March 13, 2019
Jamie Wines, a junior majoring in Natural Horsemanship and Business, represented Montana Western as an equine intern at the Northern International Livestock Exposition (NILE) held in Billings, Mont., in October 2018. Her experiences at the NILE have tied in with the lessons she is learning as she trains her first colt in preparation to sell at the third annual UMW Colt Challenge and Sale March 29-30, 2019.
The NILE is an agriculture centric event with the goal of “promoting livestock, agriculture education, and respect for the western culture.” While there, Wines learned how to successfully organize and facilitate equine related events.
“While I was at the NILE I helped put on the horse shows, futurities, and sales. I got to see a lot of what goes into it from the secretary and show manager standpoint,” explained Wines.
Experience One and the flexibility provided by block scheduling offered at Montana Western allowed Wines to participate in the internship without taking away from her college studies. At UMW students take one class at a time for 18 days, allowing for a more immersive education.
The experience Wines gained while interning at the NILE has been helpful as she markets the colt assigned to her in the UMW Sales Prep Class. This was Wines first year in the class where she was assigned Drift Final, a 2016 bay gelding donated by Mike Hollenbeck. Wines describes her colt as laid back with a lot of natural cow sense.
“He really likes cows. I hope someone buys him and uses him on a ranch,” Wines stated.
The goal of the Sales Prep Class is to have students majoring in Natural Horsemanship start a colt from square one. Breeders from all over Montana and the surrounding states generously donated the colts for the class. Students try to offer the colts as much exposure as they can to prepare them for the real world.
Wines encourages everyone, especially current Natural Horsemanship students, to come enjoy the Colt Challenge and Sale. The Challenge will take place on Friday, March 29 starting at 9 a.m. The sale is scheduled for Saturday, March 30. The colts will preview starting at 10 a.m. and the sale will follow at 1 p.m.
The event will take place at La Cense Montana, located at 4600 Carrigan Lane in Dillon. For more information about the Colt Challenge and Sale, please visit the event website, or contact Head Natural Horsemanship Instructor Eric Hoffmann by email at [email protected] or call 406-925-1499.
View all of the sale colts and stay up to date on their progress by following the Montana Western’s Colt Challenge & Sale Facebook page.
