Horse show highlights Saddlebred

• By CHRISTINE MORGAN ARCENEAUX
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Nov 8, 2009

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Trainer May Chadick of SGF Winning Ways Farm in  Tomball, Texas, called to her student, Keira Markle, of Houston, from inside LSU’s John Parker Coliseum on Saturday during the Louisiana Fall Festival Horse Show.

“Soften your hands,” Chadick said, guiding Markle through what both hoped would be a championship win in the saddle seat equitation for adult riders.

“Good job, you’re all done,” Chadick said as Markle and the horse, which she had ridden only three times before the competition began, trotted to the center of the ring to receive their blue ribbon.

Moments later, Laurette Compass, 7, of New Orleans, also emerged a winner.

Laurette, who has been riding horses for two years, a rider in the 6-and-under Beginner Class, credited her win to “the way I was riding.”

Now in its third year, the Louisiana Fall Festival celebrates the beauty of the American Saddlebred, organizers said. Formerly known as the American Saddle Horse, the American Saddlebred is a breed of horse that was developed in Kentucky by plantation owners.

Today, in the horse show world, these mounts are most commonly seen under saddle-in-saddle, seat-style riding, and in various types of driving, including pleasure driving and various types of fine harness competitions.

A variety of classes were offered during the three-day event so that the American Saddlebred, Hackney Pony and the Arabian horses, for instance, could demonstrate their agility and versatility in three-gaited, five-gaited, hunt seat, trail and driving classes. More than 120 horses participated in the event, said rider and event organizer Mary Lynn McMains.

The event, McMains said, is a resurgence of the Dixie Jubilee Horse Show that was held at the Coliseum for decades.

“It’s to have fun,” McMains gave as a leading reason for the recent rebirth of the Louisiana Fall Festival Horse Show.

“The show is growing,” she said. “We have 25 more horses than last year.”

In honor of the grand heritage of the Dixie Jubilee and its participants, the historic Dixie Jubilee trophies are being used as perpetual trophies for the Louisiana Fall Festival Horse Show, she said.

Barbe Smith, of Cascade Stables in New Orleans, was busy pinning up her riders’ hair as early as 9 a.m.