The Midwest Horse Fair opened Friday, April 17, 2026, at Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin, with horses, hounds and young riders filling the first day of the annual event. The fair runs through Sunday.
Members of the Red Rock Riders, an equestrian drill team from central Iowa, rode around the practice ring as visitors watched. Elsewhere, 7-year-old Maren Lamoreux of Lanark, Illinois, learned how to throw a rope with help from Ava Armstrong, who was on the UW-Platteville equestrian team.
The first day also brought a steady mix of the familiar and the unusual. Brenda Yost, with the Mill Creek Hunt Club in Old Mill Creek, Illinois, led a group of fox hounds to the Veterans Memorial Coliseum for a show, and the hounds later jumped into the water after their appearance. Nearby, Alexis Zeman, 12, met Suzy, a 20-year-old Percheron owned by Karen Orr of Madison, who is a member of the Midwest Draft Horse Enthusiasts.
At another stall, Sally Conway of Rosholt cleaned the stall of her 11-year-old Quarter Horse, Koz. Conway and her husband will serve as volunteer mounted patrol for the event. Lynn Beres also stopped by Steers Tack, out of Columbus, to try out a saddle for sale, while visitors got a look at Norwegian Fjord horses Zara, 4 years old, and Ødgar, 3 weeks old, from Walnut, Illinois.
The fair is a photo set from opening day, which matters because the first afternoon usually shows the full range of what the Midwest Horse Fair is built on: competition, breeding, training and the plain work that keeps horse events moving. By Sunday, the crowds will have seen the drill teams, the hounds, the draft horses and the next generation of riders all in the same place, under the same roof in Madison.