did!
Callaway's Annabel Allison
Kalarama's Ultimate Choice
Wild Carrisima had a three-peat in Fine Harness. He looked great as always, but the crowd favorite was clearly the reserve in the championship class, Nutcracker's Nirvana. Jim Stachowski of Ohio has a knack for bringing out fantastic horses. He also showed Use Your Illusion in the 3-gaited 3-year old class. WOW! Keep your eyes out for that one!
Use Your Illusion
Here are some more of my observations. Well filled classes were such a pleasure to see. The largest class I saw had 22 in it, and
that makes for so much more competition than the 3 or 4 in a class you so often
see.
Best pony award: Goes
to the little roadster pony who carried a very young girl safely around the ring in
a large class of juveniles showing Roadsters under saddle. She was clearly the youngest in the class,
had a great time, and a safe trip thanks to her steady-eddy pony.
Pet peeve: A very
talented juvenile rider catch rode a pleasure horse. It was gorgeous, when it was moving
forward. A great deal of the class it
was crow hopping, side passing, and clearly not being a pleasure to ride by
anyone’s definition of the word pleasure.
This young lady did a fine job and never got rattled. However, how could the judges place it? Manners are paramount in a pleasure class and
there were plenty of other deserving horse/rider combos. Later, there was another juvenile catch
riding another pleasure horse. She won
the class and the horse behaved the whole time.
No problem with that placing at all.
Aha moment: While I
went to cheer on my favorite Marc of Charm in the 5-gaited stallion stake, Kalarama’s Ultimate Choice won me
over. I still whooped and hollered when
Marc placed reserve, but even I picked Kalarama’s Ultimate Choice to win. He was fantastic.
March of Charm taking reserve in the stallion stake
Are you kidding me? I
don’t think William Shatner knows he's over 80. He flew around the ring with his roadster. He was Shat-tastic!
William Shatner and Thunderbolt
I know I have posted pictures of Carolina in her own post, but I stopped
at Cherokee Park on my way out of Louisville to see the statue.
It was well worth the effort. Carolina was bigger than life,
extremely well detailed and a wonderful statue.
She was pleased that her descendant Wild Carrissima won
the World's Grand Champion Fine Harness stake for the 3rd straight year.
I am not terribly tech savvy, so this may not work. However, if you want to try for a great "ride" on Courageous Lord, try this link to a you tube video of Owen Weaver showing him at
this year's Kentucky State Fair. It is the coolest 10 minutes watching a video you'll ever spend!
http://youtu.be/I0IUmMr3A7A
1/18/14 There is now a facebook page for the American Saddlebred blog. Please check it out at
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-American-Saddlebred-Blog/239612032866209
and give it a like. It's an easy way to be notified of new posts.