Pickle, a six-year-old quarter horse, will be dressing as a sheep for the horse costume contest at the Pictou Exhibition this Friday (Sept. 10). Her rider is 11-year-old Paget Houston (aka Little Bo Peep).
The Pictou Exhibition marks the end of competition season for the Pictou County Light Horse Club which Paget and Pickle have been part of all summer long.
The club gives residents of all ages a chance to show their horsemanship skills by holding monthly competitions at the Pictou Exhibition grounds. The competition has ranged from fun and silly (such as the costume contest) to serious contests for both Western and English style riders including pole bending and barrel races.
Paget has been riding horses since she was six, but just joined the club last year. Houston said it's great because it gives her daughter a chance to see how much she's improved each month.
"You go home and in between one show and the next you improve," she says.
That's what gives riders incentive to practise hard.
The club offers competition for all ages from three-year-olds on horses led by adults to grownups in their 50s.
The Pictou County Light Horse Club season runs from June to August and then takes part in the exhibition. An awards banquet is held in November. Each week there are meals served at the shows.
Because it's such a short season, sometimes it's hard to get to all the shows. But once Houston's daughter saw the schedule, all else her parents had planned for the summer was erased from the calendar.
"There's nothing else that we can schedule on those weekends," Houston says.
Lisa MacEachern has three children who take part in the club and has been amazed at how much they've learned.
"They learned that you reap what you sow, as one overall lesson," she says. "It was very evident that when you put the time into your horse at home in between shows, it showed at the next show."
The kids were often given compliments on how much they had improved. While last year the MacEachern girls just got by, she says this year they did well, with her 12-year-old daughter Emily receiving the Reserved High Points for both the July and August show. Ten-year-old Danielle also received a Reserved High Points in July.
Every member of the club would have their own story to share, she says.
"All I am sure would say the feeling is mutual, that the PCLHC is a great club for young horse owners and their families to be part of."
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