PIONEERING Davao Horse Club will stage stage its 18th Davao Horse Show and Competition on November 24 and 25 at Davao Horse Club Open Field located inside a private property in Shanghai, Matina Aplaya, Davao City.
Dubbed “The Grand Finale,” the annual horse sport event is the last and final leg of the Philippine Horsemen’s Federation (PHF) Competition Circuit for 2018 hence the tagline.
This was bared by Davao Horse Club President Melody Gonzales, who, for the first time in the Club’s history, heads an all-woman, or make that an all-cowgirl, Board of Directors. “The competition among horse sport aficionados has been rather fierce this year and we in the Davao Horse Club wanted to end it fittingly with a bang,” she explained.
Davao’s event is the oldest of all other horse shows that were conducted in the country. At 18 years, it is the longest-running horse sport event of its kind in the country, supported mainly by the City Tourism Operations Office of the City Government of Davao, the Department of Tourism Region 11 and the Philippine Sports Commission who all espouse sports tourism. Select private corporations have also been supportive of the activities of the first horse club organized in Mindanao.
Now, offering to close the 2018 PHF Competition Circuit with flair, the Davao horsemen-hosts have prepared a competition like no other.
Aside from the Barrel Race, the Obstacle Race and the Oval Race, they are throwing in the first Mr. and Ms. Davao Horse Show Contest for good measure while continuing on with Davao signature events like the Drill Team Competition and Halter Class Competition. The former incorporates music to a drill routine on horseback, displaying the riders’ team work as well as the members riding skills. The latter is a contest that determines who is the most beautiful horse of the lot, and perhaps in the whole of Mindanao. Breeders from Davao and Bukidnon are expected to converge for this one important quest to show off their pure Quarter Horses, their Arabians, Thoroughbreds and their mixed breeds.