Meet a Horse??? Barn Tours??

There have been several emails with questions about what is Meet a Horse and the Barn Tours. Check out the slideshow for a visual explanation.  I'll try it in words, too.

TIMES:  During the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show the activities run from Saturday to Saturday.  Meet a Horse starts at 10:30 AM, and Tours are start at 12 Noon.

MEET A HORSE:  This is one of the Amateur Committee's  first breed promotion activities. We started doing it about 4 years ago.  Clancy, the initial star of Meet a Horse has had over 1000 + people mount him and have a picture taken.  The ages range from 8 months to 80.   It's great.  Clancy is Mary Lou Houge's retired reining horse.  Lois's Rosie, a most excellent trail and parade horse,  now pitches in and has star billing with Clancy.  People come back each year to see them.  The photographs are free thanks to the support of Tempe Camera.  

It takes 6 people and one of those "wild" Arabians for us to pull it off.  It starts with the horse and handler plus two people to help "riders" mount.  We use a mounting block and are very careful.  We need a photographer and someone to print the photographs.  Crowd control is important so we need a gate person to organize the people who are waiting.  I counted 30 "riders" in line last year at Scottsdale.  An extra person is always appreciated.

BARN TOURS: Four years and still going!  The Barn Tour's objective is to give folks  an opportunity to see what goes on in the show barns.  It takes a barn willing to have 50 to 100 people come visit. The barn spokesperson pulls out a horse and talks about the horse, what the barn does, the tack, the grooming,  the riders. . . anything horse or show related.    The tour groups loves the up close and personal encounter with the horses and riders.

The hard part for the Committee is to find barns that will let us come visit.  Many thanks to Bill Flood, Bob Hart, Battaglia Stables, Rio Estancia, and Wolf Springs for welcoming us.  There are seven time slots to fill this year.

To pull off a tour we need a knowledgeable horse person who can talk about what the group sees and answer questions.  Two or three folks are needed to help shepard the group as they walk to the barn, and be able to answer questions and explain, also.  This is important for our big groups during the Scottsdale Show.

CONTACT:  If you are interested in helping us out contact Eloisa at ahaa.az@gmail.com