Families have fun celebrating western heritage at AQHA Museum Fun Days event

Around 850 visitors of all ages visited the American Quarter Horse Museum and Hall of Fame over the weekend for its annual Family Fun Day.

Young kids, older kids and adults alike enjoyed the activities, including meeting a real American Quarter Horse in the arena, as well as storytelling, crafts, self-guided tours, free activity books and a special appearance by the Two Bits mascot and Channing Wall, the Tri-State Rodeo Queen.

Saturday's events were spread throughout the museum in different stations to encourage families to venture around and enjoy the Cowboy Heritage, which is a large part of Amarillo and the area.

“Our turnout has been fantastic. We’ve had a lot of families, all-age kids roping, petting the horses, crafts, so it’s been a big success,” said Nikki Silva, Associate Museum Director of the day's festivities. “We hold this event yearly in conjunction with National Day of the Cowboy held in July. The history of the American Quarter Horse and all the versatility of the being able to put their hands on a live horse in the arena, it’s our chance to focus on the community and have them come out and enjoy it for free and get out of the heat.”

Abigail Tipton had her daughter, Portia, attended the event. Portia enjoyed climbing up on a life-size model of a Quarter Horse but actually preferred the mechanical horse that moves around a little, Abigail said.

Another busy mother, Desiree Vansickle, had four of her children attending the event. She said she was glad to have an educational and free venue for her kids to enjoy hands-on. Some of the participants enjoyed a life-sized interactive kiosk, which showed the anatomy of a horse, along with questions. Some of the small kids took turns learning to lasso a mock cow skull on a bale of hay. Crafting tables were full of kids creating treasures to take home with them, along with activity books.

The Two Bits furry mascot greeted kids along with Wall, the 2023 Tri-State Fair & Rodeo's Rodeo Queen. Wall is active in FFA, earning speaking honors at the state level, 4-H and the Big 5 Horse Show Association, and she has earned numerous championship buckles in western riding.

The free event ran from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. at the AQHA Museum and Hall of Fame Headquarters in Amarillo. For more information on the museum, visit the website https://www.aqha.com/museum .

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Families have fun celebrating western heritage at AQHA Museum Fun Days event