2007 Southern States Morgan Horse Show

The 2007 Southern States show was an amazing way start to Headlight's "big time" show career. We arrived at the show Monday around 3:00 pm after our 5 hour drive to Raleigh North Carolina.  I quickly unloaded Headlight and headed for the main indoor arena for our lunging sessions. He was amazingly calm and wasn't spooking or acting foolish about anything as I made my way around the arena with him. I was begining to think that maybe my horse had finally became a conditioned show horse who wasn't  upset when we traveled....boy was I wrong!

When I went back and saddled Headlight up and took him in the warm-up pen his old bad habbits came back and he went back to actually trying to get me off of him so he could go find some horses to hang out with. After working through that issue I was able to take Headlight into the main arena to get some work done.

All the despooking and standing on the side of the arnea at home seemed to go right out the window when Headlight realized people were above his head again. Its almost like he doesn't like any movement or noise and he can't help but freak out at everything that scares him. Derek was great about getting Headlight as used to the arena as possible and I think even my big time horse trainer friends were impressed with him :-)

The first class of the show was the Ladies Amt. Western Pleasure qualifier.  I told Derek my main goal was to get around the ring with not one spook...and we did it! Headlight was off the bit most of the class and "stung out" but we overcame something that had been haunting our shows since Mid-A 2006 so that was great! We placed 4th in that class of I think 9.

The next class was the Amt. Western pleasure Stallions and Geldings...talk about a deep class! There were many great show horses in this class and I had myself placed 3rd as I went in the ring. Headlight was flawless and had no spooks resulting in us actually winning the class! In my 8+ years of showing at Southern States I don't think I've ever won a class there....I was extatic! For good measure Headlight make sure to do a HUGE spook in our victory pass.....jerk

We then went on to place first in the Amt. Owned trained and shown class out of I believe 5 people. I'm really happy to see so many amteurs training their own horses....its nice not to be the only  one who can't afford a big name trainer.

Our last class of the show was the Amt. Championship. I really wanted to do well in this class of 10+ horses. I still don't know where they all came from since there were so many ways to qualify at this show. Headlight gave me an okay ride. He was a bit fast the first way jog and then he spooked and jumped at the first way canter (which judge Kathy Peeples saw). We ended up getting third and I was more then pleased with that placing!

Videos:

Amt. Owned, Trained and Shown class

Amt. Stallions and Geldings class

*UPDATE* Here is what The Morgan Connection had to say about Headlight and myself:

My "cheasy" picture in the magazine :-)