Tricia Booker

The Blowing Rock Charity Horse Show is an 86-year tradition in the mountainous resort area of Western North Carolina. With such attractions as Grandfather Mountain, gem mining, zip lining, top-class golf and other outdoor activities, the area is a favorite destination for tourists and equestrians alike who congregate each summer.

The two-week hunter/jumper show and one-week American Saddlebred show are held on the L.M. Tate Show Grounds in J.E. Broyhill Park, a stone’s throw from the quaint village of Blowing Rock.

Historically, the term “horse trader” has had a negative connotation, in part because buying a horse includes so many variables. Unlike a used car or tractor, a horse is a living animal that feels, learns and reacts to his environment. And a successful horse trader would know how to minimize the negatives and capitalize on the positives, otherwise he wouldn’t be in business long.

Owning a horse, in some ways, is like a marriage—you care for him in sickness and in health. And, sometimes, until death do you part. As difficult as this situation is, there are times when death becomes inevitable and we must say goodbye to a cherished partner and friend. But, as you may have already discovered if you’ve owned horses for any length of time, when you choose to euthanize a horse, it’s usually just the first step in lengthy process that can take many different paths.

Denny Emerson’s Between Rounds column this week “The 10,000-Hour Club: Are You a Member?” really made me stop and think about my passion for horses, riding and competing.

He based his column this week (p. 48) in part on the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. The author, who also wrote the bestselling books The Tipping Point and Blink, discusses the story of success and how and why some people become successful and others don’t.

This week we’re proud to announce that The Chronicle of the Horse will be the new title sponsor of the 2009/2010 U.S. Hunter Jumper Association International Hunter Derby Series (p. 68). This new venture is especially exciting for us at the Chronicle because we’re partnering with the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association in supporting the country’s best show hunters, a passion that we both share.
   

It really shouldn’t have surprised me that the German Olympic Equestrian Teams (show jumping, dressage and eventing) were disbanded after further allegations surfaced that their team members and officials weren’t playing by the Fédération Equestre Internationale medication rules (p. 104).
   
But it did.
   

This month our community lost two great horsemen, Peter Winants and Wash Bishop, and you can read about their lifetime achievements on p. 47. Both men were leaders in their respective disciplines—Peter in equestrian journalism and Wash in eventing—and were known throughout the country for their insight, abilities and accomplishments.
   
I was fortunate to know both of these men and will greatly miss them.
   

About three months ago they started appearing. First as manila and priority mail envelopes, then as e-mails and eventually, as we approached the deadline, express mail and FedEx packages. Finally, on deadline day, we had collected a nearly two-foot tall stack of prospective artwork, poems and stories for our 15th annual Junior Gallery.
   
Then the hard work began—selecting those to appear in our Junior & Pony Issue.
   

Course designer Richard Jeffery had a lot on his mind as he planned the show jumping course for this year’s Rolex Kentucky CCI****. In addition to designing a test for a group of horses that jumped a four-star cross-country course the previous day, Jeffery also had the added challenge of placing his course in a new, impressive stadium on virgin footing that had never hosted a hoof in competition.

So it was no surprise that when a reporter asked Jeffery before the competition to predict the number of clear rounds he’d see, Jeffery declined to hazard a guess.

One of my favorite pastimes as a child was combing through my father’s Sports Illustrated magazines and cutting out photos and articles of my favorite horses, such as Ruffian, Seattle Slew and Affirmed.

In fact, 1978, the year we had our last Triple Crown winner in Affirmed, was a bountiful year for my scrapbook. That fall Bruce Davidson first crossed my radar, when a beautiful photograph of his striking gray Might Tango graced the pages of SI in full color after they won the World Eventing Championships in Kentucky. From then on, I was a fan.