Published: July 24, 2008 09:38 pm            

Off and running

BLUEFIELD, Va. — Beautiful weather, beautiful horses and a wonderful cause combined Thursday evening to make the start of the 40th Annual Bluefield Blue Gray Shrine Horse Show a truly memorable event.

The crowd of people attending the show started out in the “pretty good” range, based on the estimation of Joe Vinciguerra, horse show co-chairman. “They’ll be coming in here all night long,” Vinciguerra said. “This is a beautiful night for a horse show.”

Morgan Rasnake of Bluefield, Va., was watching every move of the horses and riders as they circled the Lotito Park show ring. “This is a well put-together show,” Rasnake, 10, a student at Graham Intermediate School said. “You can tell that they put a lot of planning into it.”

Although she was in the stands watching and applauding Thursday night, Rasnake will be in the show ring Saturday morning to compete in the academy classes. “I’m nervous, anxious and about everything else you could imagine,” she said. Still, she has confidence in her horse, Rosewall’s Duchess of York that she boards at Clinch Valley Stables.

“I like this show because its so close to home and so many of the local barns participate,” Rasnake said. “We get to know all of the horses.”

Members of the Bluefield Shrine Club color guard posted colors for the opening of the show and four weanlings participating in the American Saddlebred Horse Breeders Futurity of West Virginia were the first to show.

“I love watching the babies,” Mary Woods said as she watched the weanlings from the rail. “They’re just so beautiful.”

Woods is the wife of Sgt. Gary Woods of the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department. “My family wasn’t into raising horses, but Gary’s family has been raising horses for a long time,” she said. “We were into it for six or seven years, but then we got out of it for about 10 years after Gary’s dad died. Now, we’re back into it again and our daughter, Keirsten, is showing this year. She came in second in the show at Bland.” Keirsten Woods is seven years old.

Woods was showing a horse named “Surprise” in the Adult Country Pleasure class later in the evening. She is showing for Mountain Trail Stables. “Gary’s family’s love of horses must have rubbed off on my family,” Woods said. “This is a good family sport.”

Curtis Scott, Imperial Photographer for the Shriners was operating the gate to let the young people in and out to present the ribbons to the winners of each class. “This is all about the kids,” Scott said. “Everything we do here helps kids. The care that children who are burn victims or who are crippled is the best there is. Their families couldn’t pay even if they wanted to, but it’s all free ... All for the kids. I tell you, if you ever visited one of our Shirne hospitals, it’s an experience you’ll never forget.”

Lindsey Compton, one of the young ladies presenting the ribbons could not remember her visit to the Shrine’s children’s hospital, but her dad, Mike Compton, sure did. “She was born with both of her hips dislocated,” Mike Compton said. “The Shriners took care of everything. She had to wear a brace for a year, but after that, she was OK.”

Lindsey Compton, 13, is a student at Bluefield Middle School. “A man with the Shrine called and asked me if I would like to do this,” she said. “I like it. I love being around horses.”

The horse show resumes at 6 p.m., tonight and will conclude following a morning and evening program on Saturday. Admission is $5 for adults with all of the proceeds going to help the local Shriners in their efforts to serve crippled children or young burn victims.

– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com

        

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