2008 Mason Dixon Morgan Horse Show

April 25th thru 27th

Quentin, Pennsylvania

On Wednesday night we set off around 6:00 to make the 3 hour drive to Quentin PA for the Mason Dixon horse show. We arrived at the show and got everything unloaded and Headlight settled in for the night.  While unhitching the horse trailer on the horrible hills that is the campground, the hitch got stuck and pulled up the truck liner...not a good way to start the show season with my Dad's truck.

Thursday morning around 8 Derek and I headed down to the barn. I went ahead and tacked Headlight up and had Derek lunge him for about 20 mins just to help him settle in. Once on his back I took him in the show arena and rode for about 30 mins. Headlight was okay....not really being spooky but was a tad bulky...bad Headlight! After my ride we got in the car and picked up an indoor/outdoor carpet for the dressing room and grabbed lunch at Ruby Tuesdays. When we arrived back at the show I took Headlight for another ride in the show ring...this time is wasn't pretty. Headlight thought that baulking and being a jerk was the way to go and every time I asked for the left lead lope he would spin his hip towards the middle and back up real fast.....JERK!  What was suppose to be a 20 min ride turned into an hour of fighting until he gave in and went around the ring with no problem.  After my long training session Derek brought Headlight into the ring and worked on perfecting his skills for the in hand class.

On my way back to the barn Kathy Peeples (the trainer who I purchased a month of training with) asked me if Headlight was the horse I wanted to send to her. We talked a while and made some plans on what month would work best.....I was excited!

Friday morning I woke up at 4:00 to work Headlight in the show ring alone. This time I brought my whip with me and it only took two good smacks to have him nailing his left lead again....isn't it easier just to be good????  After my 30 min ride I took him back to the stall to give him a bath. When I went to hose him off he spun his hip into some metal post sticking out of the ground and sliced his hip pretty good and it started bleeding....ugh just what I needed to deal with!

The first class of the show was the Morgan Western Horse in Hand in which Derek was to show Headlight. Except for the new cut on his hip, Headlight shined like a penny. He was a bit of a handful in the line up but Derek handled him well. I think that Derek was a little too excited because instead of walking to the judge he troted and the judge told him to walk....oooopppps it was his first time in the ring so he's allowed to have a mistake. When the placings were called Derek and Headlight were the winners!  After a failed attempt at getting a picture Headlight proceeded to canter out of the ring with Derek being pulled behind LOL

The next class was the Amt. western pleasure class. Besides fighting his headset a little during the first way lope he gave me a flawless class for the win.

In the AOTS class I hurried into the lope and got the wrong lead.....stupid riding on my part and I got second place.

During the championship class Headlight took a bad step at the lope and went lame. I'm not sure what he did but it was obvious in the video...poor guy :-(