With over 1,000 attendees and over 50 adoptable horses last year, WE CAN’T WAIT for 2021!
August 19-21 2021 in Winfield, WV
This year, the event will span 3 days.
Beginning Thursday evening, August 19th, we will kick off with the basic skills portion. Friday will be the trail competition, meet and greets, open fun show classes, demos and “tentatively” an Exhibitor Dinner ($20 per attendee). Saturday will have additional open Show classes, and by Mid Day, the Free-style portion of the ATFO will begin, ending with the awards, then adoption auction.
Relevant Vendors will be encouraged ($25 fee if you register before July 1st, $50 if you register afterward).
Judges are tentatively: Patrick King, Michael Lyons. One spot is left to fill!
We will have increased stadium seating, sound and a much larger program for attendees. We will also allow time before the Exhibitor Dinner Friday for a meet / greet with trainers and judges.
All horses will be assigned a number that will follow them through the event and match the printed programs and their stalls, and which barn the horses are in will be listed in the program.
We will have 12-15 Trainers in each of the divisions: Amateur and Pro. Top Half of Am. Trainers will take part in the freestyle, and all Pro trainers will take part.
There will not be a cap on how many horses can be “Showcased” adoption portion, which you can read about here.
Awards will be to the 1-3 places for each division, and the fan favorite will be by applause for the top 5 contenders from online voting.
There will be a social media award chosen by the HOP team for the trainer who runs the best online presence campaign, which will factor in multiple areas of the marketing leading up to the event.
All horses must be adopted through the HOP process.
Professional horses will be feral, unstarted or considered difficult horses. Amateur horses will be horses within the rescue already that are undersaddle or/and very handled. No horses will receive points for 2021.
Trainers will receive Points during the 100 days leading up to the event. There are 6 total points possible. Amount of likes on posts will not factor into these points; however, there will be required videos or posts, and making certain to post these before deadlines will earn the 6 points prior to the competition.
Trainers will be scored on condition and weight of the horses by the judges. You can lose up to 5 points for your horse not being in suitable condition, even if the horse passes the vet minimum 4.5 condition body score.
Should a trainer’s horse not adopt out during the event, trainers may be given the options, based on whether they performed very well during the event, to take the horse back and receive 75% of whatever fee they set after the event, but the horse must adopt through our adoption process and on our adoption agreement at Heart of Phoenix Equine Rescue.
Appalachian Trainer Face Off 