Last year on Halloween I was blogging the Appaloosa World Show for Steve Taylor and crew at the Appaloosa Horse Club. This year Steve is a master agriblogger and handling the job very well. Here’s a picture from his posts at the show this week.
Probably the toughest job I’ve had all week at the Appaloosa World Show in Fort Worth was being on a panel of judges to evaluate entries in the pumpkin carving contest. Our great supporter, Gary Raak, Twin Cities Feather-Lite, organized the competition and even hauled in the pumpkins.
If you’re planning on traveling with a horse then you might want to check into the advice and help of some experts. The experts at Horse Travel Network. This is a new venture which was just announced at the National Appaloosa Show. They’re not tied to just one breed either by the way.
Mark Hardy is the President of Horse Travel Network. This morning he and I sat down and wound up talking far longer than I think we planned but he’s an interesting guy and this new venture sounds like it’s got some great potential. One of the things I find most interesting is how they’re totally internet based and have already got over 700 people signed up and it’s brand new! Word of mouth is working for them big time. The site will include advice, forums, blogs and of course, listings. It’s going to take advantage of some social networking applications which are really popular today.
The Horse Travel Network is a new sponsor of the Appaloosa Horse Club and offering their members a special deal right now of a free membership.
The program this week ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. In the spirit of traveling I chose “Travel Ditty Guitar” from Acoustic Rosh. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 177 (13 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:
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The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes
Cindy got to see Michael Peterson perform on Friday night but I got to see Callaway perform on Saturday night. She did a benefit concert for support of Appaloosa Youth Association activities and was a big hit with the young audience.
She played a full set of songs with her band and showed why she’s an up and coming star.
The ring was opened up so that everyone could come down out of the stands and get up close and personal. It took a little coaxing but once Callaway got started most of the crowd moved on down.
You can watch Callaway perform one of her songs in this video:
You can’t be at a horse show and not see a lot of boots. Some are more noticeable than others.
So it’s time once again for an AgWired edition of “Guess Whose Boots.”
Just use the comment feature and submit your guess and the first person who gets it right will win an Agwired t-shirt. There are clues if you’ve been reading lately but I’ll add some if needed.
One thing I don’t think you’ll ever find me doing is calf roping. I may as well jump off a building as a horse after roping a calf. That is, if I could even swing the rope and ride at the same time.
These guys make it look like a piece of cake though. It’s still relatively early here in Jackson, MS but they’ve been out here at it since 7:30am. In fact, I think they start that early every day for 2 weeks.
The first week here is mostly the youth show with adults starting today. I’ll be around until about midday on Monday so you can expect more from here.
I don’t mean the golf company. Maybe you don’t know Callaway yet but I do. She’s a very young singing star and will be performing tonight at the National Appaloosa Show.
She’s on the left in case you didn’t figure that out. I’ll let you figure out who’s on the right.
Callaway will be performing a benefit concert for the Appaloosa Youth Association programs. She’s from Madison, MS but lives now in Nashville. Callaway is 16 years old and has been touring with the legendary Sam Moore.
I asked her if she liked horses and she loves them. She’s impressed with how kind the people are she’s met here and good at what they do.
You can listen to my interview with the Callaway here:
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This week’s ZimmCast is a little late I know but I wanted to wait until I got to Jackson, MS and the National Appaloosa Show so we could learn about how they’ve handled a major move to a new city with a show that’s been held in another location for a long time.
So this week you can hear Appaloosa Horse Club Executive Director and master blogger, Steve Taylor, tell us all about it. Steve is pictured on the right of the ring announcer.
He says the plan to make the move started before he joined the organization 2 years ago. Some of the reasons for the move included making sure they’re getting the best bang for their buck and allowing some new people in a different part of the country to have an opportunity to participate that couldn’t before.
Steve says the move also allowed them to look at how they’re marketing the show. He says they’ve received very good coverage from local media and that the organizational members themselves have been doing a great job of word of mouth. While they’re here in Jackson, his staff and members are doing a lot of local shopping and they’re even making sure they personally invite community members to the show.
The Appaloosa Horse Club also has its own magazine, website, blog, e-newsletter and during their shows they have one or more live webcams.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 176 (14 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:
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The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes
This week you get to learn about equine photography through an interview with Karen and Larry Williams, Larry Williams Photography. I met them at the World Championship Appaloosa Show and really enjoyed seeing how their system works. They take a lot of pictures and have to manage them through backups and uploading to their website for sale. Watching Larry work with horses shows that he’s got a lot of patience!
The program concludes this week with music from the Podsafe Music Network. This week’s song is “Hot Doggin” by the Deerfoot. I’ll be going on my annual deer hunt in a few days so I was glad to find them.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 143 (11 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 6 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes
Last night’s program included a short show by Diana Olson who is President of the Arizona Cowboy Mounted Shooters Association. She has a beautiful horse and just in case anyone was nodding off after a long day she woke them up.
Thanks to Steve Taylor and his staff at the ApHC for working with me and having come spend a couple days blogging there show.
I grew up in Sarasota, FL near where the famous Lipizzaner Stallions had a facility so I got to see this move quite a few times. Last night here at the World Championship Appaloosa Show this move got a big “ooh” from the crowd and I just happened to be ready to take a picture.
This was right before the Rope Race Invitational while each contestant was being auctioned in a Calcutta to raise money for Appaloosa youth scholarships. If you don’t know what a rope race is then you’re missing some excitement. Basically the contestants race to a wire that has ropes dangling from it where they have to grab one. The problem is there’s one less rope than contestants. So in each heat the number of contestants drops by one until only one person with a rope is left. You can watch the first heat on YouTube:
Sometimes the photographer gets his picture taken. I hope Larry Williams is happy with this one of him and his wife Karen.
They’re the official show photographers of the Appaloosa World Show and boy do they have a job to do. You can only imagine how many pictures they have to take and take care of. They do thousands at a show and their system is very impressive.
Larry said he’d been trying to figure out how to make a living in the horse business for a long time. I think he found a way since equine photography is his business and specialty. Like a lot of people Larry has had some mentors and people to learn from and he talks about them in our interview.
You can listen to my interview with Karen and Larry here:
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I showed Larry this photo I took at the stump races this morning and he said it looked good. I asked him for some tips on how to get a good one of something going this fast in relatively low light. His answer is “lots of light” and “shoot a lot.” He’s got lights rigged all around the ring that all flash with the camera on the floor.
After shooting Indy cars at 220 mph I’m not sure which is more difficult!
I know a lot of you are like me, “not very horsey.” But you work at a show like the World Championship Appaloosa Show and you can get pretty horsey real fast. How many of you know what a reining competition is? Quick show of hands. That’s what I thought. So watch this video clip and then you’ll have an idea
Hey, if Charlie can have some then I guess Steve Taylor can too.
Actually these were some of Steve’s helpers at last night’s World Championship Appaloosa Sale. They were responsible for getting the paperwork to the winning buyers in the auction.
And we wondered why Steve left Missouri for Idaho.
If you need your boots shined at the World Show then “Storming” Norman Miller is your man.
I got mine done earlier today and had a little chat with the shine king. He says he’s been doing this for the ApHC for at least 15 years and about 53 years all together locally. I asked him how many shines he’s done. He says that there’s 5,280 ft. in a mile and he’s shined a lot of miles! He handled my interview with him like the professional he is.
You can listen to my interview with Storming here:
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It looks like the World Show will be in Ft. Worth for some time to come. Today the Appaloosa Horse Club signed a new 5 year contract with the city of Ft. Worth. Looking on just after the signing are ApHC representatives Steve Taylor, CEO and Eric Beené, President along with Ft. Worth City Councilmen.
I attended the signing and recorded their comments which you can listen to here:
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After the signing there was the traditional exchange of gifts. The ApHC guys got some very nice leather bound note pads.
Steve Taylor brought along an Idaho (ApHC Headquarters state) favorite, Huckleberry Mead. The way the Ft. Worth City Councilmen were eyeing the bottles of mead I know which gift will last longer than the other!
You never know who you’re going to run into when you’re out doing some agriblogging. For example, I got to sit down with actor Barry Corbin yesterday at the World Championship Appaloosa Show. He recently completed an award winning short film titled, “Trail End.” The movie stars a great Appaloosa horse. On the left is Tony Nix, owner of the horse in the middle, Chippen Gold (“Chip”). On the right is Barry Corbin. Barry’s starred or guest-starred in too many movies and tv series to list.
I spoke to both of them after yesterday’s screening of the movie here at the World Show. Barry says the horse was the star and he only played a supporting role. He says about Chip, “He supported me but I supported him. It was kind of like a partnership.” In my interview you’ll hear Barry describe the movie and talk about his other experiences in the acting world. I asked him for some behind the scenes stories from making Trail End but all he could really say is that he had a good time and that it was, “Like a week and a couple days of a trail ride.”
You can listen to my interview with Barry here:
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When I spoke to Tony he says that he got involved after someone at the ApHC made a connection to him when the movie company called seeking a horse in Kansas. He says that Chip was great and showed that an Appaloosa (even an 18 yr. old one) can star in a movie. He also thinks it might be pretty cool if someone would need him to star in a movie too.
You can listen to my interview with Tony here:
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It’s been an interesting afternoon here at the 2007 World Championship Appaloosa Show. As you can see one of the rings is busy. They’re just about to wrap up the last show in time for tonight’s World Show Sale.
I spoke with Appaloosa Horse Club board member Chuck McWhirter about the sale since he’s one of the main organizers. He says that they’ve got some great horses lined up and now all they need is some buyers. That would be nice if you want a successful sale.
It is Halloween and the good thing is that I’ve found candy everywhere so I’ve got my chocolate fix.
You can listen to my interview with Chuck here:
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I will not be in costume. I’ll be working at the World Championship Appaloosa Show in Ft. Worth, TX. Besides being able to read all about it on the Appaloosa Blog Spot I’ll have posts here on AgWired as well.
In case you’re interested you can also watch arena action via the Appaloosa Live Web Cam. This picture is taken from the one in John Justin Arena this evening.
In the meantime, Appaloosa Horse Club CEO, Steve Taylor is showing his blogging skills on Appaloosa Blog Spot at the show. Check out what a CEO can do if he wants to. He should provide you with some inspiration. I know there’s some CEO’s reading this. I’ll be giving him a break though for the couple days he’s bringing me in to help out.
Commodity Classic took place in Anaheim, CA. You'll find all of Chuck, Cindy and Joanna's photos here.
Happy Ag Week
It's time to thank our farmers and ranchers for all their hard work to feed us.
In this week's program I interview Linda Tank, CHS, Inc., who is Chair of the Agriculture Council of America, the group coordinating National Ag Day. Learn more about their activities, especially this week in Washington, DC.
Last year on Halloween I was blogging the Appaloosa World Show for Steve Taylor and crew at the Appaloosa Horse Club. This year Steve is a master agriblogger and handling the job very well. Here’s a picture from his posts at the show this week.
If you’re planning on traveling with a horse then you might want to check into the advice and help of some experts. The experts at 
Mark Hardy is the President of Horse Travel Network. This morning he and I sat down and wound up talking far longer than I think we planned but he’s an interesting guy and this new venture sounds like it’s got some great potential. One of the things I find most interesting is how they’re totally internet based and have already got over 700 people signed up and it’s brand new! Word of mouth is working for them big time. The site will include advice, forums, blogs and of course, listings. It’s going to take advantage of some social networking applications which are really popular today.
Cindy got to see Michael Peterson perform on Friday night but I got to see Callaway perform on Saturday night. She did a benefit concert for support of Appaloosa Youth Association activities and was a big hit with the young audience.
You can’t be at a horse show and not see a lot of boots. Some are more noticeable than others.
One thing I don’t think you’ll ever find me doing is calf roping. I may as well jump off a building as a horse after roping a calf. That is, if I could even swing the rope and ride at the same time.
I don’t mean the golf company. Maybe you don’t know 
Steve says the move also allowed them to look at how they’re marketing the show. He says they’ve received very good coverage from local media and that the organizational members themselves have been doing a great job of word of mouth. While they’re here in Jackson, his staff and members are doing a lot of local shopping and they’re even making sure they personally invite community members to the show.
It’s time for the agriblogger to hit the road home. The 
I grew up in Sarasota, FL near where the famous 
Sometimes the photographer gets his picture taken. I hope 
I showed Larry this photo I took at the stump races this morning and he said it looked good. I asked him for some tips on how to get a good one of something going this fast in relatively low light. His answer is “lots of light” and “shoot a lot.” He’s got lights rigged all around the ring that all flash with the camera on the floor.
Hey, if Charlie can have some then I guess Steve Taylor can too. 
If you need your boots shined at the World Show then “Storming” Norman Miller is your man. 
It looks like the World Show will be in Ft. Worth for some time to come. Today the 
After the signing there was the traditional exchange of gifts. The ApHC guys got some very nice leather bound note pads.
You never know who you’re going to run into when you’re out doing some agriblogging. For example, I got to sit down with actor Barry Corbin yesterday at the World Championship Appaloosa Show. He recently completed an award winning short film titled, 
It’s been an interesting afternoon here at the 
I will not be in costume. I’ll be working at the 
It's time to thank our farmers and ranchers for all their hard work to feed us.
