Left to right, Rod Olsen, Kade Mills and Travis Beaton will be taking part in the horse trainers' challenge event. (Submitted photos/Lloydminster Agricultural Exhibition Association Ltd.)

By Angela Brown

Coming up this spring

Trainers’ Challenge among highlights at Everything Equine show

Feb 2, 2022 | 3:16 PM

LLOYDMINSTER, Sask. — Lloydminster Agricultural Exhibition Association plans to give a few area equine trainers an opportunity to show their skills as part of the Everything Equine on the Border event coming up April 8 to 10.

Agriculture manager Shelly Ann Dodgson said people are welcome to apply to have their young fillies and geldings selected for three days of training sessions. She noted the trainers will need to be accomplished in the art of breaking a horse to make it manageable.

“You have to be very good at it to know what you are doing,” she said. “[The horses] are not going to be ready to go into the show-ring by any means. But for the owners, when they get them back they are going to have a horse that is ready to go further in training.”

Organizers are in search of three unbroken geldings or fillies to match up with the trainers for the challenge. People are invited to contact Lloyd Ex to apply to have their young horses selected for the event.

Kade Mills, Travis Beaton and Rod Olsen are the trainers who will be competing in the challenge.

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“This is a brand new event,” said Dodgson. “They get an unbroken three-year-old horse. Over the three days, they take if from halter-broke to being able to ride. They are judged on how they perform and how the horse performs.”

She said she believes there isn’t another equine event quite like this in the northwest region.

The Everything Equine on the Border event will also include a trade show and sessions with three clinicians. Bronwyn and Jason Irwin, from Ontario, will give workshops on Western horsemanship and some gymkhana-type events, while Alex Grayton, from the Calgary area, will give sessions on English jumping.

“What I’d like to do is talk a little bit about show jumping in particular, and what it takes to train a show jumping horse and rider,” Grayton said.

He recommends people have a training system when preparing their horses for show.

“I want to keep it pretty fundamental in terms of the topics we’re talking about — what’s important, what’s not,” Grayton said. “I’ll be talking about how we get our horses to do some of the crazy things we ask them to.”

There will also be some demonstration riders who will complete various exercises and put these strategies into action.

Grayton said some people attending the workshop will likely already be a little familiar with the sport and might get something out of it in terms of the technicalities, while others who don’t have any experience with jumping will find the session “a little bit eye opening.”

“It’s not really you just point [the horse] through the middle and see what happens; there is quite a lot that goes into it,” he said.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow