An Alberta horse is the winner of what her owners say is the Stanley Cup of Clydesdale competitions.

Puzzle is a honey brown, white-stockinged mare from Willow Way Clydesdales near Ohaton, Alta., southeast of Camrose.

On Oct. 27 at the 2018 World Clydesdale Show in Madison, Wisconsin, Puzzle won the titles of three-year-old mare, senior champion mare and grand champion mare to bring her to the most prestigious category of her eligibility: supreme halter horse.

She won that, too, sending her owners home with a collection of ribbons, trophy, wreath and $5,000 prize.

The Willow Way team took Puzzle and 11 other horses to Wisconsin, all of whom were considered to be the best of the herd.

“We always wish and hope that we can do this, but that’s about as far as we can take it,” Allan Gordeyko, of Willow Way Clydesdales, said of the competition process. “The rest is left up to the judges.”

The 2018 World Clydesdale Show featured more than 600 Clydesdales.

Puzzle’s big win was decided by a panel of three judges.

Kristen Gordeyko, Allan’s daughter-in-law, said she nearly missed the announcement prepping other horses for show.

She said it was an emotional moment because of “all of the blood, sweat, and tears that went into it.”

“The last 10 months we’ve been here, prepping for the show,” Kristen explained. “It’s a big relief that it’s over and we can relax and the horses can all go back outside and enjoy themselves for the winter.”

Allan started breeding Clydesdales as a hobby more than 45 years ago, after seeing some of the big animals at a Vegreville country fair.

“I always say a Clydesdale is kind of like a car with lots of chrome on it,” he said, referring to the breed’s feet markings.

Now, Willow Way Clydesdales consists of more than 80 horses and is a partnership with Allan’s son and daughter-in-law, Wes and Kristen.

Breeding stock from Willow Way Clydesdales is sold in Australia, Alaska, Mexico and Scotland.

Although the family farm is partly a grain operation, Allan said “there’s more hours spent on the horses than there is on the farming.”

However, the breeder recognized that “there’s a certain amount of luck too. You can breed the best stallion to the best mare and you may not get a decent animal.”

So to see one of his animals do so well was “tremendous.”

“It was a great honour to win something like that.”

With files from Dan Grummett