Thousands attend annual UA-sponsored , four-state horse festival
Posted on Sunday, April 1, 2007
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/51668/
More than 4, 000 horse lovers from a four-state area gathered at the Pauline Whitaker Equine Science Center on Saturday for the biggest horse festival of the year.
Weve doubled the number of attractions this year, said Nancy Jack, director of the Dorothy E. King Equine Program. We went from just having a horse show in the arena to having vendors, arena activities, educational demonstrations, reenactments and much more.
Sponsored by the University of Arkansas, the horse festival attracts equine enthusiasts from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Missouri each year.
We keep getting more and more people, Jack said. The event showcases the wide variety of horse breeds in our four-state area.
In addition to carriage rides and live music, the festival also featured performances by the Fayetteville Fiddle Choir and the Kids Corral, along with live entertainment by the One Arm Bandit Gang, Boston Mountain Gun Slingers and the Mounted Fury Medieval Exhibition.
A lot of people enjoy our parade of breeds, Jack said. It features national Friesian champions, miniature Belgium champions, Clydesdales, Gypsy Vanner horses, professional fox trotters and much more. Plus we have a Meet the Breeds portion of the event that allows people to look at the horses up close.
According to Jack, this years festival was coordinated by 85 University of Arkansas students enrolled in the Dale Bumpers College of Agriculture.
The majority of them are in my Introduction to Equine Industry class, she said. They learn about the wide variety of breeds, quality, color, nutrition, reproduction, genetics and uses.
Fadelle Powell, a freshman at the UA, said she and other students spent the entire semester preparing for Saturdays event.
We had different committees in charge of different jobs, she said. I helped set up some of the tables and signs. Dr. Jack helped us with some of the organizational aspects. She taught us how to keep a day planner, which was really helpful.
In addition to horse education, Jack said the festival also teaches students new business skills.
They learn public speaking and customer service skills, she said. I use the horses as a carrot to get the students into my class. The moment I get them, I start talking about time management and the types of things employers want to see.
The horse festival, Jack said, is entirely self-funded
Its one of the few programs on campus that gets all its own money, she said. The students and I have to earn or get donations for $ 85, 000 to $ 95, 000 a year to take care of the horses.
Jack said the horse festival is the biggest of three horse events sponsored by the college of agriculture. Other events include an annual horse auction and a horse lovers day camp.
The first year our camp started, we had 18 kids, she said. The second year we had 89.
Though horses have been in the public eye for years, Jack said the national interest in equine studies has grown in recent years.
I think all these horse whisperers and trainers you see on TV have made horses more visible, plus they make it look fun, she said. Horseback riding is a lot safer than used to be.
Jack said proceeds from the festival help support the Dorothy E. King academic program in the Department of Animal Sciences at the UA.