Pat Gallagher/The Valdosta Daily Times Svanah Martin, 7, sits atop Fine as Wine, 1st place winner in the Go As You Please category, after showing the horse in the arena during the 5th annual Midnight Sun Charity Horse show at the Dixie Plantation Conservation Area and Game Preserve near Ashville Florida Saturday evening.

After a two-year-hiatus, the Midnight Sun Charity Horse Show rides again this week.

Economic concerns led organizers to cancel the event last year. While the economy hasn’t necessarily improved this year, organizers worried if they stalled another year, the show would never return, says Betty Horton, one of the horse show’s founders.

They also worried that if they did not continue using the Midnight Sun name, someone else would. Given that Midnight Sun is viewed by many horse aficionados as something akin to the king of Tennessee Walkers, it is a name that other events would love to claim.

“Midnight Sun belongs at the Dixie Plantation,” Horton says.

Since its inception in the 2000s, the Midnight Sun Charity Horse Show has been held at Dixie Plantation, 18,000 acres of property sprawling from South Georgia’s Brooks County south toward Greenville, Fla.

The plantation has ties to the legendary Tennessee Walking Horse Midnight Sun.

Referred to as “Dixie’s Big House” but often called the “Hunting Lodge,” the plantation mansion was designed by architect John Russell Pope, who also designed Washington, D.C., landmarks such as the Jefferson Memorial and the National Archives Building. Work on the mansion began in the late 1930s. The house was completed in 1941.

For Gerald Livingston and the world at that time, Dixie Plantation was better known for dogs than horses. It was the site for the Continental Bird Dog Field Trial Championships.

Yet, Dixie Plantation was also once the home of Gerald’s wife, Eleanor, and their daughter, Geraldine, who owned Midnight Sun, one of the most famous names in the world of horses.

Midnight Sun was the first stallion to win a World Grand Championship two years running, in 1945 and again in 1946. The Livingstons purchased Midnight Sun in 1957, when he had been put out to stud.

Since the horse stayed at Harlindale Farms, Tenn., Geraldine commissioned a life-sized bronze statue of Midnight Sun for her mother.

The statue spent many years on the Dixie Plantation’s grounds, visible from Eleanor Livingston’s bedroom window. The statue is now displayed at the National Horse Show Commission’s headquarters in Lewisburg, Tenn.

Several years ago, when the ladies of the Quitman/Brooks County Museum and Cultural Center were looking for a way to raise money for the museum, they looked toward the abandoned mansion and the lands of Dixie Plantation.

Betty Horton, Charlotte Jones, Jean Logan and Nancy Schmoe were told by family and friends that resurrecting the plantation and founding a sanctioned horse show would be impossible. They didn’t listen to the skeptics. They went to work and made the horse show a reality. They got the show sanctioned. They acquired permission to use the Dixie Plantation mansion and grounds. They filled the mansion with furniture from antique dealers. They attracted corporate and area sponsors. As time passed, they built an arena for the horse show.

People took notice that first year. Horton, Jones, Logan and Schmoe’s impossible dream won a national prize for best new horse show.

They held the show five times, with the last one being in 2008.

Coming back this year, event costs have been reduced from past years. New events have been created to attract more participants.

In addition to the main event of the sanctioned horse show, organizers have added a Versatility Horse Show, which is open to youngsters and other riders and horses who want to show in a less-formal environment than the main event.

A dog show has been added this year. This dog show is for all breeds and types. It, too, is meant for fun with categories such as dogs looking most like their masters, biggest dog, etc.

By maintaining the Midnight Sun tradition, while adding more events at reduced prices, organizers hope to keep riding for many years to come.

MIDNIGHT SUN SCHEDULE

Where: Historic Dixie Plantation.

Tours, Country Store, Vendors: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily.

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 29: Noon, luncheon, style show and mansion tour, $25. Tour only, $10.

THURSDAY, Sept. 30: 6 p.m., entertainment and cash bar, a plantation supper, dancing with the music of the Encore Band at 7 p.m., $50. Dancing attire (no jeans or shorts).

FRIDAY, Oct. 1

— 3-5 p.m. BBQ & Bluegrass, featuring the music of Lost Dogs Found, $10 (with horse show admission included).

— Box seats (6) for both nights of horse show, $100.

— 5 p.m. Horse Show, $5.

SATURDAY, Oct. 2

— 9 a.m. Versatility Horse Show, WHOA sponsored, $5.

— 3 p.m. Dog show, free.

— Box seats (6) for both nights, $100.

— 5 p.m. Horse Show, $5.

SUNDAY, Oct. 3: Noon-5 p.m., Mansion tour, $10; country store open.

More information, directions: Call (229) 263-6000; or e-mail midnightsunhorseshow@windstream.net