Mary Catherine and Rolex are 8th in the World!

Mary Catherine showed World Champion leadline pony Mr. Rolex at the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration on August 27th, 2005. The pony was leased from Tyler and Kayla Baucom of Monroe, North Carolina. Mary Catherine had been practicing with Rolex every day for a week. Tyler Baucom was her trainer and worked faithfully with she and Rolex daily to make sure she was going to be on top of her game on show day. Rolex is a bit larger than Mary Catherine's own pony Lou Lou. For the first few days, she was afraid and wanted someone to hold her knee while I lead the pony. After about two days she wanted to do it all by herself. Of course I was still holding the pony but, she was quite impressive for her age. She and Rolex established quite the friendship. On the morning of the show we got up early and got our riding suits on. The show started at 9am sharp. We were in the 2nd class. Mary Catherine and I wore matching navy blue suits with white shirts and pink bow ties with palmetto trees on them. Gaga said we looked like the Ice Cream people! When we got to the show grounds you could feel the excitement in the air as all the young 6 and under equestrians prepared to mount their ponys. When Mary Catherine saw Rolex entering the warm up area she clapped and screamed! She was so happy to see him. Mrs. Jeanette Baucom and Kayla brought Rolex over to the show grounds and helped us get him ready for the class. When we put Mary Catherine into the saddle...She squealed with delight! We practiced a few times. I noticed Mary Catherine was rocking a bit and I told her to sit still. When we entered the ring...The crowd went WILD! We had our own fan club. Daddy, Mrs. Jeanette & Kayla Baucom, Gaga, Sissy(Aunt Celia), Aunt Jenny, Mrs. Linda Potts, Mr. & Mrs. Bunton and John Young, Mr. Larry Kyte, and the Moonies were there just to see Mary Catherine and Rolex perform. I hope I didn't forget anyone. (Please add your names if I did.) Mary Catherine was fascinated with the crowd. She continued to do this rocking thing but add to that looking at and waving to the crowd. We were having a GOOD time. When we got about half way around, I looked back to see Mary Catherine hugging Rolex around the neck. I about fell out...I asked, "Mary Catherine, what are you doing? " She explained that she was "Loving Rolex". It was so very sweet. After I got her to sit back up we finished the class with flying colors. When we got to the line up for final judging, Rolex parked out perfectly and Mary Catherine sat up so straight and pretty. She looked GREAT! When the judges came by, she gave them a cute little wink. I asked her, "Are you having fun?" She said,"Oh mommy, I am having so much fun, Can we go around again?" Our hopes were for a PINK ribbon (5th place) but we got a BROWN (8th place) this year. We were very pleased with 8th out of 13 entries in our class. Next year we are going to work very hard for that PINK one. Special thanks to the Baucom Family for letting us use Mr. Rolex and for all the help from our friends and family!