More From Murfreesboro/QuarterFest

Yesterday had so much activity that by the time I got back to The Castle (which is what I have taken to calling the living-quarters trailer I'm staying at during QuarterFest), I was too pooped to post! So I'm catching back up with you this morning.

I have a partner in crime on this trip, with Horse&Rider's associate publisher Rick Swan from Scottsdale, Arizona. Rick is with the magazine's ad-sale team, knows everyone (or so it seems), and is some of the best "up for anything" company a person could ask for. He's

in the peach-colored shirt, standing with Extravaganza performer Tommie Turvey (on the roan horse).

Tommie's part of the Extravaganza with Pokerjoe, an amazingly trained horse,  brought the house down every night. It's one of those things you really have to see to believe...I'm mystified as to how he gets that horse to lie flat on its back and stretch single legs straight up in the air on cue (among other things).

The gal toting the saddle is Team H&R's Julie Goodnight from Salida, Colorado. At this event, Julie gets my personal award as the hardest-working woman in show business. She's been conducting clinic sessions all weekend. Her mic'd voice was the first one I heard yesterday morning over the P.A., and the last one I heard before the evening Extravaganza began. The folks who bought clinic passes to ride with her at QuarterFest are definitely getting their money's worth.

I love anything having to do with driving horses, so was quite drawn to the stagecoach pulled by six matched black Quarter Horses. The biggest hitch I've ever gotten to drive was four horses, and that was challenging enough at a walk out in the open. So it must be something to drive SIX horses in a hitch, at a gallop in an arena! (I wouldn't have minded riding in the stagecoach, either.)

For one of those personal rock-star episodes you wish your mother got to witness, I was headlined at the AQHA booth, where I got to meet H&R readers and talk about careers in the equine industry. I even signed some autographs! (Blushing the entire time, I'm sure.)

Today, I may finally get a chance to attend some of the horse camping and trail-related presentations. I'm glad I made arrangements to be at QuarterFest the entire three days, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to get all the way through the program!

 

 

A Breed Event That's NOT About The Points & Ribbons

I can't give you a review of AQHA's newest event, called QuarterFest, because it hasn't happened yet. It'll take place May 1-3 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

But I can say that I hope it's successful enough to inspire the powers-that-be in other breeds to get their thinking going in a similar direction.

QuarterFest is not planned as a horse show, with points and ribbons as the enticement, but as a pride-in-belonging festival. Sort of like "Sturgis for horse people." A party, to large extent.

This party's invitees are the home-based, non-competition-driven horse lovers looking for a good time, and maybe a little horsemanship education, over an extended weekend.

The event is set up to be something like a horse expo, with clinics, demonstrations, breed exhibits, vendor shopping, and plenty of chances to mingle with and hang out with other horse people. 

But here's what seem to me to be the two brilliant twists on the concept:

* Attendees have the option to bring their own horses--of any breed--then camp on the grounds, ride in the clinics (or ride out just for fun), to get R&R time as well as social and/or learning time. (You can attend without a horse, too.)

* The event sponsor's own breed gets to be the star of the show. QuarterFest will include a two-hour, choreographed showcase of Quarter Horses as its evening entertainment.

The clinician lineup happens to include two Team H&R members, Bob Avila and Julie Goodnight. Dunno know about you guys, but I'd jump at a chance to ride with either one of them.

In any case, I'm all for the idea of creating opportunities for horse people to be engaged and active. So, tip o' the hat to AQHA for thinking this one up.

Ready for Your Comments: April 09 Horse&Rider

Here's the cover of H&R's latest issue, April 2009.

A couple of new things I'll point out:

* The cover horse, Whispering Incognito, is the first Morgan to grace H&R's cover in at least a generation. No grand scheme for why the long drought and why it finally ended, just kind of how things worked out, over a too-long stretch of time for a lovely breed of horse.

* Julie Goodnight becomes an official member of Team H&R in this issue, with some sound advice on how to handle a horse that won't walk when you take him on a ride outside an arena.

* The formula for calculating a horse's "true" age is revealing. I used it for Tank, and learned that he when passed on last month, he was the equivalent of a 102-year-old man!

OK, your turn to say what you think...(rhymes with pink).