Mark Harrell and I’m Plumb Obvious Win Ltd. Performance Halter Geldings, Roark and Sleepin In A Ezchair Win Open
By: Brittany Bevis
Mark Harrell, David Pardue, Kyle DeFreece, and Mark’s parents pose for a photo after his Limited division win.
The horse show manager finally got the chance to be a horse show exhibitor today when Mark Harrell stepped into the pen with David Pardue’s I’m Plumb Obvious. The pair was rewarded for their efforts by receiving a Congress Championship title in the Limited Division of Performance Halter Geldings. Winning the Open division of the class was Ross Roark with Sleepin In A Ezchair.
Many of Harrell’s customers have won Congress Champion titles in the past. However, this is his first personal Congress win.
“I’ve had lots of customers win, but this is my first win,” Harrell says. “It’s pretty awesome. You’re out there, and you think you’ll take top ten and be happy. Then, they start calling out numbers and it changes, you know. You want to move up. The fourth judge put me seventh or eighth. Then, my stomach left because I’d just lost the Limited. But then, he came out and moved us forward, and we were back in to win. It was pretty exciting for that part. Ross Roark and I were right together the whole class. It was pretty fun when [the judge] did that.”
I’m Plumb Obvious, aka “Landon,” is named after the man who introduced the horse to Harrell and Pardue, halter horse trainer Doug Landon.
“Doug sent us a little video of the horse,” he says. “Kyle [DeFreece] and I went out and took a saddle. Doug said he’d longed him. We just threw the saddle on, and Kyle is a cowboy, so he crawled up there in the driveway. He kind of took off crow-hopping and bucking. It wasn’t three minutes and Kyle had him out there loping across the pasture just going along.”
After making the decision to purchase the five-year-old gelding, it was up to Kyle DeFreece to help the horse earn his Performance ROM.
“Kyle showed him in the Ranch Horse Pleasure, Western Riding, and Trail,” Harrell says. “We had him at home for about 60 days fitting on him. Then, we sent him to Doug’s [place] for here.”
“He’s awesome and great-minded. Our little boy Michael, if he was interested in showing, could show the horse already at five years old. That’s how quiet he is.”
Alas, little Michael seems to be more interested in being a horse show announcer than being a horse show exhibitor. However, he could still change his mind…
“They have to be nine [for the Youth World], so I’ve got four years to poke and prod him right?” Harrell jokes.
Later on in the week, Pardue will be showing I’m Plumb Obvious in Amateur Performance Halter Geldings. Then, the pair will head to the AQHA World Show in November for the Open and Amateur Performance Halter.
“We manage all the shows, so we never get to show much,” Harrell says. “We sent Kyle and David out to Sunbury, Ohio and got him qualified in one show, so now he can go to the World Show. We made it a point. David skipped a horse show, I went and managed it, and he went to a show and qualified. Doug is going to show him there in Open as well.”
As a show manager and horse trainer, Harrell often finds himself outside of the arena doing the behind-the-scenes prep work. We wondered how it feels to be in the spotlight for once.
“It’s fun, and it’s addicting,” he says. “You want to do it every day. But, I still love managing the shows. It’s a hell of a lot easier than showing. Let me tell you!”
