Photo by Georgia Mallett, for the the Daily Record Participants came from across the region to participate in the Steve Rother Horsemanship Clinic at the Washington State Horse Park on July 5.
Back in Business Washington State Horse Park booked for a busy summer
By KARL HOLAPPA staff writer After a season without events, the air is full of competition again at the Washington State Horse Park. The park, located on the edge of Cle Elum was hit hard by the pandemic, having to cancel all its competitions for the 2020 season, but it’s schedule has completely rebounded for this summer. “We’re slammed,” Executive Director Leslie Thurston said of the summer schedule. “We’re about as busy as we could be. It’s been hard to find help, actually. We’re having bigger events and more events, and it’s been hard to keep up with it all because it’s been hard to hire.” The changes come as a drastic change from last season. Thurston said the park generated 7% of its normal rev14
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enue in 2020. Fortunately for some, the park was able to stay open with a skeleton crew for recreational riders, but the bread and butter for the venue is competitions. “We had plenty of recreational riders,” she said. “We had people out here trail riding like we’ve never seen before. They could get in because we didn’t have events. The place was pretty much wide open for trial riding, and they just wanted to get out and do something safe. There’s not a much safer activity than getting out on a horse out in the fresh air in the middle of nowhere.” Although Thurston said she was happy the park could provide recreational activities for riders during the pandemic, any events the park were able to have were regulated to less than 50 participants, which resulted in the major loss of income.
