Region 7 had a pre-show on April 26 and 27, and their Regional competition April 28 through May 1. Held this year at West World in Scottsdale, Arizona, home of the February Scottsdale Arabian Show, the 2011 Region 7 show merited rave reviews. To begin, the entries were up – 650 horses this year. Stellar numbers with stellar quality and competition to match.
“I was especially pleased with the new show schedule,” says Susan Shea, Region 7 Youth Coordinator and Show Commission Board Member. “It was great to have time to breathe between sessions and there were no classes at midnight. We had a lot of fun this year. There was a Ride-A-Buck class on Saturday afternoon following the HA Country English Junior Horse. I got on the microphone and asked people to donate to the class on the spot. Everyone got into the spirit and people were laughing and handing money over the rail. We put together $200 for the winner. Cynthia Burkman’s assistant trainer, Nestor Gonzalez won. It was a blast!”
Judge Duane Esser also enjoyed the show thoroughly. “Typically when I judge a show it’s my time away from the farm and as soon as I saw that my panel included two very knowledgeable ladies, Lori Schroder Ross and Cathy Murphy Wright, I relaxed and really took pleasure in the classes and judging. There were no glitches, everything fell into place smoothly, and the exhibitors were in a great mood.”
The general consensus was that the Regional HA Hunter Pleasure Championship was among the show’s best classes. It was filled with national champions and top ten winners. At its conclusion the judges addressed the crowd and the competitors to let them know that “… there are not enough ribbons available to pin this spectacular class of Half-Arabian Hunters appropriately!”
Half-Arabian Hunter Pleasure Champion was Suzanne Mackrell’s six-year-old bay gelding Allectri Phi CF, ridden to perfection by Cynthia Burkman. Multi-national champions Khardinal Sin+// with Wendy Potts and Chance To Jam+// with Cheryl Fletcher provided extraordinary competition to take Reserve and third place respectively.
The Region 7 Western Pleasure Open Championship, the Half-Arabian English Amateur Championships and the Yearling Sweepstakes Halter all garnered compliments and commentary. Goddess of Da Vinci won the Filly Sweepstakes with David Boggs at the lead for owner Sally Bedeker, while Sandro Pinha led the winning colt, Chaos PA, bred and owned by Pegasus Arabians.
“I’m not certain we could have asked for a better show,” says Janice McCrea Wight, Region 7 PR/Media Coordinator. “The quality was excellent, the judging was great and the weather was perfect! The show is very involved with the city of Scottsdale. They help us through the Convention and Visitors Bureau with matching funds and we are listed on all of their websites and information calendars. It was a great success story this year and all of the staff and volunteers, including Show Committee Chairman, Lollie Ames, deserve much credit and kudos!”