Local residents came out to the Gilmer horse arena on Saturday, May 26th, for the Gilmer County Saddle Club’s monthly horse show.At the horse show, riders of all ages competed in a total of 29 events such as Country Pleasure Racking, Ladies Western Pleasure, Western Pleasure, Open Racking, English Equitation, Texas Barrels, and Cloverleaf Barrels.

The types of horses that were featured in the event were American Quarter Horses, American Saddlebred Horses, and National Show Horses.

Winning 1st Place in Men’s Texas Barrels and Woman’s Texas Barrels was Dalton Earley and Kristen Miller, while 1st place in the Open Country Pleasure Racking category went to Lisa Smith, with Bobby Wheeler and Dustin Harper placing 2nd and 3rd respectively. Also, Jordan Hawthorne won 1st place in the Juvenile Country Pleasure Racking category.

Taking home 1st Place in both Open Racking and Flat Shod Racking was local rider Rainey Cantrell. Cantrell had just recently won in the category of Flat Shod Pleasure Racking at a Spring Jamboree in Cleveland, Tennessee at the Tri-state Arena. The event was a National Racking Horse Association sanctioned event.

Finally, in the crowd favorited Cloverleaf Barrels, Kristen Miller won 1st place on her horse Sensation. Cloverleaf Barrels is a type of race where the rider must ride around three different barrels in a cloverleaf pattern in the fastest amount of time. Miller swiftly rode around the track and successfully completed the pattern with a time of 18.583 seconds, surpassing Murray Long who had a time of 19.832 seconds on his horse Geronimo.

The Gilmer County Saddle Club is a non-profit organization that prides itself on giving back to the community. “We like to cater to the families and kids,” says Board Member Eston Cantrell.

The Gilmer County Saddle Club will have two National Racking Horse Association sanctioned events coming up this summer. The first will be the Charles Sumner on June 9th and the second will be an event to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital on July 21st.