We listened: Fall Rocky Mountain Horse Expo focuses on timely topics

September 18-20 in Ignacio, Colorado

You told us what you wanted, and we listened. The fall Rocky Mountain Horse Expo at the Sky Ute Event Center in Ignacio, CO (September 18-20) brings expert clinicians to answer your requests for a broad array of topics, from colt-starting to carriage driving. The “Green Ranch College,” sponsored by La Plata Electric Association, will focus on “greening up” the horse property or ranch with seminars on barn retrofits, composting, solar design and more. Goods at the trade show will suit every budget, with tack and equipment you’ll use every day, custom and premade saddles, unique jewelry, even home décor bring your Christmas shopping list. Little buckaroos can get their faces painted, then run the barrels and poles on stick horses. And yes, there will be live horses, too: the Expo presents twice-daily breed, discipline and individual horse demonstrations, and brings sellers and buyers together for private treaty sales.

Clinicians and topics include:

* Ryan Gingerich (RFD-TV’s “The Behaviorist”): Bucks, bolts and bad attitudes in horses. * Tammy Pate: The rider as athlete—maximizing effective riding * Jason Patrick: Colt starting, days 1-3; Hackamore and bridle horses * Karen Scholl (Horsemanship for Women): Topics to build confidence and safety * Debbie Bibb: Dressage for the trail, from the ground up * Moses Woodson: Gaited horses’ selecting, training and riding

Driving is a growing discipline in the horse world’so the Four Corners Draft Horse, Mule and Carriage Association will take you through the fundamentals, from the characteristics of a good driving horse, through tack and harnessing, to driving basics for pleasure and work.

Admission to the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo is a great value: $12 for adults, $9 for students and seniors and it covers everything you want to see. The price is right for horse exhibitors, too, with the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo 3-Day, 3-Stall Stimulus Plan–$90 gets two horse stalls plus a tack stall for the whole weekend. Vendor booth space is available a reasonable rates, both indoors and out.

Go to http://www.rockymountainhorseexpo.com/ or call (303) 292-4981 for details.