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.