Finally Home From Fair

Our county fair was a huge success this year!!  The last couple of years have been trying and I was dreading it for a number of reasons.  Certain people, weather, decorating the barn, and all the gear that you need for horse and human are just a few.  It seems that the older I get, the harder it gets to pull it all together.

The First Day of Fair

Moving in was smooth.  We put the camper up and then got the horse.  He loaded right up so I knew things were going to be okay.  His stall was waiting for him the minute we got there.  My daughter was showing a friend’s horse also and they were there waiting for us too.  We spent about an hour moving everything from the trailer to the tack stall and didn’t worry about it being a mess or not.  It was in there and we had the rest of the day for organizing.  Both horses were doing great.

The Show Days

The next couple of days were for showing.  On Friday, before noon, my daughter had qualified for the state show with our horse so the pressure was off! We could relax the rest of the time but she really wasn’t into the whole relaxing thing.  She was still giving 100% and thankfully won the Pony Championship in English Pleasure!  Yay!  It was a great day for her and the pony (and the pony’s owner!)

Last Day of Fair

The last day of fair was a fun day for everyone.  The kids participated in an extreme trail class, a costume contest, and a fun gymkhana type show.  After spending three days being all dressed up prim and proper, they could ride in the trail obstacle course and the fun show however they wanted.  The only requirements were jeans, boots, helmet, and short sleeve shirt.  They could ride bareback or with a saddle, english or western, english bridle with a western saddle, etc.  It was just for fun, making new friends, and creating great memories.

The Few Things that Didn’t Go Well

Cleaning up didn’t go so great but I still didn’t let it bother me.  It took us a long time to get everything packed into the trailer.  Thankfully, both horses loaded right up.  We didn’t get home until almost 10:30 p.m. and thankfully I took off today.  It really helped a lot!

The weather was pretty rough.  It was hot and incredibly humid.  When it’s that humid, you feel damp and sticky all the time and there’s no way to get out of it.  It’s everywhere.  Sitting makes the sweat run down your back.  Cleaning out stalls makes sweat run down everywhere.

Parking can be a challenge too.  Once in awhile I needed to run home and getting back into the fairgrounds was tricky because there were lines.  After we got in, the people directing the traffic didn’t understand the whole camping thing and would try to direct us to other places. It was frustrating trying to get back to the camping spot.

Last but not least, I’m just getting old.  I can’t bend my right elbow.  I’m not sure if it has something to do with the IV that I had on Monday or something else but it’s stuck.  I have bruises all over my arm from the tech who couldn’t get the IV in but I don’t know if that would cause this.  Also, when we got back to the barn, our horse was hungry by then and practically ran us over to get out of the trailer and back inside his home.  He stepped on my foot and I was not wearing boots.  Of course, my baby toe is swollen, bruised, and hurts like heck today.

It was a GREAT fair

I shouldn’t complain at all because it was a great fair.  The kids and parents were all awesome this year.  We met a lot of new people and everyone stayed safe.  Only one girl fell off of her horse the entire week.  One of the judge’s was telling us that she debated about not coming because at the last county fair she went to, they had to call an ambulance 4 times on one day because the kids were just terrible riders.  She said that our kids are all very very good riders and we should be proud of all 35 of them. It makes me feel good to know that as 4-H leaders, we’re all doing a great job getting the kids ready for showing.

Despite the few negatives, I think this was the best fair that we’ve had in a number of years.  I can’t wait for the board meeting next week so I can go and tell them all the positive things I heard people saying.  I hope everyone had as good of a time as I did!