Minnesota Horse Expo 2007
What
do enormous, colossal, gargantuan, gigantic, huge, humongous, jumbo,
and mammoth all have in common? They all describe the
Minnesota Horse Expo 2007. According to Expo President Glen
Eaton, “It appears we had the best Expo of all times for Minnesota.” Although
final numbers are not available just yet, Expo organizers think they
broke all their attendance and revenue records and that’s great
news for horse owners!
The
Minnesota Arabian Horse Association was well represented at this
year’s Expo. Our rider/horse presenters included our husband
and wife team of Katie and 
Michael O’Shea. Katie rode
Mr. Hollyfire while 
Michael presented SHF Midnight Solfire, a yearling,
in halter. Deanne Muller rode Winston, a rescue horse and purebred
Arabian. Doug Peterson of Regent Arabians brought 3 MAHA youth
riders: Margeaux Minea riding Khoumadre, Ali May
Kuebelbeck on Dannzig, and Alyssa Erickson with
Rising G-R Affinity.
Also joining the group, Dr. Ken Price of Cedar Ridge Arabians and
his 3 youth riders: Courtney Scott, Christine Finley, and Kahlie
Kroells, all riding C-C-F Francysco. Lee Strand
of Strand’s Arabians also joined MAHA in the arena.
Also joining us at our stalls were MAHA volunteers Kathy Zalusky, Les Crowl, and Natalie Anderson. It’s their work of meeting and greeting the public that keeps our beautiful breed at the forefront of Expo activities.
New this year was Sunday’s outdoor horse parade. Several clubs were invited, including MAHA, to walk from the stalls, down past the D-N-R building and return back to the stalls. At about the half way mark, our announcer read about 2-3 sentences about the purebred Arabian. This horse parade gave Expo attendees one last look at several of the breeds. Deanne Muller and Winston were much admired as she showed him in Native Halter. It was considered so successful that Expo organizers already have breed representatives lining up for next year’s parade.
Another big thank you goes to MAHA President Brian Feuling, board member Tom Fisher and MAHA volunteer Mike Theede for helping set up our stalls on Thursday. On Sunday, when we had to pack up, another MAHA volunteer, Annie Slawik, joined us.
The Horse Expo is a fantastic way to educate others about the wonderful Arabian breed. I know a lot of MAHA members like to show that same weekend. However, if we as club members don’t volunteer to talk to the public about our breed, other horse breeders, will be more than happy to be present at the Expo to talk about their breed. It will be our loss.
Please think about joining us next year for this incredible opportunity to show Minnesotans what a great treasure we truly have.
Diana Pierce Babcock
Horse Expo Chair