The Michigan Reining Horse Association held its annual Pink Slide In show at the Midland County Fairgrounds in Michigan. The show premiered June 8-10 with a full lineup of classes; however, the schedule wasn’t too full to host fun events to benefit Rein In Cancer!
If contestants wore pink in their classes during the first two days of the show, their names were entered in a drawing for fresh, homemade pies! The event also hosted a silent auction which featured great items such as a custom-made horseshoe lamp and a wine and cheese basket. An egg and spoon race produced quite a challenge for the smooth operating reiners. As if that wasn’t fun enough, the day ended with a Pink Hopper Pony Calcutta!
Six teams were auctioned off in the Calcutta before the race, and the winning bidder of the Calcutta race winner received 50% of the pot! Amidst laughs cheers, and good-humored competition, participants hopped their way around a marked obstacle course that included weaving cones, circling a barrel, and, of course, reining spins before handing their bouncy pony off to their teammates to complete the same course with the fastest time!
All week long, the show office handed out saddle pad cards for competitors to use to dedicate their ride to a special person who is battling or has battled cancer.
The event then went to the dogs! The last day of the show featured a pink puppy race sponsored by Bay Animal Hospital with the prize being, of course, a basket full of canine goodies! There was a little dog race for doggies under 30 pounds and a big dog race for those over 30 pounds.
MRHA Pink Events Coordinator Kristy Stecker was enthusiastic about the participation as she said, “The support and generosity of the MRHA reining community for the Pink events and Rein in Cancer was awesome!”
The weekend was chock full of fun events all for the benefit of Rein In Cancer which pays money directly to cancer patients to use where ever it is needed: hay, fuel, cancer treatments, or anything else. Rein In Cancer is a 501c3 nonprofit corporation that to date has raised over a million dollars. The organization has no employees – only volunteers – and over 97% of that total has gone directly to the advertised causes.