Riding club enjoys horsing around|[07/02/07]

Published 12:00 am Monday, July 2, 2007

This is the fifth in a series of stories highlighting Warren County’s rich sports culture.

Pickup trucks with horse trailers in tow began rolling into the grassy parking lot early Saturday morning.

By 10 a.m., trucks and other vehicles had staked out most of the shaded areas in the lot and lawn chairs had been set up in the shadows of the trees. The sun was beating down on the dirt arena, where a few horses were warming up before the day’s events.

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In a few minutes, the horse show begins. This is one of five or six shows the Vicksburg Riding Club holds each year at its facility in a wooded area off Highway 61 North.

Points are awarded based on results, and the club keeps a list of rankings for different age groups.

&#8220This is pretty small-time, but it’s fun,” said Connie French, a rider whose 16-year-old daughter also took part in the show. &#8220It’s with the people you know. It’s pretty laid back. It’s not real competitive.”

The setting of the arena is more cowboy than country club. There is a public address system to announce riders’ names and times, but other bells and whistles are hard to find.

Some shows here begin at 10 a.m. and last until midnight or later, members say. But because this is the continuation of a show that was rained out from an earlier date, the judged events have already been completed and only running events are being held.

Hillary Mahalitc, 15, is a competitive rider who goes to national shows, but she said she uses the local shows just to have fun. At a national show in Jackson last weekend, Mahalitc won $4,000 in prize money, a saddle and a belt buckle, which she wore Saturday.

Robert Martin, whose 17-year-old son was riding on Saturday, said he likes the low-key atmosphere of the local shows.

&#8220You can bring the slowest horse in the world down here and still have fun,” Martin said.

Tim Burrough, president of the Vicksburg Riding Club, said over the past few years the club’s membership has expanded from about 30 families to 70. Most of the people who participate in the shows are regulars from Vicksburg and the surrounding area.

&#8220It’s kind of like a closet industry, to be honest,” Martin said. &#8220People don’t realize how many horses are in Warren County. It’s a pretty big industry in Mississippi.”

Shows like Saturday’s include a mixture of people who have grown up around horses and those newer to the scene.

For Tim Scott, a love of horses has been passed down from one generation to the next. His father, Joe, was one of the founders of the Vicksburg Riding Club when it opened in 1958. Scott’s 8-year-old son, Nicholas, now rides horses.

On the other end of the spectrum, Larry Brock said he didn’t know anything about horses 10 years ago when his two daughters got involved in riding. Now, he said, he can’t imagine not owning horses.

&#8220I used to say, ‘There’s them nuts with the horses over there,’” Brock said. &#8220Now I’m one of the nuts with the horses.”