"The Spotlight on Spots Still Shines"
By Bonnie L. Schenck

The  Equine Affaire continues to be a premier horse event; it was the
second largest horse fair in the United States last year, and it appears
will continue to hold onto that ranking and may even move into first. It
was definitely a "group effort" to represent the Spotted Saddle Horse. The Spotted Saddle Horse Breeders & Exhibitors (SSHBEA) provided the funding, drapes, and promotional items, The Southwestern Ohio Spotted Saddle Horse Assoc. (SOSSHA), and The Spotted Saddle Horse Association of Kentucky (SSHAK) provided the horses for the Breed Demo and in the Breeders & Exhibitors area of the barn. Both SOSHA and SSHAK had hard working club members and horses in the Booth & Stall.

This year the Spotted Saddle Horse had the largest number of horses (15); more than in any other Breed Demo. We were very well represented, and a large crowd was in attendance. Again, we made our grand entrance with all our saddle horses followed next by the Carriage Horses, Jax's Jagged Edge driven by Kathryn Schwartz, and The Seminole Wind owned by Vicki Merritt and driven by Rick Cole. They were a real crowd pleaser. Next was our barrel racing demo by Rooster's Perfection, owned by Mike & Trish Plymesser and ridden by Sarah Layton. Rooster  & Sarah put on a great show and were really appreciated by the crowd. Next was The SOSSHA Distance Award Winner, Evan Planck who rode a total of 1,000 miles last year! Veola Gayheart riding her homozygous stallion, High Noon Whiskey, was our trail horse representative. Kim McCane rode Smokey's Midnight Cloud  our Advance Trail Pleasure Horse, and also did a fantastic job demonstrating the canter. Then there were my two "Johns", John Thomas showed Maud's Plenty Color the model horse representative, and John Falk who showed two yearling fillies as representatives of the "New Generation".  My Lady Bug ridden by juvenile rider Ashely Hodges was our English Pleasure Representative. Susan Wood rode her Champion Trail Pleasure Horse, A Gift from Above. Brenda Highfield rode our Open Shod representative, Patches' Bossman. Then we had our second English Pleasure Horse, Rocky's Onex Dude ridden by another juvenile rider Pam Gadbois, and Jax Statue of Liberty our other Trail Pleasure representative ridden by Abbey Adkins. Our final horse was Moonlight's  Magic Mark, light shod representative ridden by Tim Humphries. Having this many beautiful Spotted Saddle Horses made a big impression. While we're  not the Rocky Mountain Drill Team, I know we did a maneuver they never have done. Don't know exactly what  it was, but I kinda  liked it! I told everyone going in that you can't mess this up, and just have a good time. I might be a little prejudice, but we still have one of the better Demos, if not the best! Thanks again to everyone for participating.

Meanwhile, back at the booth there was a lot of action and inquires about
the Breed. There were people there from all over, one lady was there from
New Jersey who had just purchased a Spotted Saddle Horse, and wasn't aware of all this breed can do. There were several people there from Pennsylvania where the breed is really taking off. We had a raffle for a beautifully embroidered Spotted Saddle Horse denim shirt that was won by Karen cook from Bloomington, OH. we also had an Easter Basket for the person guessing the number of Jelly Beans in a jar. The only problem was keeping Rick Coyle & Tim Humphries from changing the total through consumption. The Easter Basket had Bryer Horse set (Spotted Mare & Foal), SSHBEA Pencils, Logos, & Pins along with candy. At one point there were 9 kids around the table looking at that jar. The actual number was 755 jellybeans, and guesses ranged from 60 to, 6,273! The winner, Adriana Gilbert from Paden City, West Virginia guessed 750.

At the barn, a hard working Trish Plymesser and crew had the "Spotlight on Spots" set up. Each Stall had an old time movie clipboard to display each of the horses descriptions. This year we had an entire row of Spotted Saddle Horses on display. It really looked fantastic. My LadyBug had her 7 day old filly "Angel" with her, and they were another crowd pleaser.