Mustang Show Ring...

"An' now we have Miz Adelaide on Sadie enterin' tha ring, folks, fer tha Pony Flat Race!  Ya an' Sadie ready, Miz Adelaide?  Okay!  On tha mark, git set, an' GOOOO!!!  Lookit them agallopin', folks!  In a cloud of dust!  Why, they is aflyin' those two!  Aroun' tha barrel they goin'!  Tearin' fer home now!  WOW!!!  Miz Adelaide an' Sadie 'ave dun broke tha record by aclockin' in at an astoundin' 9.2 seconds!  Let's us all give Miz Adelaide an' Sadie a roun' of applause 'ere, folks!  Come on back in tha ring an' git yer trophy muh dear!"

Mr. Lockey and his wife owned and ran The Mustang Show Ring for years.  It was nothing fancy.  Just a kind of broken down place with strands of light bulbs around the dusty ring.  Yet for some of us kids and adults it was the best place ever to be each Saturday night from May through August.  There were about fifty of us regulars and often others came now and then.  Some came just to watch.  Hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, and cokes were for sale and the restroom facilities were behind someone's horse van.

My best friends Lacy, her brother Rob, and their horses, Vandalla, and Havoc always came too.  The three of us lived with the sadness and violence of alcoholism in our families.  And we knew how lucky we three were to have our horses who were everything to us.  Since we didn't have horse vans we three rode our horses a few miles to the show ring each week as the summer sun went down.  We also would bring bags to carry the trophies we hoped to win, and often had one or more to carry home along with many ribbons too.

Out of concern for us though, after the show when it was very dark either the Lockey's or other participants would follow behind us till we safely got to our homes.  We were always so touched they cared that much to do this for us!  They had to wonder where our parents were but I suspect they had a feeling our home lives were not easy.  And why our horses meant so much to each of us.  To pay the fifty cent entry fee for each class we showed in, we each babysat and did odd jobs besides paying the upkeep for our horses.

Since I never used a saddle I was somewhat limited on the amount of classes I could participate in, but there were several I could.  Usually it was the Halter Class, Bareback Class, Pony Flat Race, Egg Race.  The Egg Race was keeping an egg on a spoon as one galloped around the ring.  The last rider with an egg on the spoon was the winner.  A few times I was actually the last one who still managed to keep the egg on my spoon!

The rest of the classes were Western Classes, calf roping, and Barrel Races.

Never once in the three years we showed there was I ever called midget or ridiculed in any way, so The Mustang Show Ring is a bright chapter of my childhood I hold dearly.  I still have some of the trophies and ribbons too.

After the third year we showed there the Lockeys had to retire due to health issues and everyone kind of just scattered away in the dusty wind.

But never the sweet memories of those summer nights at The Mustang Show Ring "agallopin'" as fast as the wind.