Your first horse show is a whole world in one day: the early alarm, the borrowed outfit, the too-tight hat, and the instant your brain goes blank the second you enter the pen. For first-time exhibitors, it’s rarely about the ribbon, it’s about doing the thing, surviving the nerves, and realizing you want to come back. Here are the unforgettable first-show stories that started lifelong journeys.
Patty Bogosh – My first horse show was when I was 9 years old at the Stearns County Fair in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. I showed a foundation-bred Quarter Horse mare, Chipper Lady Wimpy. My mom bought her as an unbroke 4-year-old, and she was the best babysitter. Her back was as long as our horse trailer, and she farted every time she took a step, but she was the kindest soul a kid could have. We showed in all the all-around classes: showmanship, English pleasure, equitation, western pleasure, and horsemanship. And I don’t even remember if I placed. I just remember being so nervous I couldn’t think once I entered the pen. The four-day trip ended with me in the hospital after I tripped walking her to the trailer, fell in front of her, and she stepped on both of my legs. They thought they were broken, but X-rays showed I was fine (and of course I was riding three days later). I showed her for three seasons and did really well in the years that followed, which launched my love of showing. We later sold her back to her original owner, and she lived to be 31. I owe my resilience and courage to that horse and those years that became the foundation of my education.
Jenna Dempze – My first horse was a Sonny Dee Bar gelding. He was 14 when my parents bought him for me when I was 11, and he was the perfect first horse: safe, but challenging enough to teach me lifelong horsemanship. He carried me through my teen years and was patient with my exploration of every discipline, from western pleasure to barrels to jumping, and I think the most important thing I learned from him was feel. He was a really rough horse to ride, and it taught me how to sit. He passed away a few years ago at the ripe old age of 34.
Beth Case – It was in Norco on a horse named Flair. I did showmanship, and they told me all I had to do was lead my horse around, and I was fourth out of four. Then I did walk/trot and got third out of four, only because one girl got DQ’d for riding in a bridle with two hands, but I was so happy.
Jan Johnson (re. daughter Katy Jo Zuidema) – You might remember the All Breed Youth Show in Detroit, billed at the time as “The Largest Youth Horse Show in the World.” It was 1986, and Katy was 3, and she was my sidekick at almost every show back then. She loved the horses and the friends, but after a couple of days, she finally asked, “Mom, can I please show?” Leadline was the one class you didn’t have to pre-enter, and thank God for good friends: Tim Christensen and youth exhibitor Tom Paperniak donated their bombproof horse Pretty Tuff To Beat, got him ready, and I scrambled to find a small saddle, borrowed blue chaps and a blue felt hat, and grabbed a loaner saddle pad just in time to coach her for a minute or two (“sit up straight, keep your off arm still…”). The class was huge, at least 40 horses, and the stands were packed, and if Katy was nervous, she didn’t show it; she was just thrilled. There was one judge back then, Jim Nance. And after we reversed, the stands erupted in laughter because Katy was looking right at Jim, waving and grinning, and Jim waved back. When placings were called from 15th up, Katy ended up winning, and the crowd cheered because it was just so darn cute; Jim was still smiling at the out gate and told me, “How could she not be the winner?” A few months later, at Quarterama in March 1987, she won another huge class of at least 40, and she was officially on her way.
Parris Rice – I don’t remember my first horse show, but I do remember being in leadline waiting for placings and thinking it was ridiculous that they couldn’t pick a winner because everyone was “too cute.” There’s always a winner, and that winner should definitely be me. You could say I’ve been competitive from the start, and yes, family game nights at my house are played for glory.
Olivia Medows – I’m not sure I remember my very first horse show because I was so young when I started showing, but one of my earliest memories was at an open show in Columbus. I don’t remember where I placed; I just remember how much fun I had and how excited I was that my family was there to cheer me on and support me. Even now, as an adult, my favorite part of horse shows is still getting to share them with my family.
Brent Maxwell – Wow! Now we’re going back about 46 years. I showed at the Muskingum County Fair in Zanesville, Ohio, in a 4-H club called Sunshine Riders, and I rode my 4-year-old red dun twin mare, non-registered, half Appaloosa and half Quarter Horse in horsemanship. My brother and I bought two feral twin mares during the blizzard of 1978 and herded them down the road between snowbanks to a guy’s barn with a cattle loading chute to get them into a two-horse trailer and somehow halter them (the rest is another story), but I got mine broke enough to compete. I showed up in a $350 saddle with an orange, smooth leather seat, and my Kmart hat looked like a pigeon had splatted on it, feathers everywhere, but I wore it proudly and wasn’t the only one. We hauled in a four-horse bumper-pull stock trailer with a half-ton Chevy truck, and I was scared to death. When the judge nodded, I took a deep breath and went in, and Dusty did everything I asked. We finished the pattern, and I was relieved and excited, and even though my form probably wasn’t perfect, we ended up fifth out of a large class. And even at fifth, I felt like I won that day. Dusty competed for another year before being sold.
Carey Nowacek – My first horse show was almost 30 years ago, and while I don’t remember every detail, I was in a local lesson program. I owned a very nice (and very naughty) little hunter pony, and the show was close enough that I actually rode my pony there. I remember being more excited than nervous and spending most of the day laughing with my friends, soaking in the show atmosphere, and loving every second of it. I’m sure my pony had his own opinions about the whole thing, but to me, it was magical, and that first show is what truly hooked me on the sport.
Chelsea Carlson – The first horse show I remember (that wasn’t leadline) was an open show with my old mare Quincy, a Two Eyed Jack/Sir Quincy Dan mare, and I was in walk/trot with my best friend growing up, Chelsea Schneider (who now shows in reining and stands her stud, Headlinner). We were back-to-back in western pleasure classes and the two Chelseas invented a game: leapfrog – one of us would fully send the trot while the other pulled back to a tight jog, swapping leaders around the pen while we giggled and grabbed everyone’s attention, and the crowd eventually caught on and started laughing in the stands. I remember my mom telling us to quit messing around, but she couldn’t stop laughing at how ridiculous we were, and it’s still a core memory that reminds me to enjoy my time in the pen like mini-me did.
Patty Campbell – My first show ever was when I was nine years old, and I showed my pony Stardust. Judy Davis and I were in the same 4-H club. She had Prince Charming, and I had Stardust and we’ve been good friends ever since. At that first show, I was High Point Pony at the 4-H spring show, and he was the best; I didn’t own him (he belonged to a retired farmer who let me use him). I loved that pony.
June Liston – Not including horse camp, my first show was a 4-H show in Danville, California, in 1970, and I had a 4-year-old Appaloosa named Marks Poker Chip. We went in everything, and I had no trainer and no clue. I was basically copying what I saw other people at my boarding stable doing. I wore borrowed clothes, yet we somehow won showmanship, got second in trail, second in pleasure, and third in stock seat equitation. I still have those old faded ribbons somewhere. I rode that horse throughout my youth, and when we sold him when I was 17, he paid for my first flying lessons. Good memories.
Lana Markway – I don’t remember much, but I didn’t have enough hair to pin my hat on, and when we started trotting, my hat came off, spooked the horse, and I ended up hanging in the stirrup until my aunt got me. There’s a video where someone drops the camera as it happens. Fun times – all so my mom could show in the parents pleasure.
Jerry Erickson – As a teenager, I had a quiet grade gelding who was easygoing, and I thought I had him ready for western pleasure, so I went to a local saddle club show with a judge I knew well and placed sixth out of six. The judge came up afterward and told me how well the horse went. Unfortunately, he was never on his right lead, and I had no idea.
Brister Shum – One weekend when I was 12, my friend and I decided we wanted to go to a horse show, and the local saddle club five miles from my house was having an all-breed weekend show, but we didn’t have a trailer (or know anyone who did), so we rode our horses to the arena. My mom followed in her car and stopped six lanes of traffic so we could cross the highway, and since we didn’t have chaps or nice saddles, we skipped the pleasure classes and showed pole bending instead. I was thrilled to win a fourth-place ribbon by whipping through those poles in 38.09 seconds. My mare was probably just tired from the ride there.
Brad Jewett – My first ever horse show was the Southwest Reining Futurity at the Hardy Murphy Coliseum in Ardmore, Oklahoma, working for Robert Chown. I competed in rookie reining and thought I was running 100 mph. I was not.
Beckie Peskin – My first horse show was probably about 46+ years ago. I was showing leadline at a local open show, and my brother was leading me! It was on my pony, Sesame.
Grant Mastin – My first horse show was an open show in Chillicothe, Ohio. I had an old, sorrel gelding named Triples Jazzman, and I’d always wanted to show, so my mom took me just to ride around and do the leadline. Up to that point, I could only ever get Jazzman to walk. But as I circled the fairgrounds, I was determined to make him trot…and I did. Once I pulled it off, my four or five-year-old self trotted past my mom and announced, “I think I’ll just show walk-trot today.” I ended up placing second. The very next week, we were at a horse sale. Since I had officially “learned to trot,” I was convinced I was basically a professional and couldn’t wait to ride through the sale pen. My cousin put me on a big, black horse, and I rode through there like I owned the place. My legs barely reached past the saddle pad, but in my mind, I had arrived. From there, the rest is history.
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No two first shows look the same. Some start with a last-minute borrowed saddle, some with a hat flying off mid-trot, and some with a hard-earned ribbon that feels like a World Championship. But, they all share the same spark: the moment a rider realizes they belong in the pen. Years later, what sticks isn’t usually the placing, it’s the horse that took care of you, the people who stepped in to help, and the feeling of walking out of the arena already dreaming about the next show.
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