him, he feeds off it. He enjoys what he does.”

“He’s never had a bad day,” Clayton added.

Oakie was born and raised in Missouri and arrived at Shiflet Stables when he was 4. His nine world championships were with four riders: Sultan, Lauren Miller, Whitney and Clayton.

When Clayton and Oakie won in August, a special fan was watching. Whitney said Alice Shiflet, widow of the late Claude Shiflet, “cheered on Clayton watching on live stream from Asheboro.”