By LARRI JO STARKEY, COPY EDITOR |
Megan McMullen competes in trail
on Silver Screen Pete, a 16-year-old
bay gelding. |
After 116 trail competitors, it was finally Megan McMullen’s turn.
The 13-year-old and Silver Screen Pete moved toward the entrance to the John Justin Arena, reciting the pattern out loud as Megan’s coach blew clouds of fly spray on “Pete.”
“Turn left, left,” Megan said, ticking off the pattern elements on her fingers.
As she spoke, ground crews at the 2007 Ford AQHYA World Championship Show started picking up the practice poles in the warm-up arena.
“It was different,” Megan said of being the last competitor to work in the trail prelims. “It was good.”
Megan and Pete traveled 15 hours from Norris, Tennessee, for Megan’s third Ford Youth World. Despite the long wait ahead, she and Pete, a 1991 bay gelding by Mr Show Biz and out of Doc Fleck Chex by Doc’s Malbec, arrived at the make-up area fairly early, with enough time to warm up and relax before their go.
As they walked from the tented warm-up ring to the cool of the tunnel and then to the cold of the competition ring, Megan wasn’t thinking about the trailer following her to clean up the poles.
Megan had only one thought on her mind: No hits!
After Megan and Pete finished their go, Megan reversed the process, moving from the cold of the arena to the cool of the tunnel and the fresh breezes in the tented area. She patted Pete on the neck and described their run as “a little shaky.”
Megan and Pete won’t be returning to the finals. But they have one more Ford Youth World run under their belts and a few years left to compete.
