Horse Illustrated Magazine

Mustang owners and enthusiasts are gathering at the Reno, Nevada Livestock Events Center for the 2009 Western States Wild Horse and Burro Expo.

Though the BLM regularly hosts Mustang adoptions around the country, the Expo is much more than just an adoption event. Mustang owners and trainers are invited to compete in a show just for wild horses and burros. The Expo offers classes for English and western pleasure and equitation, halter and showmanship, trail, poles, barrels and cattle events. All levels are welcome, with divisions for walk trot, green, novice, amateur and pro.

The Expo offers a full schedule of clinics on a wide variety of topics from basic ground handling up to under saddle refinement. Thirty minute demos on Saturday give attendees an overview of a handful of training topics.

Saturday is Kids’ Day at the Expo, with activities geared toward younger visitors. There will also be an auction of wild horses trained through the Prison Mustang Gentling Program, a program that helps inmates learn the skill of handling and training wild horses while helping to make those horses more adoptable.

On Sunday, wear pink to support cancer awareness. Half of the day’s admission fees will be donated to Moms on the Run, a group that supports women with cancer.

Admission is only $5, and attendees receive a dollar off with the donation of gently used men’s jeans or boots for the Prison Mustang Gentling Program. The Expo also offers a dollar off Saturday’s admission for donations of markers, crayons or coloring books for the Keaton Raphael Memorial Fund for children with cancer.

For more information, visit wildhorseandburroexpo.com

For more on Mustangs, read an interview with Madeleine Pickens about her plan to save America’s wild horses.