2026 Heart of the Horse Trainers Challenge & Expo

The Challenge trainers will meet at the MS State Fairgrounds in January to select an untrained rescue horse as their training partner for the next 120 days.. They will return to the Kirk Fordice Equine Center on May 14-17 to compete for the title of Heart of the Horse Trainers Challenge Champion and over $15,000 in cash and prizes. Professional, amateur and youth trainers from English, western and gaited disciplines will test their horsemanship skills in three days of head-on competition. The challenge horses, once cast aside as useless and neglected, will perform their skills to prove they are now transformed into safe, capable riding companions, ready for a long-term owner and loving new home. The Heart of the Horse Expo will offer a wide variety of horse related vendors and exhibits, as well as the most popular class of the HoH Trainers Challenge - the Freestyle competition! In addition to the Trainers Challenge competition, both days of the event will include Youth Pony Challenge classes, featuring previously feral Shetland Ponies that have been trained and prepared for new homes by young trainers. Following all of the competition classes, there will be a showcase of Diamond Horses that are adoptable for a specified fee to approved adopters.

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