Rural Heritage June/July 2025

Big Sky Expo Preview

by Joe Mischka T he Big Sky Draft Horse Expo, held each June in Deer Lodge, Mont., is celebrating its 30-year anniversary, June 27–29, 2025. The show offers a mix between performance (hitch) and farm (open) classes with high-level competitors in each of them. Draft Horse Show Co-Manager and Board Member Betty McCoy explained how the show started. “As I understand it, in 1995, there was a group of, locals here from the Deer Lodge Valley that came together and said we should have a draft horse show because there was a lot of interest in draft horses here in this valley,” Betty said. “And, in addition to those local individuals, the Powell County Museum and Arts Foundation was a part of that group that initially brought the show together,” Betty continued. “And, I won't list their

names because I would miss some, but, nonetheless, it was a good committee, a good group of people, and it started slow. It started small, you know, as all shows do, and, struggled over the years and had growing pains, but now it’s a nice big show.” Betty went on to explain the basic mission of the show: “The main mission of our show is to educate the public,” she said. “We want the public to understand how everything was established and why it was established. And show them what it used to be like and that's why it's been nice to join with Grant-Kohrs Ranch and with the Old Montana Prison Museum and Auto Collection here in town. It just brings everything together and people are able to experience what it used to be like back in the 1800s and early 1900s.” The Friday morning before the show itself starts at noon, the crew at Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site demonstrate some of the expansive

Dave Harper competes in the Canadian Maze, a timed event in which loping is allowed under control.

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