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Special Guests

Clinicians

Cyndi Harris

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Cyndi and her husband Henry, own and operate Antelope Creek, a horse facility in Udall, Ks. They board horses and Cyndi trains and gives lessons to students who have a wide variety of interests. Cyndi was born with a passion for horses. Her love continues today. She has had an eclectic equine experience. She started out in high school rodeo, then moved on to ranch horse events and now competes in Western Dressage and Working Equitation. Cyndi has always used the elements of dressage in her training. She feels that dressage is the foundation for any discipline. Her program has helped her develop World Champion horses in several disciplines. Most recently, WDAA World and AQHA World, Western Dressage Champions. Cyndi’s students have also achieved much personal success with their own horses and in the show pen too! Cyndi is excited to be a part of EquiFest 2023!

Special Appearance, Celebrate EquiFest

Celebrate EquiFest, Thursday at 6:00pm in TPEC Arena

Clinicians

Angeline Salicetti & Sampson

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Angeline Saliceti and her mustang Samson are both 16yrs old and live in Topeka, Kansas. They hold numerous State, Regional, National, and World Titles, and are the 2022 Extreme Cowboy Association’s Youth Reserve World Champions! Samson was born in Green Mountain, Wyoming in 2006 and had a bit of a rough start. He spent a few years in the Hutchinson Kansas Correctional Facility program, and was adopted and returned twice as unrideable. The Saliceti family adopted him in 2012 when he and Angeline were both just 6yrs old. They have been competing in the Extreme Cowboy Association for 10yrs, and have qualified each time for FINALS in the World Championships! They won their first two World Titles when they were 10yrs old. As a result of their success, Angeline represented the United States in the European Cup at Equita Lyon, Europe’s leading equestrian affair, in front of 175,000 people. To this day, at 11yrs old, she remains the youngest International Ambassador for Extreme Cowboy Racing and mustangs. Angeline and Samson have been featured in multiple news and social media outlets in the United States, Europe, and the Caribbean. You can even see them in the BLM’s 50yr anniversary Wild Horse Calendar, as well as several magazines. Outside of obstacle racing, Angeline and Samson hold Championship Titles at the State Fair in everything from Reining, to English Jumping, and even Pleasure classes. They have been featured breed exhibitors at Equine Festivals as well as State Fairs doing demonstrations in jumping, extreme obstacles, and how to use a companion horse in training. Angeline trains her own horses and is the ONLY Youth to have ever shown in the Futurity and against the Pros at EXCA Nationals and World Finals and has so since she was 12yrs old. She is also the 2020 Wild Horse Youth Challenge Champion. She hopes to serve as an inspiration to others to put in the hard work to “saddle your own horse.” At 15 years old Samson and Angeline earned the distinction of the youngest rider to earn a REGIONAL PRO division Grand Champion Title

Special Appearance, Celebrate EquiFest

Celebrate EquiFest, Thursday at 6:00pm in TPEC Arena

Clinicians

Geff & Dawn Dawson

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Geff Dawson and his wife Dawn bring with them some fun cowboy western entertainment with his original western music and cowboy poetry and a bit of comedy as well. His songs and poetry are true-life experiences while working on ranches in the Kansas Flint Hills that will keep you hooked to the end. They bring you into their cowboy way of life with great music, fun and laughter. They are truly unique to the western entertainment industry and whether they perform in a theater, auditorium, near a chuckwagon or campfire, you are sure to enjoy it.

Emcees for Celebrate EquiFest

Celebrate EquiFest in a HIGH ENERGY, entertaining, music and motion display!

Thursday 6:00pm in TPEC Arena

Clinicians

Ron McDaniel

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Ron McDaniel and his wife Nancy live in NW Arkansas, where they have 3 kids, 4 grandkids. They were also foster parents, having fostered teenagers for five years. They have horses, dogs, and just enough cattle to be in constant debt to the bank. Ron works in the Equine division for Merck Health Company and day works for area ranches. As a testament to his cowboying skills, the cow boss at Adams Cattle Company said, “Hiring Ron was like losing two good men.”Ron and Nancy actively support their church, as well as the Remount Foundation a therapeutic facility that helps our men and women returning from combat, and the CALL which is an organization in Arkansas dedicated to not only raising awareness about the need for families to take in foster children but is run by members who are foster parents themselves. Ron is truly grateful to have made his living working in the Animal Health Industry. Reciting poetry has taken him all over America, from Florida to Alaska. In 2015 he competed in the National Cowboy Poetry Rodeo (NCPR) and won the Humorous- Rising Star division. He went back to the NCPR and won the Humorous- Silver Buckle division and the Reciter Serious- Silver Buckle division. He enjoys anything that keeps him horseback, being with his family, and writing about himself in 3rd person.

Coffee Talk and Cow Tales

Thursday: 

Coffee Talk-10:30am to 11:15am, 4H Stage with Ryan Cole & Susan Tullock

CowTales-11:45am to 12:15am, Ag Hall Arena with Buster & Curt

Friday: 

Coffee Talk-10:30am to 11:15am, 4H Stage with  Patrick Sullivan & T&D Donkey Rescue

Cow Talks-5:00pm to 5:30pm, TPEC Arena with Buster & Curt

Saturday: 

10:30am to 11:15am, 4H Stage with Fort Riley Commanding General's Mounted Color Guard

Cow Tales-3:15pm to 3:45pm, TPEC Arena with Buster & Curt



Clinicians

Jessica Klumpe

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Jessica Klumpe, crowned Miss Rodeo Kansas, has a very local upbringing in Olpe, Kansas. She says that being raised on a farm and being in clubs such as 4H sparked early interest in her. As well as being heavily involved in rodeo herself, Klumpe actively seeks to give back to the community and those involved with agriculture with her Queen title. Klumpe says that her platform is a way of promoting the people that are out in the field every day.

Miss Rodeo Kansas

Meet Jessica at EquiFest! She'll be serving as Rodeo Royalty throughout the event. 

Clinicians

Kathryn Leitner

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Kathryn’s artwork focuses on the lifestyle of the ranching family and their livestock. Her early childhood on her grandparents’ ranch in central Montana started a passion for the western culture she hopes to share with her viewer. Staying close to her subjects helps her portray a more honest and moving piece of art, depicting images true to the lifestyle so many yearn to be a part of. Kathryn was the 2021 Signature Artist for AQHA’s Annual America’s Horse In Art Show & Sale. Her art and her stories have been in and cover on many magazine publications and she’s been represented at the Western Heritage Museum.

EquiFest Cover Artist

Meet Kathryn daily and check out her work at her booth in the TPEC Lobby.

Clinicians

Savanna Chestnut

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Raised in the boondocks of Kansas, Savanna Chestnut is a Country music singer/songwriter whose music reflects her roots. Growing up in Americus (a small farm town), Savanna developed a love for the sweet, twangy sounds of old school country music, and that is exactly what she aims to bring back to the modern country scene. Savanna started writing and performing around age 13 and she constitently tours around the country playing a wide variety of venues, festivals, fairs and events. She has opened for acts like Gary Allan, Eli Young Band, Reckless Kelly, Tanya Tucker, Ned Ledoux, Sunny Sweeny, Ward Davis, Granger Smith, Restless Heart, and Shenandoah and more.

Special Appearance, Celebrate EquiFest

Celebrate EquiFest, Thursday at 6:00pm in TPEC Arena

Clinicians

Pastor Steve Stafford

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Pastor Steve Stafford is the founding Pastor at Risen Ranch Cowboy Church, which became a church plant in March of 2006, in Carthage Mo. He has served in ministry in the Cowboy culture for the past 30 years. First with Cowboys for Christ, and then in Rodeo Cowboy Ministries traveling over the Midwest, preaching at rodeos, horse shows, country fairs, clinics, ranches, big and small churches, trail rides, or wherever he was invited. He became a church planter in 2006, with the intent of starting Cowboy churches wherever he could. He has helped in some way start cowboy churches in Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Illinois, Hawaii, and Oklahoma. He was inducted into the Better Horses Hall of Fame in 2014, honoring a lifetime of serving the horse & livestock industry in ministry. He is a contributing writer for Better Horses Magazine, is on the Better Horses Radio Show weekly, and a contributor for Better Horses Television.

Cowboy Church

Sunday Morning Service in 4H Building

Seating at 7:45am

Service 8:00am to 9:00am 

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