2007 Mid A Morgan Horse Show

I leave tonight for Mid-A...well actually I leave at 2:30 today. I'm kinda praying that since there is where the "Curse of the Spooking" got started that maybe I will break the curse that has been placed on my horse by returning to the show arena.....(hey I can dream can't I ). Headlight lost a front shoe (in less then a week after getting them done) so I already spoke to the show farrier about having him replace it tonight. I hope the traffic is light on our way!

Well I just returned back from the Mid-Atlantic Morgan Horse show. I feel like the show was a good one. The trip to Lexington went smooth and we arrive around 6:00 p.m. (just as the first classes were heading to the ring). We didn't have any time to stop unpacking and watch the show so I missed the Limit horse class that I wanted to watch (since Headlight and I won it last year). We quickly were off to a warm up ring to start lunging Headlight....it turned out that it must have rained before we arrived in lexington because all the uncovered rings were a sloppy mess of mud. Once the show was over for the night we moved into the main arena to work Headlight and try to get him used to the "scary" items in the show ring.

Derek and I woke up at 5:00 a.m. on Thursday morning in order to get Headlight back into the show ring for a second time before our first class. The first class of the show was the Amt. Owned, Trained and Shown which had 6 entrees.  Well the lunging we had done the night before had set in and Headlight was tired....so tired in fact that he didn't want to lope! After a nasty first way departure into the lope Headlight spooked when a lady in the stands scooted forward in her seat right above his head. That spook was enough to put us at the bottom of Judge Garn Walkers card. Our first last place together!

I had the show farrier work on Headlight's front feet to try and get some more life out of him....Check out the video of him jogging now!

Click here for the video of the Championship Class!

The next class of our show was the Amt. Western Pleasure Stallions & Geldings. I was surprised to find out that there was only a total of two horses in this class. Normally at our shows the mare classes tend to be smaller then the geldings but not this time! I was going in the ring agianst a good friend of mine and her really nice seasoned show horse. Headlight once again spooked along the rail and we got the red second place ribbon.

After all the spooking that was making us drop so low on the cards I decided to take Headlight off the rail in our championship class. My logic was that if I could keep him a good 8 feet off the rail then he couldn't hear the crowds in the stand which is almost always the reasons for his spooks. I got up early on Friday morning and schooled him off the rail. Anyone who rides horses knows that its alot harder to ride a horse without the rail because you have to try and keep the horse striaght without cueing it to lope off or trot by mistake.

I somehow managed to get Headlight around the entire ring without even thinking about spooking! We had a minor "bobble" going into our second way lope but Headlight nailed the correct lead and we went with it! In the lineup my good friend was two horses down from me and was like" I just think your horse is so pretty" and I joked with her and said "if only  his mind matched his looks" .....just then they announced us as the winners of the Mid-A Western Pleasure Amt. Championship!

Imagine my surprise! ...From two last place ribbions to the championship winner! This was Headlight's first neck ribbon and my first time winning a cooler and a championship at the Mid-A horse show! This horse is making alot of my dreams come true!

From the Saddle Horse Report:

"DVF Heat Lite and Amy Sargent continued their outstanding season topping a large and competitive field in the amateur championship."

From the Morgan Connection Magazine:

"Having a judge who is top trainer of wester pleasure horses is sure to be a draw, and that proved to be the case at Mid-A. The western pleasure horses were plentiful and top dawer by anybody's standards."

"It was interesting that there were only two entries in the Amateur Stallions & Geldings class and that both entries were A-OT's. Of course, we are talking about two of the best A-OT's in the mid- Atlantic area. Elizabeth Abernathy and Amy Sargent. "

"I understand that Amy and her horse are headed to OKC this year where I am sure they will be very competitive."

"The amateur championship featured six competitive entries. Amy Sargent and DVF Heart Lite pulled everything together and were rewarded with the championship."

The start of our victory pass.............

MY "LOOT"