Columbus, Ohio - The first Ohio Buckeye Show was held in 1964. It lasted two days, featured 49 classes and was rife with horses bred by Al-Marah, Lewisfield and Cedardell Arabians. Al-Marah Laurie was the 1964 Buckeye Champion Halter Gelding, won the English Pleasure Championship with Bob Hart Sr. in the irons and the Western Pleasure JTR with Bob Hart Jr. Bob Jr. was 13 at the time. Arabian horses were billed as the “Versatile Arabian.” It was 48 years ago.

In 2011 there were 225 classes and 477 horses at the Ohio Buckeye Show. The show included the NSHR District Championships and was held at its traditional location, the Ohio Exposition Center in Columbus, Ohio, from May 26-29. Judges this year included Lori Schroder Ross, Jeremy Harper, Robert Purtee and John Rannenberg. What the show may have lacked in large numbers of horses this year it made up for in extreme quality. For decades the show has been the place to see and be seen with the finest high-performance English-type purebred and Half-Arabians in the United States. The Ohio Buckeye, like the Scottsdale Show, is known as the place where exhibitors can size up the horses that will most certainly be back as the “ones to beat” at the Youth, Canadian and U.S. Nationals later in the season. That not only means the English, Country and driving horse divisions, but also includes the Western and Hunter Pleasure classes. Even with the price of gas through the roof, trainers arrived from across the U.S. to compete. Of course, there are very few “Versatile Arabians” left at this level of competition. That hasn’t been the case for decades. These horses are serious performance specialists.

There’s no denying that the 2011 competition was “over the top”. Fabulous horses - many of them former national winners - were shown, with often not enough ribbons available for the talent in evidence. Gordon Potts brought a stellar string and did very well, winning the Western Pleasure Championship with Alerro and the Western Pleasure Junior Horse Championship with TA Prelude, as well as multiple class blues with the likes of American Beautie, also ridden in the Half-Arabian Amateur Country classes successfully by Carrie Fitz. Caralyn Schroter did her usual superlative job in the Hunter Pleasure division, winning the Junior Horse Championship with Acadienne NL and the open Hunter Pleasure Championship with PA Metrik Bey. Jenny Wood teamed PA Metrik Bey to the roses in the Amateur 18-39 Championship as well.

Empress Arabians took home many prizes, with Chad Judy driving Mister Matrix to several wins and the Country Driving Championship. He was also up on FA Sweet Willie to win roses in the HA Country Junior Horse Championship. Marla Ruscitto rode EA Words of Wisdom to the HA Hunter Pleasure AAO 18-38 Championship and Judy won with him in the HA Hunter Pleasure Championship. John Ryan and Elaine Finney teamed up to win handsomely for Springwater Farms, Ryan in the English Junior Horse Championship with Defying Gravity RSG and Finney in multiple Half-Arabian Halter division championships.

Brooke Marie Jarvis and her National Champion Phoebe Afire won the English AAO Championship, Cathy Vecsey rode Mandalay Bay to roses in the Park ATR Championship and HL Sanction to the same garland in the Native Costume Championship, while Andrew O’Shanick teamed multi-national winner Ima Rock Star to top honors in the HA Western Pleasure AAO Championship.

Winner in the much anticipated AEPA English Futurity Halter Yearlings was Maroon Fire Arabians’ Noble Ffyre (IXL Noble Express) with Allen Zeller at the lead. Vicki Humphrey rode Bonfire ROF to win the Country English Championship and CWF Jitterbug Jane to win the HA English Pleasure Championship. Cathy Vincent teamed the handsome Citationn to win the open English Pleasure Championship.

Buckeye show weather was much as it always is over the Memorial Day weekend in Ohio, filled with fickle skies, as often prone to light rain as to sunshine and cool evenings. But the violent weather and tornados that plagued some of the states to the east and south thankfully remained elsewhere. The mood was focused, the riders fiercely competitive and the horses of the best national quality. Buckeye 2011 was a show not-to-be-missed; a gathering of stars that remained steadfast and brilliant.