THE EQUINE AFFAIRE, POMONA
by: Tina Lewis of the Lewis Stallion Station
The Equine Affaire in Pomona, California, held it’s 10th Anniversary Exposition and Trade Show this year at the Fairplex, on February 4th through the 7th with several large exhibit buildings full of horse trailers and barns and anything else you could think of, related to the riding, care, nutrition and health of a horse. There were Trade Show exhibitors and clinicians with informative training clinics, seminars and demonstrations on subject matter covering a wide variety of breeds and disciplines as well as plenty of food and beverage available, literally, on every corner.
The crowds of people came out, in what looked to be record numbers, some, traveling hundreds of miles to shop and take advantage of the many bargains, ideas and helpful, low pressure retailers throughout the Trade Show. Even a little rain didn’t seem to bother anyone since most of the shopping, clinics and seminars could be found indoors under the shelter of the exhibit buildings or under the covered arena area.
Craig Cameron’s Extreme Cowboy Race, fast becoming a favorite at the show, was held on Thursday and Friday evening from 7:30-9:30 PM with the finals held on Saturday evening, all under the covered arena, which was, once again, packed. There were people sitting on the ground on blankets, and standing for lack of space in the bleachers to sit. This race is an extreme competition where 36 horse and rider teams compete for $4,250 in cash as well as other prizes. The course includes obstacles and activities, such as dragging logs, jumping obstacles, backing through a pattern, pole bending, rollbacks and spins, working gates, conquering dirt terrain, carrying water, going over or through tarps, etc. It is a timed event during which the performance of each team is judged for quality of horsemanship and for each individual obstacle, the judges award performance points on a scale of 1-10. Horses and their riders must complete each obstacle within a given time frame and the horse and rider team with the highest overall point score wins the race and most of the prizes and money. This year there was a saddle and $2000 given to the first place winner, with $1500 for second place and $750 to the team that came in third.
Many people wait all year for this event and make trips to the parking lot, to drop off loads of shopping bags full of dewormer, horse blankets, rakes, whips, jewelry, boots, and jeans and many do this for all 4 days of the event. In addition to the fabulous deals and shopping is also an abundance of interesting material and brochures that can be picked up at booths throughout the facility such as FrontierPackTrain.com, offering full service packing trips on horseback, Broken Horn Saddlery, Hooves & Paws, and Big Jim’s tack or from a clinic or training seminar put on by experts such as Dr. Jim Kubiak with TheBreedersAssistant.com offering classes in all aspects of Equine reproduction including artificial insemination and ultrasound as well as cooled and frozen shipped semen.
The Nation’s Premiere Equestrian Gathering, as the brochure says, seems to be just that, as it seems to be the focus of every horse lover in the state with clinicians, trainers and retailers coming from all over the country for this huge Equine Affaire.
