AlB—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 19,1982
Lehigh
BY SHEILA MILLER
NEW TRIPOLI What do you
get when you put one 16-year-old
girl together with one 6-year-old
Morgan gelding and one 32-year
old horse trainer and driving ex
pert?
The answer is a national
champion
And that’s just what happened
when owner and trainer John
Greenall of New Tripoli, Lehigh
County, teamed his Morgan horse
Thornyhills Donegal with
equestrienne Tracey Picus The
pair rode their way to the
American Morgan Horse
Association’s highest honors the
national high-point championship
tor Open English Pleasure Horses
Tracey learned of her ac
complishment just a few weeks
ago However, the points needed to
achieve this national recognition
were earned in horse shows
throughout the East fiom January
1980 until January 1981 According
to Tracey, the competition bet
ween the top two horses in the U.S.
was “very close.”
A justifiably proud Tracey
comments that she is thrilled with
the fact that Donegal has been
judged the best of his class in the
nation since it was a hard climb to
the top.
She explains, “It’s hard to show
a Morgan in open competition and
win because the judges usually
don’t know what a Morgan is.
They’re used to hunters and
Donegal is usually the only sad
dleseat in the class. It’s extra hard
to do well because we’re so dif
ferent.”
What made the way a little
easier for Donegal, claims Tracey,
was his consitency. “He catches
the judge’s attention because he’s
always bridled-up he’s got a
natural, flashy headset. At the
same time, he makes it look easy
consistently.”
A seven-year veteran of the
saddle, Tracey is an accomplished
master of both English and
Western riding and driving, with
her preference leaning toward
English saddleseat competition.
Her aptitude for horsemanship
acey poses year-v jrgan mare Loth Lea
Ebonaire. Tracey won the mare In a N.J. Morgan Horse Club
essay contest and had hoped to show her until the mare
accidentally broke her leg last year. Bred to Dirrah Dandy
Lion, the unfortunate mare may produce a future champion
for her young owner.
Co. Morgan wins nat'l honors
was groomed right from the start
by her instructor and coach John,
which explains her admitted
preference for Morgan horses.
John, who has been breeding
horses for the past 14 years, never
runs short on praises for the
“versatile” Morgan. Having
grown up with various breeds as a
child, John explains that he wanted
a horse that he could perform well
both under saddle and harness He
chose the Morgan as the horse that
•could do everything well ”
Donegal, the 1981 national
champion Morgan gelding, is a
product of two of John’s best
horses ihe stallion Sirocco, a
national champion driving horse,
and the mare Mayo Mist, winner of
two reserve national riding and
driving championships Open
English Pleasure and Carriage
Americana Mayo Mist is now
owned by Tracey’s parents, Geralr
and Mary Picus
Following in his parents’ hoof
prints, Donegal won the 1980 grant
national championship for
Carriage Americana horse, driven
by Tracey as a single. The year
before he was teamed with his full
-sister to win the 1979 grand
national championship for
Carnage Obstacles with John in
. the driver’s seat.
The difference between the
Americana and Obstacle classes in
driving competition, explains
Tracey, is the latter is an event
based on the best time over a
particular course while the former
is a class where the horse,
carnage, harness, and driver are
judged This combination of horse
and equipment is termed a “tur
nout.”
Donegal, who according to John
has won more year-end cham
pionships than any other Morgan
in the Mid-Atlantic region,
recently was part of a tandem pair
in competition at the Devon Horse
Show. In tandem hitches, the two
horses are hitched one in front of
the other instead of side-by-side. At
Devon, Donegal was the leader
while stablemate Ledge Hill
(Turn to Page A 22)
Thornyhills Donegal, a six-year-old Morgan champion in Open English Pleasure. Riding
horse owned by John Greenall of Lehigh him to this national recognition was 16-year-
County recently was named the American old Tracey Picus of Wescosville.
Morgan Horse Association's highpoint
At age fourteen, Tracey drove Donegal to his City. The previous year, Donegal took the top
second national grand championship in the championship in the Obstacle carriage
Carriage Americana division during the Grand competition, a timed event.
National Morgan Horse Show in Oklahoma
At the recent Gruber Wagon Works Cen- Dressed in appropriate driving attire, from top
tenniai Celebration, John hitched his national hat to apron, John's turnout was the perfect
champion Donegal, near side, with another picture of a bygone era. Seated next to John is
Morgan stablemate, Ledge Hill Starfire, to one Tracey, with Sherwood Muth playing the part
of his favorite vehicles, a shooting break, of groom.
t