GMHA Morgan Horse Show To Be “Open To All”
Saturday, May 6, 2006
“OPEN TO ALL” means anyone on a registered Morgan horse. That’s how the new prize list for the 2006 GMHA (Green Mountain Horse Association) Commemorative Morgan Horse Show reads. And this year there will be a new division to satisfy the many requests from people who do not quite qualify as Junior Exhibitors or Adult Amateurs but want to be part of the unique atmosphere of this historically based Morgan show.
This year’s show will be held on the weekend of August 26 and 27 in South Woodstock, Vermont. Saturday will include Junior Horses and Specialties In Hand with Sire & Get and Dam & Produce on the schedule. There are also Morgan Sport Horse divisions for Junior Exhibitors and Adult Amateurs and the new Open To All division. Junior Exhibitors and Adult Amateurs as well as non-amateurs may enter this new division making it very much in the spirit of the original Morgan National held in South Woodstock in 1939 which the show commemorates.
Saturday classes will include Dressage, Carriage, Trail, Hunters, Jumpers, Versatility and Reining. Saturday evening High Brook Morgan Horse Farm hosts a welcome bar-b-q for exhibitors, spectators, families, and friends with a band for dancing and a makeshift campground in their horse pasture. On Sunday there will be Senior Horses In Hand and a full schedule of show performance classes including Beginner and Advanced Beginner (another new division) for juniors and adults as well as an Open To All show division featuring saddle and harness classes.
In 1939 the very first “National” Morgan Horse Show was held on the original “Upwey Oval” beginning the tradition we now know as the New England Morgan Horse Show. Green Mountain Horse Association is located on land once part of Upwey Farms in South Woodstock, Vermont. The Upwey name was made famous by horses bred there such as Upwey Ben Don and Upwey Benn Quietude.
“If you look at the pedigrees of living Morgan horses today you will find that more than half of them trace directly to one of these two horses.” says Laura Spittle, a volunteer for the GMHA show and a long-time Morgan breeder. “This show commemorates the history of our Morgan horse shows and the people and horses who have always made them so enjoyable. From the beginning there was something special about the people who supported the Morgan breed and the kind of camaraderie that they brought to the show ring. Our show is about recapturing the spirit of those early shows.”
“We also created this show to help pass along the traditions and stories and many of the people with the best stories are not strictly amateurs. We were having so much fun that some of them actually felt left out! Our mission is also to help Junior Exhibitors and Amateur Adults learn about showing Morgan horses and by excluding all non-amateurs we felt that we were actually limiting what our exhibitors might learn from the experience. So this year we are offering a small division designed to attract some of those folks who have so much to pass along to the next generation of Morgan competitors.”
The GMHA Commemorative Morgan Horse Show is a great way for families to finish up the show season before school starts. The whole weekend is designed to encourage competitors and spectators to enjoy the beautiful grounds at GMHA and the trails around South Woodstock. The High Brook bar-b-q has been a highlight of past years’ shows with all ages dancing into the darkness and then following flashlight beams across the pasture and back to their campers and tents.
For complete information and entry forms please contact
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