The American Western Weekend kicks off this weekend at Globe Life Field in Arlington. The 2 day event has some of the best horsemen and horse athletes in the world with a total prize purse of $1 million. Noelle Walker has the story.
Where there was a baseball field, there is now a dirt-filled arena at Globe Life Field. The American Western Weekend kicked off Friday night.
"You know, most of the time we get to go to a horse show, it's at facilities that are built for horse shows," reining horse trainer Jason Vanlandingham said. "This is purpose-built for baseball."
That means a lot of work had to be done to make the surfaces perfect for the elite horse athletes that compete.
"They're like the Michael Jordans of the world. They're special. They can do things that other horses can't do," Vanlandingham said, explaining why the ground needs to be well-groomed. "It would be like the Rangers playing on a cow pasture and expecting the ball to bounce to them the right way. It doesn't work that way, so we gotta have good ground."
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Vanlandingham demonstrated some of the maneuvers he does in reining competition with his quarter horse, Best Shine. The horse athletes have spins, sudden stops and changes of direction and the sliding stop.
"We'll be running through a gate towards home plate from center field, and we'll start the night off with a sliding stop towards home plate," Vanlandingham said. "Horses that we get to ride have been doing this for generations before I was even born, and so they're horses that crave that stop. They have tremendous foot speed. These are some of the best athletes in the world as far as horses are concerned."
The American Western Weekend has the American Horseman Performance competition on Friday night and the American Rodeo on Saturday. The total prize purse is $1 million.
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"We get to come to an event like this and it goes good for you, I'm telling you what it's like," Vanlandingham said. "The Rangers whenever they wrapped up their World Series, it's kinda the same type of feeling!"
In addition to top Wester athletes competing, entertainers Luke Bryan and Post Malone will perform.
