from the Standardbred Pleasure Horse Organization of New Jersey

Millstone Township, NJ — The Standardbred Pleasure Horse Organization of New Jersey is announcing that their 20th annual National Standardbred Horse Show will be held Sept. 6-7.

The two day show consists of 22 divisions for pure bred Standardbreds only, and offers a total of $9,800 in prize money awarded to the first four finishers in each of the 73 classes offered.

A prize list and entry forms for this event can be found at this link.

Helene Gregory photo

Pictured is Nicole Domenico on Taurmade 2007.

Divisions range from Model, Showmanship, Western Pleasure, Games, Dressage, Jumping, Hunters, English Pleasure, Driving and some special divisions made for horses currently racing and also a War Horse division for the “old and/or rich” horses.

It is a fun event and every year we see drivers, owners and trainers join in for a day of fun and rooting on some horses they might previously been in contact with on the racetrack. A leadline class is also offered for all the young STB fans and last year we saw up to 15 entries in that class alone.

The two day concept was first tried last year, with great success, so this year it has been expanded a little with a 12 Noon post time on Saturday (Sept. 6) starting with In hand, showmanship and then Western classes to follow.

The evening will wrap up with the fun and games classes, which is a wild crowd pleaser.

Last year people attending could see former Open trotter Ripped and Kylee Stoltzfus, “rip” through the weaving poles and dash through the barrels. Also a few of the more notable Standardbreds attending last year were “war horses” Slipnslide A ($858,239), the wonder from Down Under, shown and owned by Jordan Stratton’s wife Denelle; Big Bikkies, a 1:52 trotter with more than $200,000 on his bank account, shown with his former race groom, Maria Andersson; Our Lucky Killean (263 lifetime starts and $1,281,334) who was campaigned by Casie Coleman and given to Jennifer Connor after his racing career was over.

Sleep Easy 1:51 ($651,145) made his show debut with Caitlin Kincaid onboard for his “new” old owner Donna Marshall who campaigned the pacer in his first two years as a racehorse. Donna has been housing Sleep Easy since 2012 when his racing career ended and rumor has it that the now bombproof trail horse/show horse is looking for a new loving home where he would be working daily, something he really enjoys doing according to Donna’s daughter Kelly, who has polished Sleep Easy up on his riding skills at her barn up in Vermont the past few months. Kelly will also be bringing her own STB TC (Treacherous Cat), an unraced gelding that has won several open dressage competitions as well as touring as a Standardbred ambassador to numerous Equine Demos.

The SPHO-NJ wants to thank all the sponsors and supporters of this event for their outpouring of donations.

To further help SPHO-NJ in their quest to showcase the versatility of the breed as a pleasure and show horse, a raffle will be held after the games end Saturday night with prizes donated by Big Dee’s, a company who has given a lot to SPHO-NJ thanks to their Bonus Bucks points system.

All proceeds will go directly to the future SPHO-NJ activites. A pizza party will also be held up in the pavilion and RSVPs are on the entry forms. We hope to see everyone there.