Over 40 horses were entered to participate in 95 classes during the 16th annual Saskatchewan Morgan Horse Open Show in Estevan. Horse riders and drivers from all over Saskatchewan met at the Exhibition Grounds to compete and socialize.
The cold weather Estevan experienced on Saturday forced some classes to move inside, yet in general, the entire event went as planned.
The Mercury talked to the Saskatchewan Morgan Horse Club’s first vice-president Stan Milford. Not only was he personally involved in the show last weekend, but his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren also participated in it.
Milford talked about how he became a member of the Saskatchewan Morgan Horse Club.
“I was very much involved in pony chuckwagons, and as I started getting a little older, I got into (Saskatchewan) Morgan Horse (Club) as a kind of a retirement type of thing. And I started showing.”
Milford doesn’t show on horseback, preferring to compete in driving classes. Besides participating in the show, he and his family also have been breeding horses for quite a few years. As a result, there were a lot of horses involved in the show this year, which came from his farm.
“We raised quite a few Morgans trying to populate the country. There is still not very many around,” said Milford.
Through his years of involvement with horses Milford participated in countless events and at some point was even invited to the Queen City to show the Royal Family around.
“Fortunately, at one time I got to go to Regina and haul the government people around. Never the Queen, but Princess Anne and Governor General and a few of them. It was a great thing,” remembered Milford.
He brought his horses over to haul the carriage that belongs to the government.
He also owns a similar beautiful carriage, but they only use it for weddings and parades.
Milford’s family was at the show with five carts and a wagon, but there wasn’t much competition in their classes to make participation more challenging. Some classes were better represented than others, but in most cases, there were at least a few competitors in each class to motivate participants to do their best.
“Some of our classes are down,” said Milford. “I guess the weather isn’t really 100 per cent, but at the same time people are just maybe having a hard time getting out with everything that’s going on.”
Milford also noted that their classes were the strongest and there was a little more interest towards the show throughout the province off the start, back in the 2000s.
