It was an exciting second week of auditions for the American Equestrians Got Talent. Nine acts competed in the first round of competition at the White Horse Fashion Cuisine Wednesday night. The 
show opened with last week’s winner, Alix WHO, a 15 year old member of the Young Singers of the Palm Beaches who sings while playing her ukulele.

Following the opening act, the competition started with a beautiful performance by flautist Ansley Wright. Two of the 2015 AEGT Finale performers also performed in this week’s audition. Top four finisher from last year’s AEGT Finale, Taylor Hughes, owner of Wellington’s own Taylor Made café and the always exciting fire baton twirler Laura Ashley Killian were among the audition participants on Wednesday night.

All of the acts were critiqued by the three celebrity judges immediately following their performances. This week’s judges included former USEF Director of Sports and owner and CEO of the consulting and marketing firm, Wolf Sports Group, Jim Wolf, International Grand Prix rider and half of the partnership responsible for The Twilight Series, PJ Rizvi, and this week’s “Simon Cowell” representative, Ben Schultz, principle dancer of the Martha Graham Dancers. 

After round one, the audience chose by the loudness of their applause, who would 

Charlie and Jimmy played a very heartfelt rendition of Bob Segar’s “Turn the Page” to pull at the heartstrings of the audience. Next came the 10 year old Zack Attack who surged into the second round with his guitar rendition of a classic Nirvana song. And the last performer to go in the second round was vocalist Hillary Eder from Wellington, FL with her version of Adel’s giant recent hit, “Hello.” After another round of critiques from the judges, Hillary Eder was cheered to the  winners circle.
“I never thought I would win!” exclaimed Eder immediately following her 

Contestants who win each week are set up with fundraising lines through an organization called Mobile Cause to start fundraising for the Finale performance, to be held Sunday, March 20 at the Global Dressage Facility. This year, funds raised and the number of unique voters donating to each performer are considered as part of the finale scoring. To vote for any weekly winner, you can send a text to 71777 (type 71777 in the ‘to’ line of the text) and then put the keyword for the contestant for whom you want to vote in the ‘send’ line of the text. Keywords are listed below for each weekly winner.

This week’s audition was sponsored by The National Horse show and the winner was presented with their prize from the NHS president, Mason Phelps. Next week’s audition night will again be held at the White Horse Tavern on Tuesday, January 26, starting at 7:45 PM. To watch the performances past or live, tune into the live feed from The Chronicle of the Horse website, www.coth.com.
For reservations call 561-847-4549. If you want to audition, contact Robert Dover at [email protected].

Week 1 Winner: AlixWHO? Text AEGT3 to 71777 to vote for Alix WHO for the Finale.
Week 2 Winner: Hillary Eder Text AEGT4 to 71777 to vote for Hillary Eder for the Finale.