For most exhibitors, getting ready for the Bayer Select World Championship Show means loading up the horse and tack.

For Nickey and Patsy Smith of Covington, Louisiana, getting ready for Bayer Select World means loading up the horse, the tack, the masks, the bowls, the chicken and the sausage.

That’s because on the first Monday of each Bayer Select World, Nickey and Patsy cook gumbo for 300.

"We had 30 gallons of gumbo and four cakes,” Patsy said, when they started serving at 5:30 p.m. When they cleaned up at 9:30 p.m., there was nothing left.

Exhibitors and families ate, talked and renewed old friendships while wearing Mardi Gras masks and beads and listening to a mix CD of Cajun music.

For Nickey, who can’t walk 10 feet without bumping into someone he knows, and for Patsy, all the people attending Bayer Select World are just friends they haven’t met yet.

“This show is like a big family reunion,” Patsy said, pointing to some people from Canada she hasn’t seen for a year.

To celebrate that reunion, the Smiths make a gumbo that has about 50 pounds of chicken and about 30 pounds of sausage.

“It’s the only recipe (Nickey) knows,” she said. “He has a cookbook in the works, but it only has one recipe. He even has a title for it, ‘Cooking With Spurs On.’”

Nickey added, “It’s our job to put the fun back in showing horses.”

STUMP HOLE CAKE

Want to try Patsy Smith’s Stump Hole Cake? It goes like hotcakes, she said.

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 egg
• 1 stick melted butter
• 1 cup chopped pecans.
• Mix together and press into a 9x13 pan. Cover with topping (recipe below) and bake for 55 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Topping
• 2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 box confectioners’ sugar