The weather outside may be frightful, but inside the 25-acre climate-controlled Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center, tens of thousands of horse enthusiasts will be warm and comfy and dreaming of the warm weather riding season to come. The eighth annual Pennsylvania Horse World Expo will bring the nation's leading equestrian clinicians and entertainers, and tens of thousands of horse owners eager to learn from them, to Harrisburg, PA, for four non-stop days of education, entertainment and shopping, February 25-28.

Horse World Expo is two events in one. The Expo itself features national clinicians training riders to train their own horses, and unparalleled shopping with everything imaginable for horses under one roof. Theatre Equus, A Musical Equine Revue, a professionally choreographed and scripted show in which humans and horses partner to perform remarkable feats of daring and beauty.

Many of the country's most accomplished horse trainers present seminars on training by day, and dazzle audiences by night (Friday and Saturday only) with their amazing performances in Theatre Equus. Among them are:

When Kate Miller was just 6 years old, a gray Standardbred named Keystone Wallis was the horse of her dreams. Twenty years later, Miller still remembered her dream horse, and came to the mare’s rescue when she was facing the killers at auction.

Miller’s family became involved in Standardbred racing when they responded to an ad looking for new racehorse owners. Watching the horses race at The Meadows, Keystone Wallis attracted her attention because she was gray, and because she was a champion.

“Quite honestly, it was just her color. I was six years old at the time and she stood out just because of that,” Miller said. “When I was six I had no concept of how good of a racehorse she was. As I got older, I realized that when I saw her name in pedigrees of horses in sales catalogs.”

Growing up, Miller rode hunter/jumpers. Currently she is living in Crafton, PA and working in Pittsburgh as assistant director of admissions for Argosy University Online Programs. Her income is not at a level right now where she can afford to support a horse, but that has not changed her love for the animals. Through her family she is still in touch with the racing world, and she tends to look through the sales catalogs to see if there are familiar names.

“Having been in the business since I was born, I know a lot of horses and pedigrees and I just like to see what's selling. For example, I'd like to know if one of our old horses was selling,” Miller said, explaining that she normally looks for broodmares they have sold over the years or race horses that were clamed from them.

Barren Mare Age 23

Late last year, Miller saw the name of now 23-year-old Keystone Wallis, and the memories came back. A champion and stakes winner of $600,000, the mare went on to produce 14 foals that sold for a total of over $300,000. Now she was listed as a “barren mare” and considering her age, was unlikely to be bought, except by the killers.

“Open broodmares usually sell cheap, really cheap. A mare like Wallis, 23 and open, really represents no upside as a purchase,” Miller said.

Three of the twelve winners of the United States Harness Writers’ Association 2009 Dan Patch Awards, announced on December 28, 2009, have Pennsylvania connections. The three, Broadway Schooner, Lucky Jim and Buck I St Pat, will be honored at the organization’s annual awards dinner, to be held February 28 at Yonkers Raceway in New York.

Broadway Schooner, the 3 Year-Old Filly Trotter of the Year, earned $869,341 with a 2009 slate of 16-7-5-1. The daughter of Broadway Hall and Pine Schooner was bred and is owned by Arlene and Jules Siegal of New Hope, PA. Conditioned by Jim Campbell of Jackson, NJ, Broadway Schooner captured the $783,042 Hambletonian Oaks and the $600,000 Breeders Crown 3-Year-Old Filly Trot and was the first homebred for the Siegals, who were the 2009 Dan Patch Owners of the Year, to win a Breeders Crown race.

The filly’s freshman campaign consisted of seven pari-mutual miles with one triumph, a second place finish and earnings of more than $16,000. Campbell never really had to do much in training her as she was endowed with a nice gait and speed. It was her head, however, that needed to catch up with her heels.

“We always knew she had speed, but she had trouble staying consistent and keeping it all together,” Campbell explained. “I think she really needed that time from two to three to grow mentally and mature.”