BLUEFIELD, Va. — As the sun was setting Saturday evening, Bluefield Shrine Horse Show coordinator Jim Bailey’s face displayed the red badge of courage of a sunburn after standing in the sun three days to open and close the show ring gate as each new class entered.
“It’s been an excellent show,” Bailey said as competing riders put their mounts through the paces. “We’ve had good luck with the weather this year and adding the walking, racking and quarter horse classes this year has been a benefit to us. We intend to invite them back again this year.”
“We thank God for the weather we have had this year, and we thank Him for the weather we have not had,” Wyatt Lilly, horse show announcer said before guiding the riders through the next phase of the competition.
Lilly’s reassuring voice has guided riders, and informed the audience of the winning horses at the Bluefield Shrine Horse Shows for 15 of the 42 years that the annual event has been staged in Lotito Park. The funds raised at the shows helps the Bluefield Shrine Club in their mission to transport crippled children and children who are burn victims to the Shrine hospitals in Lexington, Ky., and Cincinnati, Ohio.
“We either pay for them to fly to the hospitals or transport them in vehicles,” T.A. “Buddy” Warden Jr., co-chairman of the Horse Show said. “We take care of their entire families.”
Bailey expressed his appreciation to volunteers from the Greater Bluefield Youth Leadership Program that included students from Bluefield and Graham high schools, for their assistance in delivering the ribbons to the winning competitors. The reigning Miss Cole Chevrolet Mountain Festival Queen, Ashley Jenkins, also assisted on Saturday night.
There are two shows on Saturday, an evening show as well as a morning show. Prior to the 9:30 a.m., start of the morning show, Kathy Davis of Bluefield was busy brushing her horse, Doc Lasans Skipper, a beautiful paint quarter horse.
“I’ve entered Doc in the best groomed and costumed category,” Davis said of her 23-year-old horse. For his costume ... “Would you believe, we dress him up in a hula costume complete with a skirt and a bikini top,” Davis said.
The Carrolls — Brendan and Suzanne — of Wytheville, Va., were standing beside the wooden fence on the outside of the show ring track, waiting for their daughter, McKenna Carroll, 11, to enter the ring. McKenna rides out of Stockwood Saddlebreds out of Pulaski, Va.
“This is our first time at this show, and it’s McKenna’s first time riding in a show like this,” Suzanne Carroll said. “She’s been riding since she was 4 years old. She is very dedicated to this.” McKenna Carroll earned second place honors in the class she competed in.
The Shrine Club members traditionally open the morning shows to area nursing homes.
“I like horses,” Lettie Sneed, a resident at the Princeton Health Care Center said. “My grandparents had workhorses. They weren’t like these little play horses. They were big. They had to be big because of the work they did. But these little play horses are pretty.”
The crowds watching all three days of the show appeared to agree with Sneed’s assessment.
– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com
Local News
July 25, 2010
42nd Annual Shrine Horse Show comes to successful end
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