By Julie Preble, Assistant Editor

The more I look at the extended weather forecast for Boulder, the more anxious I am to go to sunny California! As I’m writing this blog, it’s 57 degrees Fahrenheit in Pomona vs. our 12 degrees in Boulder.

Bring on the sunshine!

To learn more about what she’ll be doing at the event, I spoke with trainer and clinician Sandy Collier.

Here’s what she had to say.

H&R: What topics will you be presenting at the expo?

SC: That’s a really good question. I have three days, and we’ll have cattle at the clinic on Saturday because of the Cow Horse Classic that’s on Friday. So I’ll be presenting on how to work cattle, position your horse on cattle, and cattle 101.

On the other two days, I’ll split up riding, steering, collection, and lead changes. It?ll be the basics of getting your horse broke?just beyond the 30-day training point.

H&R: Will it just be your presenting, or do you have some riders you’ll be working with?

SC: I have two non-pros each day that I’ll be coaching through what we’re working on. Hopefully they?ll have some background and their horses will be in a position where we can advance them and not just focus on the basics. I’ll try to advance each horse and rider to a potentially better score or performance.

I recently had my knee replaced, so I won?t be riding, but I’ll be coaching the non-pro riders.

H&R: What is it you like most about going to Pomona?

SC: What I like most about going to Pomona would be what I like most about going to any event like this——I love to share my knowledge, teach people, and help them get their horses to improve and their horsemanship to improve.

All my DVDs and books are geared toward educating people so that the process of getting their horse to be a better horse. They can benefit from my years of stubbing my toe, so to speak.

H&R: What events will you judging at the expo, and what do you enjoy about being a judge?

SC: I’m judging the inaugural California Classic Cow Horse event Friday night. It’s the Southern California division of the Magnificent Seven, which they have at the Sacramento Expo. That?ll be three events: reined work, herd work, and fence work.

I just really enjoy judging events like that because you just see such great horsemen on great horses and it’s going to be a real crowd pleaser. It?ll be a pleasure and honor to judge it; it’s the best of the best.

I’m also judging Charles Wilhelm?s Ultimate S.U.P.E.R. Horse Challenge where they do a cowboy trail, pleasure, and reining. I?ve never judged it, and I?ve only seen parts of it, so it’ll be fun, and it’ll be a challenge.

Sharon Camarillo and I are going to judge one day which is great, because she’s a fellow cowgirl hall-of-famer. She’s actually the one who nominated me to get in to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame, so we’re great friends, and it’ll be fun to spend time with her.

Then I judge their cowboy trail with Tim Kimura who?s a great trail horse judge. So that?ll be fun. It?ll just be a really fun event.

H&R: Will you take some time to walk through the trade show?

SC: Always! I love to spend money on cool horse stuff!

H&R: Anything in particular you’re excited to see?

SC: I just like seeing all the new stuff that comes out. I don’t get to go to expos but once a year, so there’s always some fun stuff or some new jewelry to buy. And you can get to meet all kinds of people, too, so that’s always fun.

Miki does such a great job with these events. There’s all different kinds of vendors. She puts on a pretty good expo. It’s always an expo to participate in the ones that she does.

I?ve done expos in Canada, in other countries, and across the U.S., nobody puts on an expo like Miki does. We’re very lucky to have her in California.

#PomonaExpo14 is brought to you by Horse Expo Pomona, Kensington Protective Products, and HorseLoverz.