I'm not sure whether it was more exciting to come down the ramp from the 10th Street entrance and see all the trailers from all over the country filling the back lot of the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds, or to turn the corner on my way to the hotel and see that unleaded gas was actually below $3/gallon. Either way, arriving Friday evening just in time to see people working their last few horses before heading off for a good night's rest gave me a feeling that things were getting back to normal, and that soon the drama would unfold.
I've owned Morgans since 1973, when I attended the very first Grand National & World Championship Morgan Horse Show held in Detroit, Michigan, just a short drive from my childhood home in Plymouth. I had been taking lessons from Barb Batton in South Lyon and it lead to pestering my parents for a Morgan. My little grade Quarter Horse mare just wasn't good enough to show. After attending the Grand National with my parents that year, they finally consented to my purchase, funded by my Grandpa, of course. All these years later, I'm still breeding, training and showing my own Morgans and I have attended every Grand National since that first. I've shown in almost every division either my own horses or catch riding or driving for friends. My farm, Windenhill, has produced Morgans who have won here in Oklahoma City and I am still shooting for more titles with every new foal crop. I love this breed and immersing myself in this show every October is a cherished week of wonderful horses and renewing friendships.
Some of the exhibitors from the farthest distances have been in OKC for over a week, camped out at clinics and large ranches in the surrounding area, getting their horses acclimated and settled before the start of the show. Others arrived as late as Thursday, while the reiners will probably not be on the grounds until Tuesday or Wednesday. Every October, OKC becomes the home away from home for Morgan horse show lovers from all corners of the states, Canada and even as far away as Belgium and England. It's a time to see some of the faces from printed pages for the first time, for old friends to renew their bonds and for others to find new horses to take home. Eight days of Morgans in every size, shape and color--if you can't find your perfect Morgan here, good luck piling the miles on your car or frequent flyer card.
While the geldings in hand were setting records in the main coliseum today, the young equestrians were beginning their arduous week of extraordinary equitation in the show arena, now fully surrounded by new barns and warm up rings since our last visit here in October of 2007. While I could not be two places at once, I did manage to work in a walk around Barn 6 to enjoy the happy faces of junior riders exiting their classes wearing the much desired medals and long-streamered blue ribbons of a Grand National Champion.
The last few years we've seen fathers, sons and grandsons competing against each other in the Stallion In Hand division, but this year saw an interesting twist happen in the Geldings In Hand. After a plethora of nice geldings competed all morning, the World Champion Gelding class came into the ring with Holly Johnson's 2007 World Champion CBMF Ruling Class and his SON, CBMF Wild Ruler. These two bookends went nose to nose as Howie snapped what will undoubtedly be a highly publicized photo of this year's World Champion and Reserve World Champion Gelding. What makes this even more special is that in this class of four horses, three of them wore Ann Hailey's CBMF prefix.
Like your Morgan with a little leg? How about a bit more length of neck? Like them dark, or bright and flashy? Leg-waving or scopey? There was something for everyone in this year's in hand division, and the judges made interesting work of the pinnings in the afternoon Mare classes and the grand finale Stallion evening session. The cream will rise to the top, as they say, and Lynn and Kathy Peeples of Waterford Farm brought a Robin and Neal Herrick bred mare to the party that just never quit. Cherrydale Casseopia wanted it bad enough to beat last year's World Champion Mare, the ever-elegant Decadence, an entry of the Wooley Family presented by Keith Nelsen.
The Stallion classes also saw incredible relativity in the World Championship, but this time from the distaff side. Standing at the far end of the coliseum for their World Champion and Reserve World Champion honors were the maternal brothers Mastroianni (by Mizrahi) and SYP High Definition (by HVK Vibrance), both sons of the World Champion and now tremendous producing mare, Kim's Bellegante. Mastroianni is owned by Sheryl Bartolucci and presented by Robert Hughes, and High Definition is the entry of Heidi Kunkel, under the direction of Rick Stevens.
Another first for the Morgan Grand National was the news that Kyra Beth Houston of dressage.com would be covering our Dressage division this year. This division continues to grow every year, and is now being held in a new, centrally located arena adjacent to Barn 6 and the Show Arena. It's quite a coup to have the mainstream dressage world recognize our competition and we're excited to hear Kyra Beth's analysis.
And of course no week at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds has officially started until you've stopped in to say "hello" to the bulls at Club Rodeo, which is a championship show unto itself! I'm looking forward to the start of the performance classes tomorrow and I'm sure there will be a few interesting stories to tell as our week here unfolds.
--Tami Johnson