The Morgan Grand National
Rimfire at the 2023 Grand National
It’s October and that means it’s time for the Grand National and World Championship Morgan Horse Show! For Morgan fans, it’s one of the most exciting weeks of the year.
Last year, Rimfire (CBMF No Exceptions) came out of retirement in June to “just have some fun showing.” He did so well, however, that he wound up going to Oklahoma for the Grand National. It’s a long trip (30 hours in a slow-moving trailer) from his show barn in Connecticut, but Rimmie loves showing and traveled better than horses half his age.
In true Morgan form, Rimfire had a blast and had a fantastic show. His first class was in the tough Masters Classic Pleasure class, where he placed 9th in a very, very tough class of 18. Pretty darn good for an eighteen-year-old horse who had just been pulled out of the pasture five months earlier. But the best was yet to come as Rimfire entered the Road Hack class, his favorite class. He was on top of his game and showed off his ground-covering road trot and fast but controlled hand gallop. Yee-Haw! The best part, however, was his “halt,” where he stopped, cocked a back leg, and didn’t budge. It helped that at the very moment the judge called for the halt, Rimmie noticed the people in center ring and was totally mesmerized by them. Silly boy! When the results were called out, it was a unanimous decision by all three judges - Rimfire was the Grand National Saddle Seat Road Hack champion!!!
Rimfire is already in Oklahoma for this year’s competition, with the rest of the horses from his barn, waiting for “his boy” to arrive and the show to start. At nineteen, this will be his last trip to Oklahoma, and we hope to make it a memorable time.
For those who would like to learn more about showing and the Grand National, check out book #7 in the “Morgan Horse” series, Blackjack: The Champion Morgan Horse. This book focuses on the Grand National and the hard work that goes into preparing for the show.
As a side note, for fans of the “Morgan Horse” series, you may notice that Rimfire is showing in saddle seat tack, but in his book, Rimfire: The Barrel-Racing Morgan Horse, he’s a western/barrel-racing horse. That’s because when author Ellen Feld was writing his story, Rimmie was in training to be a western horse. But he had a lot of spunk and flair and showed a tendency to pick his feet up high and go! He was soon switched to saddle seat where he was much happier.