St. Louis National Charity Horse Show 2002

This page is dedicated to Kris Sommers, the wonderful woman who helped to make this trip possible. She was a great help in making the whole adventure happen. In loving memory of Kristen Sommers September 24, 1954 - May 29, 2003

"What is most precious is not the dream itself, perfect as it
may be, but rather the effort you put into making
the dream come true." --anonymous

This page is all about my trip to the St. Louis National Charity Horse Show in Lake St. Louis, Missouri.  I was able to make this journey with the help of Jess & Kris Sommers, who I traveled out with and stayed with the first part of the week.  We had shipped Joey and Shorty (Bermuda Shorts, the Sommers' Saddlebred mare) out with Woody Horse Transportation on September 20, 2002 at 2:15 a.m.

 The horses arrived at the Lake Saint Louis Equestrian Center on Sunday morning around 9 am, and we arrived about two hours later. The road trip to St. Louis was one I'll never forget...we discovered the awesome food at Cracker Barrel Restaurants, ran into alternator trouble while passing through Pennsylvania, met some very scary truck drivers, lost a chair out of the bed of the truck in Illinois, and over all had a fun time making it all the way to St. Louis.

 Once we finally arrived Jess and I took off for the barn to find Joey & Shorty. Unfortunately I found Joey to be very ill (we later learned he suffered from dehydration) and had to have the vet come out to give him fluids.  By Thursday when my family arrived Joey and I were ready to enter the show ring.  That night we placed 5th out of 7 in a Jr. Exhibitor Country Western Pleasure class.

 The next morning would be our Saddle & Bridle Hunter Classic Finals.  Come Friday morning, both Joey & I were a little nervous about taking the two foot high jump.  He refused the first time which caused us not to place out of 20 horses...it was a great experience just being able to show in the finals though.

 Saturday morning was the Saddle & Bridle Jr. Exhibitor Shatner Western Pleasure Finals.  There was a total of seven entries (including yours truly).  Before going into the ring William Shatner, whom I had met earlier in the week and asked me to call him "Bill", his wife Elizabeth, and their trainer Danny (who had paid me to clip their horses!) wished me luck and said they'd be watching (Joey & Shorty were stabled next to Bill's horses, Jack and Glitz).  There was some tough competition in the class, but Joey's manners and presence came out on top and we were called out as world champions!

 Joey was "tubed" before he got on the trailer to go home to help prevent dehydration.  He was so glad to be home on Monday- after 13 days of being away, living in a strange barn, and drinking bottled water.  Joey's name now has two extra letters:  WC which represents his World Champion status.

*~a very special thank you goes out to Jess & Kris Sommers, my family, and all the people who helped me achieve this goal and supported me along the way with your encouragement, advice, wisdom, and kind words.  Also a very special thank you to Robin McGahey for convincing me to bring my western stuff and compete in the finals, though I doubted our ability to compete against a field of professionally trained, fancier western Saddlebreds.~*

Brenda Benner's adorable dog, Butchie (aka "Yoda Dog"

Joey (looking so cute) getting braided and polished for the Saddle & Bridle Hunter Classic World's Championship class

My mom makes HUGE buns because my hair is so thick!

My Aunt Patti, me, and my mom out to dinner in historical St. Charles, MO

Outside the ring after the big win..."It's WC Bayhead Spartan from now on!"

Joey with his super sized ribbon

William Shatner and I after Joey & I won the Saddle & Bridle Jr. Shatner Worlds Championship

Joey, Jessie, and Aunt Patti after the World's Championship win

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