Willard
Powell, of Bonifay, Florida presents colorful and exciting performance
as “THE LONE INDIAN CHIEF”, combining the Native American
Culture with the Art of Roman Riding. Willard begins his performance
astride two fourteen year old paint horses, Ghost Dancer and Lakota.
From the
beginning of his performance until the end, the chief and the horses
perform several maneuvers, including the figure eight and the side
pass. He then reverses one horse around the other, and, with the two
horses head to tail, walks and side passes them through the fire stakes.
This is the only team traveling on the road today that performs this
particular maneuver. A high point of the performance occurs when the
chief adds the third horse to his team and jumps all three horses
through a burning hoop of fire.
Willard
began his Professional Career with the horses in 1985. He has traveled
and worked throughout the United States and the Province of Alberta,
Canada. He is living proof that anyone can pursue and fulfill a childhood
dream. As a young child growing up, his parents would take him to
the Championship Rodeo in his home of Bonifay, Florida. As he would
watch the specialty acts perform, he would try to imagine himself
being in that rodeo arena and performing before thousands of people.
Willard
has always ridden horses, but in 1984 through the help of Foy Reynolds,
a former PRCA Stock Contractor, Willard bought a set of Roman Pads,
took two sorrel and white quarter horses and began to pursue that
dream. After 10 years on the road with those horses, Willard retired
them in the spring of 1995. He replaced them with the present team
of paint horses and has been traveling constantly since that time.
Willard
has combined showmanship, a beautiful wardrobe, complete with a full
Indian Headdress, and the rare art of Roman Riding to give rodeo spectators
the thrill and excitement they expect when he enters the arena.
In
addition to the Roman Act, Willard has stayed with the Indian Ancestry
for this trick horse act. Combining his training talents with “GHOST
DANCER”, Willard and his trained horse presents several dance
maneuvers, and ends the performance by “GHOST DANCER”
walking on his hind legs.
In December
1999 and again in 2002, Willard was selected to perform with his Roman
Team during an opening for the National Finals Rodeo held in Las Vegas,
Nevada.
During
the off season, Willard is usually in the arena training new horses,
doing freelance work in the floral industry, or working as a paralegal
in his wife’s law practice.