Horse Expo is equal parts education and entertainment

Picture this: The carousel is spinning. The painted ponies are prancing smoothly round and round, up and down. They’re gorgeous and enchanting — but nobody would mistake them for life. They rise and fall like pistons.

Now picture this: Politely as can be, the real-life horses — and their fantastically costumed riders, decked out in glittering gold and purple and white — take turns prancing loose from their track to show off before the crowd. They bow and rear and strut, taking applause in stride before returning to their revolving fold.

This is one peak moment among many that local horse lovers will enjoy this weekend, as the sixth annual Washington State Horse Expo brings all things equine to the Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds — from serious education to fun shopping to thrilling entertainment.

“It’s like in the ‘The Nutcracker,’ when Clara dreams about the toys coming to life,” said horsewoman and equine veterinarian Meg Brinton, who organized the Expo’s Saturday Night Extravaganza. “What little girl hasn’t dreamed about her horse coming to life?”

Some little girls grow up without ever sacrificing that dream — like Brinton herself, who hails from Corvallis, Ore., and became “smitten” with horses the first time a junior-high girlfriend invited her out to the family barn. Brinton said she blended her early, girly love with a keenly scientific mind, becoming an equine veterinarian and opening the Ridgefield Equine Clinic in 1989.

For a while, Brinton said, all that hard work and study meant “putting horsemanship on hold,” but in recent years, she’s found time to earn a silver medal in “dressage,” a horse-training tradition that traces all the way back to ancient times, emphasizing near-effortless communication between horse and rider and resulting in graceful, dancelike movements. Like a pair of ballet dancers, Brinton said, a great horse-and-rider dressage partnership will make the difficult and complicated look beautiful and easy.

Clinics and experts

The Saturday night floor show might be the highlight of the Horse Expo for certain equine lovers and dreamers, but there will also be plenty going on throughout the weekend for riders and owners who are up for some serious learning. Clinicians and topics include:

• Julie Goodnight, RFD-TV’s “Horse Master,” on classic riding skills and solving riding problems.

• Sharon Camarillo, an inductee into both the National Cowboy and the National Cowgirl halls of fame, on the “A.R.T. of barrel racing.”

• Texan Craig Cameron — the “original extreme cowboy” — demonstrating his own style of natural horsemanship.

• Steve Rother of the Northeast Washington town of Hunters on rebuilding confidence and trick training.

• Jessica Wisdom of Battle Ground on dressage.

• Kyle Kellmer of Battle Ground on reining.

• Rob Zimmerman of Ridgefield’s South Ridge Farms on Working Equitation, a newer discipline that includes dressage, speed, obstacles and other practical “working riding” skills.

That’s an overview of experts who will conduct clinics at various times each day; check the online schedule for details. There will also be lots of beautiful and exciting entertainment, plus daily preliminary heats for Sunday’s final Extreme Cowboy Race (with $3,000 in cash and prizes at stake) at 2 p.m.

The Black Pearl Friesian Dance Troupe will appear several times, and also will re-create that coming-to-life magical horse carousel during the Saturday Night Equine Extravaganza, a separate event with a separate $5 admission. Many of those seriously skilled clinicians will let loose on Saturday night to show off their best tricks and moves, too, Brinton said.

“It’s a unique opportunity. It’s fairly intimate and you see multiple disciplines and remarkable visuals,” she said.

Finally, Brinton said, event-goers mustn’t miss Endo the Blind, an appaloosa gelding whose diseased eyes had to be removed years ago. Endo and his owner, Morgan Wagner, live in the Eugene, Ore., area.

“It’s an incredible story of an incredible connection,” Brinton said.

This is what visitors will see everywhere at the Horse Expo, she added.

“People love horses,” she said. “People love to smell them, touch them, breathe them in.”