Bluegrass Morgan Classic Horse Show, Lexington, KY

Many of us were recently at the inaugural Bluegrass Morgan Classic Horse Show at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Amber (McGee) and Sleipnir Explorer and Chris Nerland and R’surene Reparte were showing.

Sue and Chris have taken Amber & Explorer under their wing; and Amber has been helping them work their horses.

The helpful hints that Sue passed on to Amber at the Liberty Classic Horse Show; and Amber’s assisting them at the Show, led to Sue deciding to take Amber on as probably her last student – passing on her wealth of knowledge.

Amber’s Summer of working horses on our farm changed dramatically to hours of saddle training and horsemanship instruction from Sue and saddle work when back home at our farm. Horse(s) and rider have all benefitted.

Explorer has his first set of shoes, and a longer hoof. He has also become more acclimated to stalls, and turnout paddocks. He misses Amber when she’s home at the farm, but loves the attention from Chris and Sue. He is a total trooper with on and off loading on the trailer and travelling distances.

Michael has been gaining helpful hints from Chris, and Elizabeth has been doing her usual fantastic job of photo-taking. Her series of photos of lessons make us all feel like we are watching the whole lesson…and have been an invaluable teaching aid to Sue.

There’s been plenty of relaxation on the lake too! Amber had to rest her foot!

Chris, Sue, Michael, Beth and Amber headed up to the showground before us. John, Caitrin, Kaya, and Tre and I came up later. Kaya stayed up to be with Amber and proved herself a good groom. Noel watched the Shop and gave farm tours to interested potential Morgan Horse purchasers ; Kathy watered the greenhouse; and Tim P. tended to the critters while we were gone. We came back early to be back on the farm, etc…but got to see a few folks while we were there.

Ann Canavan was helping run the Lippitt Morgan booth. John got to see her a bit more than I did. I only got to wave to her before we left to return home.

We did a tour of the KY Horse Park with the family for Amber’s birthday. The museum is terrific…but there was A LOT of Arab info…they are having a Special Exhibit. Not enough Morgan Horse info…We’ll have to go back once the Morgan Horse Museum is fully open and displays set-up. We didn’t have time for the Saddlebred Museum either.

The showground gets better and better. We’ve been there over the years on vacations. But this was the first time that we’ve been there showing.

It was also our first Class A Morgan Horse Show since 1988. It was good to see old friends and make new ones. The Show Committee did a spectacular job; and Mrs. Singer said that they never had a meeting!

Amber made Sue a photo album as a thank you present. I haven’t gotten to see the album yet…but from the look on Sue and Chris’ faces in Beth’s photos, it seems that they liked it!