Plains Day to receive new event for next year

PLAINS – In hopes of providing more entertainment on Plains Day, a new event is scheduled to help generate more interest in the celebration.

Patti Waldoch presented her plans at the monthly fair board meeting and had discussed the event prior to the meeting with Fair Manager Mike Hashisaki.

The two-day event will be called the Plains Day Super Sort and is a ranch sorting horse competition.

The western-style equestrian sport evolved from the common ranch work of separating cattle into pens. The event takes one to three riders, depending on the category, and puts them in a race against the clock. The team’s goal is to drive the correct cattle back into the pen as quickly as possible. 

Waldoch said she hopes to bring in anywhere from 50 to 75 participants for the weekend and stated that most of the participants would likely camp out at the fairgrounds. 

“I visited with Mike about vendors, alcohol permits and renting the 4H barns for the stalls,” explained Waldoch. “Basically what we would be doing is bringing revenue to the fairgrounds.” 

She stated that in her first year of the event, her goal is to cover their expenses, although she did mention that could go either way. 

“Hopefully we’ll cover our expenses and be able to kick back as much money to the participants as possible,” Waldoch said. 

She explained the event would include entry fees and payouts.  So far Waldoch and her crew have been able to raise enough money to put up a saddle for Saturday’s competition and buckles will be awarded for the Sunday classes.

“Saturday is going to be a little more of a high dollar event that hopefully will bring all of the out-of-towners in and Sunday will be more of a low key, less expensive event with more classes offered as far as a youth class, a beginner class, and a Sadie Hawkins class,” said Waldoch. 

The Sadie Hawkins class would donate some of the proceeds back to the Cowgirls Kickin’ Cancer organization in Sanders County. 

Waldoch stated Sunday would be geared more toward community involvement. She said entry fees should be between $20 and $25 to make it more affordable for local riders. 

She is currently utilizing personal relationships with other organizations to see what kind of prizes could be donated for the event. 

“I have put on these events before like in Kalispell and Helena. This is the first one I’m putting on here but I do have resources and hopefully we can generate a lot of people coming to our community and spending money here at the fairgrounds,” said Waldoch. Her hope is also to help create revenue throughout the area.

Chairman of the fair board, Chris McGuigan, said the toughest part of the event will be getting the arena maintained for a riding event. 

“When you say Plains Day, there’s a good chance of rain,” said McGuigan. He explained the arena gets slippery with too much rainfall because of the clay in the ground. 

“To get it to a good point, the arena is going to have to be worked a good day before,” said McGuigan. “If it turns out pouring rain, we have soup out there and there’s nothing we can do about that clay in the ground.” 

He did say if they dug deep enough, they would be able to get enough moisture in the ground if the day turned out to be hot. 

Since no one can predict the weather, McGuigan did say if the rain begins to fall, the 4H arena could also be used as a backup, even though there is limited seating in that area. 

The event will land on June 7th and 8th - a time Waldoch said is ideal.

“It works out really well because Helena always does (an event) on Memorial Day and all of us are trying to not overlap…there’s only so many people that play,” said Waldoch.