Ten Events Highlight the Annual Fun and Games Horse Show
By Sean Ely

Courtney Mayo (far left), Sarah Spitzer, and Shayla Mayo make the turn at the front of the riding ring Sunday, August 5, at Great Turtle Park during the Fun and Games Horse Show's Egg and Spoon. Shayla Mayo and Sarah Spitzer tied for first place in one of the two divisions for the competition.

Fifteen children participated in 10 events on horseback during the 7th Annual Fun and Games Horse Show Sunday, August 5, at Great Turtle Park. The show drew 40 spectators, with the most popular event being the Egg and Spoon competition, where contestants had to take their horses through their paces while holding an egg on a spoon.

The event was won by Morgan Brodeur-Bunker, with Mackenzie Bean taking second, Diana Dupre taking third, and Lucas Karhoff coming in fourth in one division, while Sarah Spitzer and Shayla Mayo tied for first place, Courtney Mayo took second, Jackie Brandonisio took third, and Kyra Kolatski came in fourth in the second division.

Other events challenged horses and riders in basic skills, like the Tack-up Race, where riders led their horses across the ring to saddle up, then mounted and rode back to the starting line. Sarah Spitzer took first place in that event, followed by her sister, Rachel, the only other competitor.

Paul Fisher (left) hands a baton to Burton Gough in the Two-Man Relay.

The event was organized for the Mackinac Horsemen's Association this year by Claire Dunnigan and provided a fun practice for the annual horse show.

"Watching the kids have fun is always the best," said Horsemen's Association member Trish Martin. "The games are just great. The most important thing is that nobody got hurt, nobody fell off a horse, and no horse ran into anything. That happens in fun and games shows sometimes. Horses tend to get excited, and there were a couple times that I got a little nervous."

Volunteer Candi Dunnigan observed, "Having the novice division, the walk-trot, gave the younger kids are really good chance to do something that they may have been too intimidated to do otherwise."

Miss Dunnigan was pleased, bur surprised with the turnout, because a lot of people haven't been riding as much this summer.

"The Goughs are always really impressive," she said, "but the Spitzers were really good, too, because they don't do a lot of show riding, so that was great to watch. And the horses that stuck it out and did those patterns five times, that was pretty cool. I look forward to 2008."

"I liked the Two-Man Relay the best, ironically, because I learned a lot from it, and I mean, I got disqualified, but if you lose, it teaches you, 'Hey, it's not so bad,'" Sarah Spitzer said. "It helped give me some good life skills."

She added, "You have to remember that it is just for fun, and if you get too competitive, maybe your horse will take off on you," she said. "You have to just sit back and enjoy it."

In the Catalog Race, riders race to a barrel, find their assigned page numbers in a catalogue, rip them out, and bring them back to the start. Morgan Brodeur-Bunker finished in 31 seconds, defeating Sarah Spitzer, 43 seconds, and Lucas Karhoff, 1 minute.

The Walk-Trot Tie Race, which tested control of the horse while dismounted, Jessica Beaune won the firstplace ribbon with a time of 24 seconds. Mackenzie Bean won second with 25 seconds, Rachel Spitzer took home third place with 32 seconds, and Sarah Spitzer finished in fourth place.

The Key Hole competition timed riders as they started at one end of the riding ring and rode as fast as they could to a key-hole outline on the ground. They entered the key hole, turned around, without stepping outside of it, and rode quickly back to the starting line. Disqualification came when the horses feet stepped outside of the key hole. Burton Gough wowed the crowd with his 13- second time, but had to retry because he was not wearing a helmet. It seemed to help him, because he knocked two seconds off his previous time, clocking in at 11 seconds, taking home a blue first-place ribbon. Paul Fisher just missed Mr. Gough's time by a secondand a-half, at 12.5 seconds. Kristi Gough won third place with 13 seconds.

Pole Bending, a slalom race, was run in two divisions. In the cantering division, Morgan Brodeur-Bunker won first place in 37 seconds, Burton Gough won second with 47 seconds, and Kristi Gough came in third with 55 seconds. Paul Fisher was disqualified for incorrectly running the course. In the trotting division, Sarah Spitzer won first in 1 minute, 25 seconds. Rachel Spitzer clocked in at 2 minutes, giving her second place, Jackie Brandonisio placed third in 2 minutes, 10 seconds, and Shayla Mayo came in fourth with a time of 2 minutes, 19 seconds.

Riders put their horses through their paces while holding a dollar bill to the saddle with their thigh in the Sit-a- Buck contest. The winner got to keep the bills lost by the other riders. Kristi Gough beat out Paul Fisher in the final minutes to capture the loot. Jessica Beaune was third and Morgan Brodeur-Bunker took fourth.

In the Flag Race, Burton Gough took home first place, Sarah Spitzer won second, and Rachel Spitzer was awarded third.

Two-Man Relay, Burton Gough and Paul Fisher won first place, Morgan Brodeur- Bunker and Kia Olson won second, and Diana Dupre and Rachel Spitzer received third place.

The much-loved Barrel Race was won by Diana Dupre, who was followed by Amelia Roe and Kyra Kolatski.