2012 Texoma Horse Expo-Breed Alley

Its that time of year again! This past Saturday, October 20th, Pie and I attended the THIRD annual Breed Alley during the Texoma Horse Expo in our “hometown” of Wichita Falls, Texas. This event, if you are a new follower of our blog, is an event that I organize each year thru the area horse committee in conjunction with the expo. The goal of Breed Alley is to introduce folks in our area to the “lesser known” breeds that live in our area, which is traditionaly Paint Horse and American Quarter Horse Country.

Each year we learn abit and improve. This year, breeds represented in the alley included Chincoteague Pony, Gypsy Horses, Tennessee Walking Horse, Arabian, Missouri Foxtrotter, Foxtrotter Pony,Peruvian Paso, and Freisians.

Each breed is alocated booth space, a stall and also gets time in the arena to showcase their breed’s unique attributes.

Pie enjoys going to this venue, but, without fail, each year, by Saturday evening, she is ready to go home. I think it takes every ounce of self control to stay clean and confined to a stall all weekend. 🙂

We arrived Friday afternoon to set up, get Pie settled and work her. She worked well..one thing I can always count on is her not being goofy in new places..that is why I love her so much. After, I got her settled in her stall and got to work on the booth. I think this was our best design yet!

Then outside for some graze time for Pie mental wellness.

We also caught up with our friend, Michele, who runs Underdog Ranch, a new horse rescue in our area. Kate, the worlds first painting border collie, was donating a painting for the rescue to sell. We had photo ops, shopped thru Underdog Ranch’s used tack sale (’cause you never can have to much tack!), fed Pie and headed home.

Saturday went extremly well..everyone’s demos in the arena went well and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. Pie did some nice things during her exhibition and , as always, loved getting on her stool. A Professional photographer got some AWESOME pics of us!

 

 

 

 

 

A Video of our demo!

And the expo participants

We then, as last year, got our picture taken with the horse expo banner..Fletcher came with me on Saturday and of course, had to be in the picture. It took about 20 tries to get the perfect picture..trying to get a Border Collie to stay put and Pie to put her ears up proved to be quite the task!!! 🙂

As always, I enjoy tremendously talking with folks about Pie and the Chincoteague Pony breed. Ive said, it is wonderful to see folks walk up, read the info and slowly a smile starts to spread across their face..you can tell they remember the book..THIS is a pony from their childhood, standing before them, real. 🙂 Pie never ceases to amaze me in how adaptable and amicable she is. She is so incrediably special.

Saturday evening, we headed home..and Pie was finally able to get dirty again..:)

Another expo in the books! til next year of course! 🙂 Thank you to everyone who brought their wonderful horses, came out to see the alley, came to the expo, offered support and help..you are appreciated more then you know!

 

2011 Horse Expo and Show

October 15th was the second annual Breed Alley at the Wichita Co. Horse Expo in Wichita Falls. This breed alley was my own brainchild, my goal being to bring attention to some of the “non quarter and paint horse” breeds of the general area.

It was a big success last year and this year proved similar. We had more horses this year. the breeds represented were Azteca, Chincoteague Pony (of course!), Friesians, Gypsy Horse, Mo. Foxtrotter, Shire, Warmblood, Morgan and Peruvian Paso.

Our booth

This year, Pie was actually ridden, unlike last year when I led her. Pie is not one to hold her feelings to herself and it was pretty obvious she wasnt super keen on spending 2 days in a stall, espcially being she lives outside at home. She did well, because I asked her..but I know she would have prefered her favorite dust hole to being CLEAN in a stall..Pie prefers to be filthy.

Pie trying to escape out the stall door

I debated on music to our freestyle and finally decided on Train’s “Hey Soul Sister”..this song always reminds me of Pie, its upbeat and happy..like her. Our freestyle went well..We had some speed change and a really nice turnaround to the right. We also showcased afew of her tricks.

Unfortunately, no video or pictures at this time…:(..hopefully, some of the professional photographers there got afew.

After the demo’s, Pie enjoyed meeting many new people who wandered down the alley..this seems to be her favorite part of these events, meeting people. 🙂

Sunday, Pie got to hang out while Casey, my son, showed Beebe. This was significant, as it was their FIRST show together. They had a great day, winning showmanship, placing third in the walk trot class and fifth in trail. It was a great gauge on how far they’ve come as a team in such a short time.

Another successful Breed Alley in the books!