The Mane Event breathes life into Snowmass Rodeo grounds after season ends

Snowmass looks for other ways to use recently renovated grounds

News | Sep 11, 2024

Regan Mertz

The Mane Event — a new, free event in Snowmass — was held on Sunday afternoon at the Snowmass Rodeo grounds.

This is the first event to be held at the grounds outside of the rodeo. Snowmass is looking for other ways to use the recently renovated space outside of the once a week rodeos during the summer.

“We would love to see some kind of event to highlight this $6.5 million new rodeo that we just built,” said Jamie Wall, events producer for the town of Snowmass Village. “It’s only used on Wednesdays for the rodeo, and we just wanted to activate that area more than once a week and past the rodeo season.”

The rodeo grounds facility was renovated as a part of a larger $6.5 million beautification project by the town of Snowmass Village. According to previous reporting from The Aspen Times, the main grandstand and the announcer’s booth were moved, which gave guests during the 50th anniversary season a much different background than years’ past.

In an effort to celebrate the historic tradition of horsemanship in the Roaring Fork Valley, The Mane Event presented attendees with equestrian demonstrations, like Classical Dressage, a Mexican Horse Extravaganza, therapeutic horseback riding techniques from Smiling Goat Ranch, as well as reining, equine massage, and farrier, or horse shoeing, demonstrations.

Event goers stop at different booths to buy food, get their faces painted, or enjoy the live music at The Mane Event on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in Snowmass.

“Farrier was in the marketplace and had such a crowd. They talked about anatomy, I mean, things people don’t think about unless you have a horse to be honest,” said Michelle Marlow of MRM Events, which helped plan the event. “But it also allowed everybody to get up close and personal with animals, which I thought was really great.”

Other animals were brought by the Smiling Goat Ranch, whose goal is to help humans heal through interactions with horses and other animals.

“We brought our whole lineup of our therapy critters,” said Sheryl Barto, founder and executive director of the ranch. “We brought one of our four bunnies, two of our four goats, two mini horses, two donkeys, and two big horses. I say that animals were an enormous hit.”

Wall’s goal was to bring as many local farmers and ranchers out to the event. Wall, who previously ran the Carbondale Farmers’ Market before coming to Snowmass, feels Snowmass is missing out on the agriculture world that is more prevalent downvalley. Booths and demonstrations came from all over the Western Slope.

Booths included a kids zone, D Quarter Circle Beef, Earth Keepers Farm Collaborative, Aspen Valley Land Trust, Roaring Fork Mill, La Pastaiola, Peak Farms, GuapoDog, and Smiling Goat Ranch, which was the beneficiary of the event. Corn hole, face painting, and live music from Elk Range was also available.

One of the horses that is a part of the Mexican Horse Extravaganza at The Mane Event on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in Snowmass.

Food and drink from Base Village was available for purchase, as well as ice cream from Sundae. Proceeds benefitted the Smiling Goat Ranch.

As for the future of the rodeo grounds, Wall feels The Mane Event was a good tester for possibilities in the future, while balancing all the other events Snowmass has going on with those that attend them, from locals to tourists to second homeowners.