Quarter Horse Congress: The world's largest single breed horse show....OR, the best place to see lots of quarter horses and go SHOPPING!
After marvelling at all the sights and sounds of Congress for several years, I finally planned a trip for some students/friends to go too. 5 of us packed into a borrowed car (my mom's Acura TSX, which proved to be a lot smaller than I originally thought - think "How many people can fit into a VW Bug?" and you've pretty much got our 6 hour drive back from Columbus).
We took off early in the morning (4:30 to be exact) and this is what we saw:
By 11am we had been welcomed to the heart of it all, in Ohio and were just starting to see what the Ohio Expo Centre and Quarter Horse Congress had to offer us.
Before we actually got to the show arenas, we had to pass through a sea of trucks and brand spankin' new horse trailers just begging for us to do a walk-through. Some had room for up to 6 horses, others had up to 6 flat screen tv's in the living quarters! We even saw one with a small fireplace!
As we entered the show grounds there was a tent full of breeders and their puppies. There were Great Danes, Border Collies, Golden Retrievers, Bull Dogs, Australian Sheep Dogs, and every size, shape and colour in between.
Next we followed a not-overly-detailed map to an arena towards the back of the grounds and found a cutting demonstration.
Stallion Avenue was just getting prepared for the weeks to come. Stallion Avenue is a part of the vendors area designated for some of the Million Dollar Sires in the industry to be promoted. Many stalls were set up with tv's to watch videos of the horses in competition and at their home farm.
The stalls for exhibitors were decorated in farm colours and many hosted small bars or lounges, flowers, pictures, candies etc.
Finally, evening came and with it came the Open Futurity Finals. Futurity winners are posted below, check out some of the big names and up-and-coming horses.
Place
BackNo
Earnings
Horse Name
Owner(s)
Exhibitor
1
6501
$22,012.78
Whizs Chic A Dee
Arcese Quarter Horses
Shawn W Flarida - Springfield, OH
BackNo
Earnings
Horse Name
Owner(s)
Exhibitor
1
6501
$22,012.78
Whizs Chic A Dee
Arcese Quarter Horses
Shawn W Flarida - Springfield, OH
1
4103
$22,012.78
All Juiced Up
Smart Like Juice, Inc
Bryant L Pace - Smithfield, NC
4103
$22,012.78
All Juiced Up
Smart Like Juice, Inc
Bryant L Pace - Smithfield, NC
We also saw Todd Sommers, Craig Johnson, Brian Bell, Craig C Schmersal and congratulations to Harvey Stevens from Ontario!
The next day was full of shopping, shopping and more shopping. We stopped briefly to watch the Cinch Freestyle Reining warm-ups in the morning and the Working Hunter Youth classes.
Early afternoon I was lucky enough to meet up with two friends and fellow graduates of Meredith Manor Mary Lew and Kelly. Mary Lew Johnston (pictured below-right)is now a full time instructor at the school, and Kelly Lagos (pictured teaching below) runs a successful boarding, training and lesson facility in Virginia. 
We try to meet up every year at Congress as sort of a reunion. We use our time to get caught up personally as well as collaborate and share stories professionally. We compare notes on teaching styles, our own riding and training techniques and how they evolve and usually have a lot of laughs. 
By evening, cold beers in hand we were ready to watch the freestyle competitors demonstrate their own reining patterns, costumes and musical choices. 
The arena was packed and we ended up with seats in a box in the front row!
The first exhibitor had a Batman costume complete with batman symbols and large wings attached to the saddle. 
One exhibitor played on the loyalty of the fans in their home state of Ohio and dressed as a Buckeye, complete with marching band!
I thought this costume was very cute, the horse is supposed to be the rider's pink cadillac!
The winner of the freestyle rode with only a leadrope. Click this picture to watch the video, don't forget to turn up the volume and watch through to the very end!The trip proved to be a lot of fun, maybe a bigger vehicle for next year and maybe a bigger group of people if anyone wants to join us!
Cheers!
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