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Nuptials Reign (Rein, Rain)

At WTQHA July Show

By Nancy Brannon

What could be more apropos than an active west Tennessee AQHA competitor getting married at a West Tennessee Quarter Horse Association (WTQHA) show? Dr. Ellen Deming and her fiancé Harold Wayne Jumper were married in a ceremony following the Senior Western Pleasure class at the Agricenter Show Place Arena Saturday night July 26. Deming was competing at the WTQHA show on her horse RV CHOCOLATE CHIP, a 7-year-old gelding who is “rated in the top five in the nation in Green Hunter Under Saddle,” she said. She “has been showing him just about every weekend. Last weekend we showed him in Arab, Alabama. In the last two weekends, we’ve put about twenty points on him,” she was pleased to say. “He will be in the Congress sale if we still have him them. He’s ready to have a kid of his own. I have several other young horses started and I’ll be moving on to something else.”

Ellen also has a special interest in hummingbirds. “I have about 40 hummingbirds that feed at my house. They even come to peck on the sliding glass door if their feeder is empty.” She received as a wedding gift a brightly painted, with red flowers of course, hummingbird house made from a gourd.

Ellen is partner with Dr. Brenda Looney at West Tennessee Equine Veterinary Services in Jackson, Tennessee. Deming is the large animal vet-arian and Looney is the small animal veterinarian at their clinic. Harold is a retired Agriculture teacher and now is mainly riding horses with Ellen. Saturday afternoon, he said he was “looking forward to tonight!” He and his bride will take off a few days for themselves, then return to the show circuit next weekend at the AQHA show in Owingsville, Kentucky.

West Tennessee Quarter Horse Association had a high turnout of riders at their July 24-28 show, despite high fuel prices and temperatures in the high 90s. Jill Dinning, WTQHA Secretary/ Treasurer said, “We have over 300 stalls booked.”

The Big Ass Fans®, yes that is their real name, at the Agricenter Show Place Arena kept the air circulating and, in combination with the exhaust fans, made the indoor arena feel comfortable. A mid-morning shower on Saturday held the promise of respite from the heat, but only created some mud and raised the humidity levels. One competitor warming up Saturday said he was “muddin’.” Most of the show’s classes were held in the main arena, while trail and horsemanship classes were judged in the outside covered arena. The Youth Team displayed a variety of horsey items for sale at their silent auction. Friday night’s ice cream social was another fund raiser for the Youth Team.

Strolling around the stables and show grounds, I found the usual horse show activities: folks relaxing with their dogs; horses napping or being bathed; competitors schooling and otherwise involved in socializing with other competitors and friends; Australian Shepard puppies napping in the breeze from a fan.

One lady had an interesting story about her horse. Sandy Slocum of Coldwater, Mississippi stood in the stall with her horse SHIFTY LYNX soon after finishing the Hunter Under Saddle class, in which she placed 3rd and the Hunt Seat Equitation class, which she won. Her shirt was still damp from sweat, though her beauty and show-ring turnout were otherwise unsullied. Her horse had been chosen for one of those random drug tests administered at all shows, so she chatted with the AQHA official. Mid-conversation she told about her surprise at finding her picture in the 2008 AQHA Regional Logo. After hearing “the rest of the story,” the honor took on greater significance.

SHIFTY LYNX is “a rescue horse,” Sandy said. She told the story of the horse’s former owners’ divorce and, afterwards, the horse nearly starving to death from neglect. Sandy preferred to keep the details of the break-up confidential. She did say that the veterinarian who examined him after she adopted him told her, “This horse has come as close to death as any horse I’ve ever seen.” She “got him as a 4-year-old and I’ve had him for nine years. There’s not enough money in the world that could buy him. I’ll keep him forever.” But that’s not the main reason SHIFTY is so special.

Sandy didn’t start showing until her daughter went to college. Her daughter used to participate in 4-H and AQHA shows and events, so horse interest is definitely in the family. “I had my first lesson at age 45 and I’ve been showing since 2000,” she said. She competes SHIFTY in Hunter Under Saddle, Hunt Seat Equitation, Halter, Showmanship, Horsemanship, and Trail. He is a very successful show horse. Sandy has shown him at the AQHA World show for five years, and the last two years he placed in the top ten. But that’s only one other reason SHIFTY is so special.

In addition to being successful in the wide variety of classes at shows, “I also do therapeutic riding with him,” she proudly conveyed. “I Chair the Board of Directors for Heart’s Desire Therapeutic Riding Center in Senatobia, Mississippi. Karen Cates is the founder. There are special needs classes that AQHA offers and I use SHIFTY in those classes for the children at Heart’s Desire. I also work with about 60 kids in DeSoto County Schools, mostly autistic kids. And I work with the ‘I Can’ adolescent intervention program with the Youth Court in Tate County. They have a very high success rate at preventing the kids from repeating the same problem.” Sandy comes with a lot of experience working with youth. She recently retired from the Extension Service, where she worked with the 4-H for 25 years.

“Year before last,” she said, “the QH Journal ran an article on him and how unusual it is for someone to compete at the World and use the same horse for therapeutic riding. The horse knows who’s riding him. He knows the difference when the young kids get on his back.” Sandy strongly wants to debunk the myth that doing therapeutic riding with your show horse will “mess him up. It does not mess up your horse for showing,” she emphasized.

She got another surprise last year in a QH Journal article. “Last year after the World, they ran a couple of articles on preparing the horse for patterns. The author was Tom McBeath, an AQHA judge, who is also my trainer.” As she was reading the second installment, she was surprised to see pictures of her and her horse in the article as examples of how to prepare. The pictures had been taken at the World during her patterns.

Taking care of her horse takes top priority. Whenever Sandy arrives at a show, one of the first things she does is to give her horse a massage, similar to T-touch therapy, or find a massage therapist for him, to soothe his muscles after the trailer ride. She has also found that acupuncture is helpful. She knows that a horse cannot perform well if he’s sore or hurting. A good deal of the success could be attributed to her attitude. “Riding is an art, something you study and work to improve. The day you think you know it all or think you are good enough is the day you need to get out. There is always something to learn.” Maybe that’s why Sandy is so special.

70th Annual Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration®: