Horse Expo Pomona is Here!

It will be one year ago tomorrow that I took my black Arabian gelding Beau Knight (NV Beau Bey x Jordgee Anna) to Equine Affaire down in Pomona, California to participate in their "Ride With The Best" program clinic with National level trainer Deborah Johnson of Reno-Tahoe Equestrian Center in Northern Nevada. I had a blast riding with Deb and getting her insight on this National quality Dressage and Hunter Pleasure horse.

On Friday, though I could not be present due to other commitments, my daughter accompanied a friend down to day two at EA. My friend rode her Paint mare with Chris Cox. The following day, Saturday, once again a friend and I went down to the venerable EA, this time to spectate, watch a few clinics given by my friend, trainer Matt Sheridan of Sheridan Performance Horsemanship in Tehachapi, and get a ringside seat for Craig Cameron's Extreme Cowboy Race.

It was one heck of a fun weekend!

Fast forward to last Summer, when the folks at Equine Affaire could not work out a deal with the Fairplex Pomona folks and decided to cancel their event, which had been held for the past eleven years. Apparently, the major sticking point was that the preferred weekend happens to be Super Bowl weekend. SAY WHAT? Since when do us horse people give a darn about football?!

Enter Western States Horse Expo founder, Miki Cohen, who produces the massive equine exposition each June up in Sacramento at Cal Expo. Miki heeded the cries of Southern Californians who were furious about not having an Equine Affaire in So Cal during 2012, and voila ~ we have Horse Expo Pomona. Thank goodness someone recognized that we desperately need events like this to kick start our horse industry.

Of course, some of us aren't exactly ecstatic that the marquee names for this first Expo are Pat & Linda Parelli, we do still hope this new exposition will be a rousing success. One of the major draws for the weekend is called "Project Cowboy", thought up by the folks who brought you Extreme Mustang Makeover and Road To The Horse, during which contestants will vie for $10,000 in prize money and a TV show. There will be a sister competition, called Project Cowgirl, held at the Western States Expo this June. Then the Cowboys and Cowgirls will compete against each other in Madison, Wisconsin at a later date.

So here we are, on the dawn of a whole new event. How exciting!!

Starting tomorrow, I'll be spending the next three days down in Pomona. If you're in the area or heading to the Expo, drop me an email and stop by to say hello! I'll be looking out for you. ;)

~ SFTS