If you pass Erin Mask at a Quarter Horse show and she doesn’t stop to chat, there’s probably a very good reason. The 13-year-old youth contender from Newnan, Georgia may be the busiest person you’ll run across at a show.

The daughter of Angie Schmeck and Daryl Mask, Erin is up at the crack of dawn to show up to seven Halter horses at various times. She loves competing in Western Pleasure on Only Because Im Good. She and RR All In compete in Youth Trail, Western Riding and Horsemanship. And this year she has added Ranch Horse Pleasure to her repertoire.

Erin’s life has always revolved around showing horses.

Her grandmother, Susie Watts, has been a horse enthusiast since she was just a little girl and her mom started showing Quarter Horses as a youth and now competes as an amateur.

“My grandparents (Susie and American Quarter Horse Association judge Billy Watts) trained and showed so I grew up around horses,” Erin explains.

At the age of 10, Erin made her showing debut in Halter events with PF Securely Styled, a 2006 buckskin gelding by Kids Classic Style. In 2011 she teamed with Shining Assets, a 2002 chestnut mare by Protect Your Assets, showing Walk-Trot and they placed third at the Dixie Nationals, their first show together.

Although she has only been competing for three years, Erin has already built an impressive show record. In her first appearance at the AQHA Youth World Show she and PF Securely Styled placed 11th in Aged Geldings.

In 2011 she won the Youth Weanling mares at the Quarter Horse Congress with Cleeshay.

Then in 2012, teamed with her mom’s pleasure mare, Only Because Im Good, Erin won both the National Youth Association Team Tournament Western Pleasure and Novice Youth Western Pleasure 13 & Under at Congress. They also won the Novice Youth Western Pleasure at the National Snaffle Bit Association’s World Championship Show and were Reserve Champions in Youth Western Pleasure. She and Cleeshay also returned to win the Youth Yearling Mares.

In 2013 she and Only Because Im Good placed seventh in Western Pleasure at the AQHA Youth World Show and Erin was Top 10 in all of her Halter classes.

This year Erin is showing RR All In in Trail, Western Riding and Horsemanship and Only Because Im Good in Western Pleasure and Performance Halter Mares under the guidance of Tony Burris. Her family also has pleasure horses with North Carolina trainer Donnie Dickerson.

She says she loves showing horses because “I enjoy the friends that I meet and I like the competition.”

Georgia trainer Todd Grant helps Erin with her halter horses: GQ Image, Aged Geldings; MC Exceptional Miss, Aged Mares; Cheerz, 2-Year-Old Mares; Done With A Clu, Performance Halter Geldings; Get It Girl, Yearling Mares; and Two Chains, Yearling Geldings.

Erin has also started showing in Ranch Horse Pleasure with My Kisses Are Hot, a 2009 bay mare by One Hot Invitation and out of Hot Chocolate Kisses, under the guidance of Virginia trainer Steve Meadows.

“I just started showing Ranch Pleasure and I really enjoy it a lot too,” Erin says.

But of all the classes in which Erin competes she says she most enjoys Trail and Western Pleasure. Her favorite Western Pleasure horse is 13-time Congress and World Champion A Certain Vino. Although she isn’t showing Hunter Under Saddle she enjoys watching it and says These Irons Are Hot is her favorite English horse.

If she’s watching a class she most enjoys Western Riding.

“The level of difficulty to have a perfect pattern is really high,” she notes.

When she is not at a horse show – which is rare, Erin enjoys hunting and fishing and spending time with her brother, Drew Mask.

“I homeschool so that I can take the time off needed to travel and show,” Erin says. “I also like to snow ski and go to our lake house on Lake Rabun (Georgia).

Erin says her hero is her grandmother because “she works hard to make sure everyone is happy and she always has a smile.”