Your future, our focus
POWELL, Wyo. - Shooting, cutting, marketing, massaging, gaiting, loading, side-saddle riding, showing, reining, plus dentistry and psychic readings: if you can do it to a horse, with a horse or from a horse, it's covered at the Northwest College Horseman's Expo 2010 Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 13 and 14, at the college's Equine Center, 833 Road 9½, outside Powell.
The two-day event features demonstrations, vendor and club booths, a tack swap and sale, stallion preview and opportunities to meet one on one with a variety of the featured equestrian experts.
Things get underway at 9 a.m. Saturday with a series of one-hour demonstrations. The Big Horn Basin Regulators are up first with a Cowboy Mounted Shooting mini run. Riders in this sport combine horsemanship and shooting skills, carrying two single-action pistols in six competitive levels ranging from beginners to "really hot stuff."
Ben Boucher conducts a trailer loading demonstration, followed by Montana equine dentist Irene Holland, who will talk about the importance of equine oral health on overall health and performance.
Gary Cooper demonstrates the art and science of cutting, and Brook Curnow gives a multi-part presentation on how to teach a horse to bow, lay down and smile, how to use a gaited horse to perform dressage maneuvers and jumping, plus a primer on the design of the gaited horse and training methods that work best.
Jordan Knudeson will offer a reining demonstration right before the Billings Livestock Horse Sale staff gives a presentation on how to market a horse in a tough economic market. Nicole and Thomas Singbeil show the differences between riding aside and astride a horse in a side saddle showcase that looks at saddle, tack, apparel and demands placed on the rider and the horse.
The day wraps up with a horse reading by Sandy Bath, an equine specialist who focuses on her subject's psyche rather than body to help overcome training obstacles and other issues.
Kori Cross, an equine massage therapist, leads the action Sunday by giving a horse massage at 11:30 a.m. to help explain her techniques and the complex functions a horse's body goes through to make movement or release bad energies.
The remainder of the day is devoted to stallion previews showcasing several breeds-Quarter Horse, Paint, Tennessee Walker, Arabian, Jack, Morgan and miniature.
The Horseman's Expo is organized and sponsored by the NWC Horseman's Club as a way to get the horse and rider community together for a fun weekend during a slow month for outdoor riding opportunities.
Cost to attend is $2 per day, half of which will be donated to charity.
For more information or to reserve a booth or tack table, e-mail Anne Sherwood or call 307-754-6471.