Germantown Charity Horse Show hits 75 years, eyes capital campaign to upgrade grounds

Mary Mielenz remembers her first time coming to the Germantown Charity Horse Show as a little girl in 1987.

She has participated in the Germantown horse show for the past 20 years. Mielenz, who has been a professional horse rider for more than 30 years, also has participated in horse shows in such places as Franklin, Tennessee, Nashville, Mississippi, Kentucky, Florida and Michigan.

But Mielenz said coming to the Germantown show is a unique experience. She noted Germantown reminds her of the Devon Horse Show in Devon, Pennsylvania, which is touted as both the oldest and largest outdoor multibreed horse competition in the United States.

The annual Germantown show, which started in 1948, this year is a hosting its 75th event. It kicked off Tuesday and runs through Saturday at the Germantown Horse Show Arena.

"This is almost like a mini-Devon being here," Mielenz said. "We only have a handful of heritage horse shows like this that’s been around for a long time and it’s kind of a different atmosphere than other horse shows.”

Germantown native Beanie Cone is the owner and head trainer of Hunter Edge Stables, which is a full-service hunter jump facility in Memphis and Olive Branch. Hunter Edge Stables offers summer riding camps in Memphis and Olive Branch tailored to kids from ages 6 and up. Cone said Hunter Edge Stables teaches about 150 horseback riding lessons a week and has about 20 school horses.

Cone, who has been involved with horses for about 60 years, said he started going to the Germantown Charity Horse Show when he was 3 years old and a participant in the costume contest. Cone said the Germantown Charity Horse Show has grown a lot over its 75 years.

“It’s really cool being like nationally known for multi-breeds,” Cone said. “I’m mainly just do hunter jumper equestrian but seeing like walking horses and saddlebred (horse breed) and all that is great for the horse show. But now we’ve added carriages (horses), speed racking horses which is cool, and we’ve added Paso Finos. It has become even bigger bringing the multi-breeds in there.”

The Germantown Charity Horse Show, designated as a U.S. Equestrian Federation’s Heritage Competition, is one of the oldest and largest all-breed horse shows in the country, bringing about 600 horses.

Wanda Chancellor, spokeswoman for the Germantown Charity Horse Show, said the five-day showcase is known to draw an estimated crowd of 25,000 people and bring an economic impact of $4 million to Germantown. Chancellor noted officials raised $200,000 for this year’s horse show.

“It takes every penny of that to do this horse show,” Chancellor said.

Making upgrades to the horse show’s grounds

In an effort to keep the Germantown Charity Horse Show sustainable for the future, the charitable organization is looking to launch a capital campaign in the fall to enhance the horse show grounds, which includes new drainage and footing for rings, Chancellor said. The effort is called the Germantown Charity Horse Show Grounds Improvements Initiative.

The upgrades will focus on the arena's show rings, barns and paved access roadways. Chancellor said the improvements will increase safety of riders and horses in competitions, increase flexibility for course designs, enhance barn facilities for care of horses and improve show grounds access for competitors and spectators. Enlarging the show rings allows more flexibility in course designs, which will attract riders and carriage drivers not only to the Germantown Charity Horse Show, but to other horse shows held on the show grounds throughout the year, according to Chancellor.

“We have this old-fashion footing, which is sand, and we also have this old-fashion drainage,” Chancellor said. “What we plan to do is dig all of that out and replace it with some sand that also has some different fiber in it. It’s very expensive and we’re also going under there and redoing all the drainage. We’re talking about millions we’re looking to raise.”

What’s on tap for Germantown Charity Horse Show?

The Germantown Charity Horse Show runs through Saturday, when the $25,000 Grand Prix of Germantown takes place for hunter and jumpers to show off their skills. Tickets for the show are $5 and are sold on the grounds at the Germantown Horse Show Arena, 7745 Poplar Pike.

Chancellor said one big change is the event for past 20 years selected Kindred Place, a counseling center for families, as the charity it donated money to from the event. However, Chancellor noted the organization is no longer a nonprofit. Chancellor said the Germantown Charity Horse Show currently doesn't have a charity it plans to give to at this time but is accepting applications.

“We will be giving the same amount of money to different organizations until we get another charity and start back next year,” she said.

Corey Davis is the Collierville and Germantown reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Corey.Davis@commercialappeal.com or 901-293-1610.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Germantown Charity Horse Show hits 75 years: A look at the 2024 event