2007 Mason Dixon Classic

Headlight's third time showing

If one word could be used to describe the 2007 Mason Dixon Classic Horse Show it would be "stressfull". The sorry state of Headlight's tail was the first of many situations/ problems which made this show one of the toughest I've ever done. As stressfull as showing can be we always fing time to goof off:

When I arrived home Wednesday night I found Headlight had a slightly swollen eye. Even a slight indication of a sick horse at a show will "set" people off and could really create a bad reputation for myself. I was able to put some horse "clear eyes" solution in his eye and put a fly mask to prevent further injury during the night. Waking up at 4:30 I ran down to the barn praying to take off the fly mask and see two perfect eyes....no such luck! The eye appeared to be in the same condition as it was the night before (at least it wasn't worse!). I came to the conclusion that I should try an ice pack in order to get some of the swelling to go down.

Now if you have ever tried to hold a pack of frozen veggies on a horses eye you will know that it isn't easy! After 5 mins. my arm hurt and my hand was frozen...not to metion Headlight was still fighting me to get away. I ended up making an "eye ice pack" out of papertowels, ice, duct tape and a fly mask. My invetion worked great and by Friday morning Headlight's eye was completely normal again.

Our first class was the Amt. Western Pleasure which had around 7 other horses in it. I managed to get a great spot on the rail and the other horses in the class "clustered" together in a big group on the opposite side of the ring. Headlight was having a great class untill he spooked really bad the second way of the ring. I managed to get him to the opposite side and went to ask for the lope when a rider on a speeding horse came up right behind us and missed hitting us by about a foot! That just "blew" Headlights mind and he couldn't get focused enough to get his right lead (our bad lead). By the time I managed to get the lead they were asking for the walk but I made him go a couple more strides in hopes that the judge would see him. We placed 3rd in that class.

Our next class was the Amt. Owned, trained and shown. We had won this class last two years but both times there was only one other person showing against us. I had planed on not showing in this class when I arrived at the show since I don't like wasting my money to show against one other horse but when the show office told me there were 4 people already signed up I thought I would give it a try! I worked Headlight alot that morning (around 5 a.m.) along the grandstands so I was confident that he would not spook in this class. Instead of spooking at the normal grandstands Headlight thought it would be fun to throw a fit about the bleachers?

I have to say that this class was the closest I've ever been to excusing myself from the ring. Headlight was a total brat about the bleachers untill the second way of the ring. Its amazing how a horse can go from thinking something is going to eat it, to not caring at all...UGH! There was a group of people showing against me all week with...how to say this..."not good horses" and in my video the lady was blameing the fact that her horse kept running to the center of the ring on Headlight (rollseyes) Its amazing how dumb horse people are. Even with his horrible class Headlight placed second...above the lady's horse who was "feeding" off of him.

After the spooks in his last class I figured I wouldn't "push" Headlight to show in the open class later that day. I find that the morgans can get "fried" pretty fast and the last thing I want is such a talented horse to hate showing. I ended up lunging Headlight Saturday night and riding him in the practice ring to prepare for the championship class the next day. On Sunday morning I woke at 4:30 to get him in the show ring while it was still quiet. Derek (being the great person he is) woke up with me and helped out by sitting in the grandstands and arranging the chairs so that they would "eat" Headlight everytime he passed. I think we found that it works better to feed Headlight treats from the stands rather then "push" him through the scary objects.

When the call came for the Amt. Western Pleasure Championship I felt good about our chances. In total there were 5 people showing back in the ring (which had finally dried out from the rain). When we first came in the ring the bleachers once again tried to eat Headlight and he did a very bad spook. I collected him up and pulled his nose a little to the inside pushing him through his gaits. The rest of the class went off without a "hitch" and we were called to lineup.

One of the things that Mason Dixon does that I really enjoy is read the names of the past two year winners. It read like this "in the year 2005 your champion was MidSummer Night Jazz with Amy Sargent, in 2006 your champion was DVF HeartLite with Amy Sargent, and in 2007 your champion is .......501 DVF HeartLite with Amy Sargent!!!!!!!!! What a great surprise!

CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO OF OUR CHAMPIONSHIP CLASS!

In all I feel like Mason Dixon was a great show. I saw how much more work Headlight needs if we plan on showing at Southern States and I now know I need to do alot more work on "bomb proofing" him. I guess only time will tell if Headlight will ever become a big time show horse.