Western States Horse Expo

I spent the weekend in Sacramento at the Western States Horse Expo. Didn't realize how big it was until I got there - I was proud to just find the building where the booth was! Great crowd at the booth - lots of good questions from the horse owners who stopped to talk to us, and it was pretty busy all the time. Plus there was a booth that sold fudge just down the aisle, which made the days more pleasant.

I found out the morning of my first talk that it was going to be outside in the sunshine (with no computer or screen), so the Powerpoint presentation I'd planned on was not going to be much help. Oh well. The folks that came to hear about Equine Nutrition were great, and asked so many questions that I really never got the chance to make the formal presentation anyway! The second talk also went well, except there were so many questions that by the time we headed back to the booth, the Expo was officially closed and the buildings were locked. Luckily, we found a nice maintenance person to let us into our building, since car keys are somewhat necessary to get back to the hotel!!

Our ambassador Stephen Bradley was at the Expo as a clinician, and it was nice to catch up with him. Hopefully we'll get to see Stephen and Joshua competing in Lexington this September. I'm going to try to arrange for Stephen to come to Kansas after his eventing season is over this year for a clinic. I've watched him teach several times, and would love to clinic with him.

Richard Shrake was also a clinician, and I am always amazed that even though I've probably only met him a couple of times over the past 10 years, he always remembers my name and is just one of the nicest people. We have some really lovely Purina Ambassadors!

After an evening at home, I'm now in South Carolina for another clinic. Tomorrow will be teaching young riders during the day, and then talking equine nutrition to the riders, parents and auditors in the evening. I'm hoping for air conditioning, since it was 97 degrees here today, but if not, I may have to use the hotel pool at the end of the day!