A
Gulf Coast Winter
Canadians discover a new horse show circuit near New Orleans.
By: Brigitte O'Neil & Alan Chesler
Gulfport Mississippi - an hour from the Big Easy, New Orleans, home
of this year’s Super Bowl and permanent home of Mardi Gras. The
Gulf Coast Winter Classic, run by Bob Bell’s Classic Company
and his partner Janet McCarroll, participate in the giant Mardi Gras
festivities by hosting a party on the show grounds and feature a Horse
Show float in the Biloxi Mardi Gras parade, the first site of Mardi
Gras, and staffed by riders and horse show officials. Over 250,000
spectators line the streets in Biloxi to view this yearly event, however,
this number pales in comparison to the three million spectators that
attend the Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans.
Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday and always falls on the Tuesday
that is 46 days before Easter. It is always the day before Ash Wednesday,
which is the start of the Catholic celebration of Lent. “Carnival”
refers to the season of festivities before Mardi Gras. It officially
begins on January 6th. The parades are put together by clubs know
as “krewes” and are named after figures in Greek mythology,
like Bacchus, the god of wine or Orpheus, the god of music with the
latter being co-founded by famous crooner Harry Connick Jr.
Every parade has a different theme each year that is usually borrowed
from mythology, history or Hollywood. The parades typically have mock
royalty as well, with Kings, Queens, Dukes and Duchesses either appointed
from the krewe’s members or invited celebrities, this year’s
being Jason Alexander, former Seinfield star and actor Nicholas Cage.
Beads, doubloons, small toys and candy are thrown from the floats
into the awaiting crowds and I have been told that if you were to
throw money as well as beads, everyone would be fighting for the beads!
The official colours of Mardi Gras that can be found everywhere are
purple, green and gold. These colours were determined in 1892 by the
Russian Grand Duke Alexis Romanoff and represent purple for justice,
green for faith and gold for power. Mardi Gras is a major holiday
here in the South and I might add that it is bigger than Christmas.
The Gulfport horse show is no Wellington, with its multi million-dollar
barns surrounding the show grounds. Gulfport has a maximum of 850
horses, compared to 5,000 - 6,000 that you would find in Wellington
or the 1,000 to 3,000 you would find in Ocala or Indio. It is an old-fashioned
horse show, the kind we used to go to, with an exhibitor party every
Friday. The show rings are close to each other so that you can see
everything that is going on. Just the same, they have a $25,000 U.S.
($39,500 Cdn) Grand Prix every Sunday and on the last week of the
circuit, for those who have qualified, there is a $77,777 U.S. Invitational
(over $120,000 Cdn) Grand Prix.
This exciting finale is sponsored by some of the local Casinos, and
let me tell you, the Casino community is something to see. The hotels
housing the Casinos are stretched over 26 miles of beautiful sugar
sand beaches. The Casinos themselves are built on barges or retired
cruise ships that have been run into the ground. Mississippi gambling
laws do not permit gambling on land so the barges and cruise ships
are very inventive ways of getting around the law. For those of us
willing to tempt fate by gambling there, you will never even notice
that you are out over the ocean. Around the horse show, you hear stories
of how much this one or that one won last night; sometimes well into
the thousands, but you will never hear the stories of how much they
have lost! Wonder how these Casinos stay in business?
The Casinos and their adjoining hotels have a wide array of gourmet
restaurants from bountiful buffets to savory seafood, traditional
Chinese and Japanese as well as the always-popular authentic Italian.
This area is steeped in many different tasty traditions from Jambalaya,
Po-Boys, Blackened Sole and anything with shrimp. This is “Forest
Gump country” - shrimp is everywhere.
Accommodations are plentiful along the coast with prices reasonable
for both daily and weekly rates. You can find brand names like Days
Inn, Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn or quaint seaside motels like The Pelican,
The Sea Shell and The Gulfport Motel. Many have package deals starting
at $29 a day. In addition, they have dinner and entertainment specials
from $59, with big name entertainment like Jay Leno, Carrot Top, Earth
Wind and Fire, Kenny Rogers, Neil Sedaka, Inglebert Humperdink and
many other top name performers.
This year the weather has been its usual sunny and warm self except
for a few really freezing days. Typically, the weather is in the 60s
during the day and in the 40s at night. This is not an overly rainy
time of year, but when it does rain, the heavens open up and beat
down upon us, almost as if someone is scooping up the ocean and dumping
it out along the coast. I was concerned the other day that it was
going to snow, as it was so cold, but sure enough, the sun came out
and the good weather returned the next day. The spring like weather
here in Gulfport is refreshing and great horseback riding weather.
The horse show itself has three all-weather rings, a large beautiful
grass field and a sizeable covered arena complete with bleachers for
spectators. The footing is good but not perfect, and the horse show
staff works hard at dragging, watering, preparing and maintaining
the rings for the class. There are about 750 horses here with approximately
1,000 stalls, about half of the stalls are in the typical horse show
tents and the other stalls are in permanent stables. The Grand Prix’s
have had between 30 and 45 horses. In addition, the show has the usual
selection of junior/amateur hunters and jumpers, ponies and equitation
classes.
There are five mobile tack stores, a photographer/video booth, a
classy boutique and a mediocre food stand. The horse show runs a small
school for little kids who cannot make it home from week to week.
It needs some sprucing up, as every time I have seen it, there was
chaos in the classroom.
The show hires very well known course designers such as Dave Ballard,
Anthony D’Ambrosio, Buddy Brown and Alan Rheinheimer, making
the classes technical and interesting. The competition is not what
it is in Ocala, Wellington or Indio, but there are still several International
calibre horses here. In order to win, you need to beat the other 35
horses with a double clear and a fast jump-off. There are four Canadian
grand prix riders here this winter, my daughter Frankie Chesler, Isabelle
Lapierre, Karen Cudmore and internationally renowned rider Beth Underhill.
New Orleans is an experience that is not to be missed while at the
Gulf coast. Like any city, New Orleans, (pronounced ‘New Orlins’
by the locals) has its not so nice areas, so I played it safe by taking
a three hour guided bus tour. The city is crammed with history and
tradition as it is one of the oldest in North America and introduced
both Voodoo and Christianity to the people of North America. The gambling
game Craps was also made popular here by a young wealthy Frenchman,
who at 21 years of age inherited millions of dollars and the ownership
of Mississippi and Louisiana. He squandered everything, however, by
playing his “new” game that he had learned in France, and
brought over to New Orleans. By the time he was 30 he had lost everything
and lived in a one-room apartment until his death. A very sobering
fact for anyone who likes to gamble!
We also toured the beautiful and historic City Park that was founded
in 1891. It is a 1500-acre urban park protecting 250 live oak trees
each with a circumference of over 12 feet. Every oak has its own name
and story, like the “Dueling Oak”, the best-known site for
settling “affairs d’honneur”, or honorable affaires.
This area was easily accessible to many, however, remote enough to
ensure privacy for the men defending their honor. One gentleman dueled
with so many men, that by the time dueling was outlawed in 1890, they
had to build another cemetery due to his perfect timing and aim.
Overall, being here at the Gulf Coast Winter Classic has been an
incredible experience for us, both in the show ring and out on the
town. Everyone, riders and spectators alike, should make a plan to
experience the food, sights and pageantry that is the Gulf Coast.
Real people, real food and real horse showing at its best.
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