The Gilmer County Saddle club hosted its regular Open Horse Show yesterday, September 15th, while also hosting its very first Hunter Division competition.The saddle club hosted the new Hunter Division competition, a show which combines both Equitation horses and Hunter jumping horses into different classes, before the saddle club’s regular open show, instead of combining the English Equitation and Hunter jumping classes into the open show as usual.

The new show started with a Walk/Trot Pleasure class, and then began its English Equitation and Hunter fence classes before finishing with the Working Hunter Under Saddle class.

A complete list of the winners from the show is below:

Following the Hunter Division show, the Gilmer County Saddle Club then held its regularly scheduled monthly Open Horse Show.

This month’s open featured a total of 23 classes which included such popular events as Trail Pleasure Racking, Western Pleasure Racking, and the fan favorite, Cloverleaf Barrels.

Highlights during the event included five year old Reba Burke winning the Trail Pleasure Open class, a special win for the young Burke because of winners of open classes typically being won by older riders. Burke, who recently won the Trail Pleasure youth class at the National Racking Horse World Celebration in Cleveland, Tennessee, was also recognized at the show for the latter accomplishment, and would also win the Country Pleasure Racking youth class later in the evening.

Other exciting moments from the show, included local rider Amber Payne winning the Cloverleaf Barrels class with a time of 17.635 seconds on her horse Blitz N Good Time. Payne captured the win in a close race with other riders Kristen Miller and Kathlyne Suarez, with Miller and Suarez both having respected times of 18.745 and 19.660 seconds.

A complete list of winners from the open show is below.

Overall, Gilmer County Saddle Club Board Member Eston Cantrell says about the new Hunter Division show, “It worked real well. We did it before our regular open show and everybody commented on how much better it was to do it earlier as opposed to doing it in the same show. We had a lot of participation and we are really satisfied.”

For pictures from the Hunter Division show and the regular show, please view the slideshow below.