The expo attendance was little light, I’ll admit. I don’t’ know if it has to do with the rising fuel prices, the lack of a real significant horse community in the area, poor promotion or just bad luck. Regardless, I think a lot of the vendors, clinicians and speakers were disappointed in the turn out.

That said, there was definitely one very entertaining bright spot: My friend Craig Cameron. Not only did he do his usual, interactive clinics, he hosted one of his Extreme Cowboy Races. If you’re not familiar with these, they’re worth looking into.

First, they’re not limited to any make, model or breed of horse and second, they’re a true test of how broke a horse is and how good the relationship between horse and rider is without an all-day competition schedule. The courses vary, but in Eagle, here’s how it went:

When the whistle blew, the rider would ride off a hill to the course and over four small jumps. Then, they’d have to drag a log, ride their horse under a few panels set on end, complete a pole-bending course, go over ‘uneven ground’ or a three mounds of dirt piled up, through a gate, over a bridge then over a bigger jump and through some brush. Then, they’d have to ride to a traffic cone, lean down and pick a tennis ball up off of it then take it to another cone and set it down. The riders then had a free ride where they went over some of the same jumps again and could show off their horse in any way they saw fit. Finally, they had to load their horse in a trailer. It looked fun—probably not easy—but fun. A water crossing is supposed to be incorporated, but the Eagle River was running a little too high to risk that.

Craig Cameron is a great emcee and gives good insight into what’s happening as you watch. It’d be easy to master any one part of a course like that, but not all of it. A few competitors had their horses ready for anything, though. Which is good, because no course is the same from event to event. An average time is under five minutes. I didn’t get the details, but it is judged as well. Time and performance are calculated together for an overall score.

What I liked about it was how fun Craig Cameron made it. There are a few ‘toughs’ but overall it was average people with average horses (and mules) doing their best and having fun. In many ways, it’s what a horse competition ought to be.

So kudos to Cameron on creating a fun thing for people to do with their horses and taking the opportunity to teach his methods and share his style at the same time.