Association Scoop
Perfect Weather. Gorgeous New Facility.
Record Breaking Attendance.
Yes, Its Midwest Horse Fair Time In Wisconsin!
The Midwest Horse Fair broke all historical attendance
records April 17-19, when more than 61,000 attendees came
through the gates to celebrate the horse in our state capital
of Madison, WI. The recordbreaking attendance provided
an outstanding promotional opportunity for the Wisconsin
Walking Horse Association (WWHA) to join the 500 vendors,
36 national clinicians and 37 breed/discipline demonstrations - and proudly showcase our beautiful Tennessee Walking
Horse breed. The WWHA membership planned three core
promotional activities for the Fair - a breed demonstration, an
info booth in the main coliseum, and a barn hospitality display
where visitors could meet our horses and our membership.
and music. The horses and riders did a fantastic job. And the
audiences cheered for our riders.
THE INFO BOOTH
THE BREED DEMO
This year’s fair theme was, “Galloping Into The Future,”
which we translated into “Walking Into The Future” to better
represent our smooth gaited breed. Our breed demonstration
was performed twice and featured five riders in white glittery
vests for a monochromatic color scheme. Our gratitude goes to
our wonderful breed demonstrators - from left to right - Margaret Wittkopp and DeJay’s Morning Angel; Jessica Gilchrist
and Goldust’s Merry Boy; Katie Livingood and Oh So Pretty;
Ashley Frones and Dirty Little Secret; and Kricket Jewett and
Gen’s Armed with Hacksaw.
During the demonstration we exhibited each of our breed’s
smooth gaits, including the flat walk, running walk and the
rocking chair canter. The main focus of our demonstration
was to showcase the versatility of the walking horse. Our demo
included a trail rider, an English and a western show horse,
and a dressage horse - in a broad array of walking horse colors,
from cream to black. The group performed not only rail work
but also a drill team formation - all set to an informative script
14 • Walking On
In the main coliseum, the WWHA set up a breed display
- where we handed out in formation about the Tennessee Walking Horse and shared advice and resources about our breed.
The booth was setup in a main traffic spot - where we were
able to share information about our club in Wisconsin, as well
as walking horse resources at the national levels - including
TWHBEA and WHOA collaterals. Thank you goes to Marcia Boeing for coordinating the info booth logistics and staff
schedule to ensure we were there to meet and greet visitors
all weekend long. It was amazing how many people stopped
to talk to us about the breed. Many who are considering a
smooth gaited horse for riding the beautiful Wisconsin trails.
Others who stopped to learn more about our show schedule in
Wisconsin.
THE HOSPITALITY BARN DISPLAY
The WWHA hospitality display was located in Pavilion 2,
the largest building among the newly built facilities, which
held 700 stalls and a standard size arena. The atmosphere
was particularity joyous, as everyone took time to admire the