By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Two Bowling Green High School graduates didn’t have to put the cart before the horse to receive scholarships from the Ohio Harness Horsemen’s Association.
Garrett Bateson, a 2024 BGHS graduate, and Mason Konesky, a 2025 BGHS graduate, were two of the 14 harness horsemen’s scholarship recipients for the 2025-26 academic year.
Both students have familial connections to the harness horse industry and the association, which is the main criterion for eligibility, along with merit .
Horses are in Mason’s DNA
For Mason Konesky, horses and harness racing have been part of her life before she can even remember. Her grandfather, John Konesky of Pemberville, has long been involved in the harness horse industry.
Her parents, Patrick and Wesley Konesky, were both raised around horses. “In fact, my parents’ first official date was to watch my grandpa race,” Mason said. “I think I watched a race when I was two months old, and I’ve been in the barn since I was really little.”
She started riding horses when she was five years old. Mason and her father would take donuts to visit her grandfather every Saturday, to help jog and care for the horses. “I got my love of animals and compassion from there and learned how to work with the animals,” she said. “Watching my grandpa go to the fairs was another core childhood memory.”
She is a nationally rated United States Pony Club member, competing in eventing competitions that include dressage, show jumping, and cross country, and she placed twice in the national regional horse quiz bowl competitions. She also participated in the local Colorful Clovers and Wood-N-Horses 4-H clubs, taking a variety of horse and miscellaneous projects, including learning to drive a standardbred horse.
Mason graduated with a 4.108 GPA from BGHS, where she was a member of the Model U.N. and Quiz Bowl teams.
She plans to attend Purdue University this fall, majoring in biochemistry, which she discovered during a six-week summer research program at Bowling Green State University in 2024.
“The $3,000 OHHA scholarship will help with books and kind of chop a little bit of money off my tuition to make it more affordable,” she said. “Having that extra money means that I can save up to go to grad school or med school. And it allows me to be able to feel like I have a little bit more financial freedom in order to do things I love.”
Mason hopes to take her horse, Tiki, to Purdue in the fall and plans to continue with the U.S. Pony Club in that region.
“Horses are like a disease. Once they get in your blood, they can never come out,” she said, quoting her grandfather.
Though she doesn’t think she will take over the family’s horse business, she knows she will always work with horses. “Horses have been such a central part of my life. They will always be my break, my stress reliever,” she said.
Garrett Bateson has family ties to harness horses
Garrett grew up around the harness horse industry thanks to his father, Steve, who was introduced as a teen to standardbred horses and harness races by his neighbor Winifred Warner.
Steve learned the ropes by helping feed the horses, cleaning the barn and attending county fair races, including the prominent Little Brown Jug in Delaware County. By 2005, Steve was “back in the business” on his own, eventually including his wife, Terri, and three boys, Case, Garrett and Levi, in the operation. He has been a longtime member and past president of the Ohio Harness Horsemen’s Association.
Garrett’s earliest harness horse memories were heading over to the family’s barn and training race track. “I liked playing around with the horses, feeding them, giving them treats, and what seemed like a good idea at the time—riding on the back of horses that weren’t trained,” he said. That didn’t turn out so great.
Currently, Garrett is a sophomore at Ohio University, majoring in sports management. He is also active in the Sports Business Association and hopes to use his education to make a meaningful contribution to the sports industry, including harness racing.
“Receiving this scholarship shows a good amount that my efforts in the classroom have paid off, that my family ties and my time spent with the horses mean something to others,” he said.
When Garrett is home, he still helps with some of the responsibilities associated with racehorse ownership, including stall upkeep and jogging and exercising horses on his family’s track.
“I love horses, but I’m just not as active as some of my other family members,” including his older brother, Case, who is a race trainer and driver. “Right now, I have other goals to use my degree in other sports, but this deep involvement has given me a unique understanding of the industry and a huge appreciation for the dedication it requires,” he said.
