Horseman’s Park expands slate to bring in chickens, canines

Horseman's Park is usually the site of events involving thundering hooves, stunning horsemanship and folks wearing cowboy hats, chaps and spurs. On Saturday, organizers hope to use the space to identify the ultimate chicken.

The inaugural Nevada Game Fowl Association Poultry Show is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Horseman's Park, 5800 E. Flamingo Road. The Nevada nonprofit has state recognition, but its national status is still up in the air.

"The American Game Fowl Society wants to see if we can bring in a lot of breeders from California, Arizona, Utah and here," said organizer Leo De La Torre. "If we bring in enough people, we'll get into the society."

The American Game Fowl Society honors a variety of poultry once bred for cockfighting. The competition they're raised for now is considerably less violent, and the events are more akin to dog shows, with fowl judged on form, color and health.

While, to the untrained eye, the poultry may appear to be just fancy chickens, the United Gamefowl Breeders Association's website describes them with the sort of florid language usually reserved for overwrought high school poetry.

"The gamecock is a very beautiful bird with brightly colored shimmering feathers," the site says. "No artist's paintbrush, or any photographer's lens has ever been able to capture the magnificent colors in the plumage of the gamecock. The gamecock with its long flowing streamers is something that must be viewed with the human eye to truly appreciate."

De La Torre said the local competition will award first, second and third prizes in 10 categories and three tiers of grand champion.

"We're all very excited about having the competition here," De La Torre said. "I used to have to go to California to compete."

The poultry show is just one of several new events Horseman's Park hopes to host this year.

"We're starting to have more and more events," said Jennifer Lawrie, office manager at Horseman's Park. "The park is almost completely booked on the weekends."

Lawrie said they've been making improvements on the park and trying to encourage use beyond the traditional equine events. The weekend following the poultry show, the park is set to host canine agility trials beginning at 8 a.m. Feb. 11 and 12.

"We're trying to make it more of a community park," Lawrie said. "We've been trying to seek out new stuff, but these two events just fell into our lap."

The Gamblers Agility Club of Greater Las Vegas, an American Kennel Club Agility Trial, is slated to be hosted by Horseman's Park instead of the adjacent Dog Fancier's Park because the arena is better suited for the event.

"We have a special kind of dirt in our arena that's similar to what they use in their championship events," Lawrie said.

Like many of the events at Horseman's Park, admission to both events is free for spectators.

For more information, call 355-6680 or search for Nevada American Game Fowl Society on Facebook.

Contact Sunrise/Whitney View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 380-4532.