The High Desert Western Spectacular, held Aug. 22-27 at Matt and Lesley Day's Hooker Creek Ranch in Bend, Ore., has been looked upon in the past as the "pre-futurity" for a majority of 3-year-old athletes bound for the annual National Reined Cow Horse Association's World Championship Snaffle Bit Futurity, held in September at Reno, Nev.

However, with a purse totaling over $207,000, the High Desert Western Spectacular definitely "holds its own" and must be considered one of the industry's most prestigious and affluent reined cow horse events. In fact, since its 1988 debut, in which only 12 entries were recorded, the event has "outgrown its britches," so-to-speak, reaching a record 170 entries in 2000, which looks to be the final year the event will be held at the Hooker Creek Ranch. It will be moved to the brand new Deschutes County Fairgrounds in Redmond, Ore., for the year 2002. According to the Days, the main reason for the move was the weather - a show of this size and calibre needs to be indoors. The beautiful setting of the Days' ranch with the flags blowing in the wind and the Cascade Mountain Range as a backdrop will be missed. However, the Days have promised the HDWS's future events will be awesome despite the move.