by Rhianne Weghnnar
Managing a world class horse show that remains profitable and well-attended year after year is an accomplishment worth discussing, just as I did with Dean Thomson, this year’s National Quarter Horse Show manager.
I was able to catch up with Thomson on Day 3 of the week-long event held August 21 to 26 in Red Deer, AB, to discuss the changes and progress of the annual show.
As is the trend with most horse shows, the Quarter Horse Nationals has been privatized with management placed under Dean Thomson Horse Shows with less board control from the Quarter Horse Association of Alberta.
Thomson is joined by a talented crew and management team. “Our announcer, our ring stewards, our show office staff and all the people who come back and work with us – all have their part in keeping the large class lists organized and flowing accordingly,” says Thomson.
To encourage progress some change is required and the NSBA concurrent classes were added. “We have seen an increase in the number of horses going into both the NRHA and NSBA classes,” Thomson says.
The NSBA and NRHA are two categories of showing that more people are getting interested in because you only have to show once, with points counting towards both divisions, which is a big incentive for exhibitors.
“We also added some futurities with $12,500 in added funding thanks to our sponsors,” adds Thomson.
The format basically remained the same, but with changes to the reining schedule in consideration of exhibitors wanting to compete in Cardston, AB, as well. There has been an increase in horse numbers with the highest entry list in four years, which is a reverse to the trend in showing North-America wide.
“I think that people like the fact that when they come to our show they know what to expect,” says Thomson. “They know there are professional staff here and a well-organized show, and that helps a lot. We also have good prizes; we have buckles and reserve awards.”
This was the third year for the banquet and the second year for the stallion auction. “They have been so successful, and they finance our futurities,” says Thomson.
The auction is a way for people to promote their ranch and their stallions, as the futurities are named in the sponsor’s honour. “Without the stallion auction our futurities were in jeopardy – these people help make a successful show,” he adds.
Recurring sponsorship is extremely important; you just can’t run a show based solely on entries. “We hope that we are providing a good service towards our sponsors. We want them to feel that they are getting an appropriate return on their investment.”
Competitors came from the northwest United States, and the Western Canadian provinces. “It’s a nice show, we come out here every year; this is the seventh year we’ve been here,” says Mark Webb of Bellingham, Washington. “Red Deer is a nice little town, people always treat us well here, and we’ll keep coming back,” he says.
Webb placed first in the Open Lunge Line Futurity with Ziprageous Rascal, a bay gelding owned by Sharon Marshall of Stavely, AB.
They had another successful year with tribute to the two-year-old Just Rage On By in the Two-Year-Old Western Pleasure Futurity. “He’s by world champion Ziprageous,” says Webb.
“I started him late last fall and he’s just been a really great horse to train and shows extremely well. Our class was wonderful, I couldn’t ask for a better horse.”
The show’s management team is also in the second year of a five-year contract with trail judge Tim Kimura. Having Kimura come to the show to do the clinics on-site is a big benefit for the show and its competitors, says Thomson. “It’s definitely been very successful.”
“You improve the competition level and quality of the contest through education and by setting higher standards, because a lot of times people go into classes and they really don’t know what they’re expected to do. But if we can instruct them and show them how to improve their performance, then they’ll see better results in their own performances,” adds Thomson.
“The exhibitors like Kimura, show management likes him, and we’ve actually had other trail judges say that they’ve seen competitors improve in their trail classes over the year.”
Kimura has seen the trail classes grow quite a bit and also says that the quality of horses has improved as well. “I’ve done several clinics here now and it’s interesting to watch how you educate people and see how they apply it to their classes in the show,” says Kimura.
Four participants are usually the minimum in one of Kimura’s clinics, but he has been experiencing higher numbers as there’s a growing need. “I try to put the most colourful poles out there and flower boxes and a lot of other things I can use to dress up the course and make the set up very elaborate to get people ready for world class competition,” he says.
For next year’s Quarter Horse Nationals, Thomson doesn’t foresee any radical changes to the class list or the schedule as it seems to be working very well, but they will look at suggestions people have as long as it’s viable for the show and the association.
At the end of this show we will sit down and go over what’s working, he says. As of now, expansion of the trade show and possibly more breadth to the clinic roster is what will be focused on for next year.
“It’s tough to set up more clinics because so many people are showing and clinic times are hard to coordinate, but it’s definitely something competitors enjoy, says Thomson.
“I think the most important thing, though, is that people can look back at previous shows and see that it keeps getting better and better every year.”
