The Coliseum on the Missouri State Fairgrounds bustled with activity Saturday as 120 horses and their owners competed in the Golden Circle Horse Show.
Golden Circle Horse Show Circuit First Vice President Laveda Hrezik, of Mora, said the group has been coming to the fairgrounds for about four years. Saturday’s show was the largest yet.
“We are an open show circuit, so we’ve got saddle type horses, we’ve got Arabs, we’ve got a Norwegian Fjord here today,” she said. “We’ve got some really nice quarter horses here. We show halter, showmanship all the way through English classes and western pleasure. Then at the end of the day we have the game classes.”
Hrezik noted that the circuit has seven shows a year.
“Then at the end of the year we give trophies and high point awards,” she said.
At Saturday’s show 155 stalls were registered with 120 horses participating.
“This is our biggest show we’ve ever had actually,” Hrezik said. “The organization itself is 52-years-old. We’ve been showing in Sedalia for at least four years. Most of us are fairly local, and the fairgrounds is home, and we love the Coliseum.”
The one day show draws riders from as far away as Texas. This year participants included riders from St. Louis, Windsor, Warsaw, Warrensburg, in Missouri and also Kansas.
“Sedalia works really good for that and allows us to draw from several directions,” Hrezik said.
Participants included small children and senior citizens.
“Our youngest, I believe is 3, that rides in lead line, and probably the oldest is late ’70s,” she said.
Hrezik explained that when a child participates in lead line they are actually on the horse and saddle and an adult or responsible youth has a lead line attached to the horse. They walk the child and horse around the show ring.
“The judge will talk to the little person, and they back the horse up themselves and everything,” she added. “Of course with it being lead line we give them all blue ribbons.”
The benefits of riding and working with horses are many Hrezik said, especially for youth.
“If the kids start little, it gives them focus,” she added. “They have responsibility. They learn what it is to care for a live animal, how you have to groom it make it look just so to come to the how. They ride them, they care for them, they muck those stalls. They learn so much about life in general from that horse. It’s awesome, to watch them. It keeps them out of trouble. Caring for a horse takes a lot of time.”
Golden Circle Horse Show Circuit accepts new members and can be found on online at gchsc.org or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/178584503408/.
