Ever since I was little, I can remember the excitement that surrounds the fair. My parents have been attending our county fair since the 90s and I have been going ever since I was 6 months old. It is almost like a vacation to us, if vacations consisted of work. I’m only sort of kidding. We spend a lot of time prepping our entries, crafting stall decorations, setting up our camper, and working with our animals. Since my sisters and I have aged out of 4-H, we have only been entering our horses and some things in the ag building, but we used to have all kinds of livestock to show as well. We still stay in our camper for the week and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
One of my favorite parts is decorating our stalls. I changed my theme idea this year so many times that we were actually shopping for one idea when I came up with something completely different and we finally decided on a lemonade stand. I knew that I wanted the stall to look like a lemonade stand complete with fake lemonade, but finding lemon décor was a little challenging at the end of August. We did find everything we were looking for, except fake lemons. But by the time we decided to use real ones instead, we found two boxes at the most random store. We spent a couple of days putting everything together the week before the fair started, breaking a set of lights in the process. Although, the stalls turned out perfect and we got 1st place in our barn! I was sad to take them down at the end of the week and we are already thinking of ideas for next year.
We checked in on August 31st after bathing the horses at home and loading all of our tack, feed, and buckets. Sunday was the first show for us, the horse halter classes. Stinger got first in his class (Registered Quarter Horse Gelding over 4 years old) and then Champion Quarter Horse Gelding. He didn’t really want to stand but he still looked pretty. Sunday night was the rodeo, but we weren’t entered this year. I went back and forth on if I wanted to sign up, but since my Aunt Sue couldn’t run Diesel yet and Stinger only had one exhibition in a couple months, I decided against it. Stinger also got to have a massage and a laser therapy session to help him feel good for the rest of the week.
On Monday, we had three classes. Barrels, poles and straight barrels. Stinger had a really good first barrel and then we drifted down and ducked the second. I was really trying to keep myself calm, but I was still nervous. The pole class was next, we just mostly trotted and loped home. Stinger loves poles and acts like he knows them even though we haven’t even entered them that much. Straight barrels was perfect, but we didn’t get a video. Angus won almost every class that day, even the western pleasure classes in the morning.
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent enjoying our time with family since the next show wasn’t until a double header on Thursday. We had barrels and poles in the morning and fun classes in the evening. Poles was first and we had a really good run, we loped the whole pattern and barely knocked the top pole. Then for barrels, we were back to the same story. Stinger didn’t want to go to the right barrel first, so I took him left and then he still wouldn’t turn the right barrel. As we changed outfits to get ready for the evening show, we were brainstorming again to figure out what to do. We had a fun class first and placed fourth, even with a slight detour. After that class though, Stinger didn’t even want to go in the ring anymore. Barrels was the same story again. I couldn’t get him to even walk around the right barrel and I left the ring in tears. I got my hopes up and thought I had my horse back, but I spoke too soon. After Thursday we were done showing. The weather turned out perfect for the whole week and we only had a little bit of rain. If you know our fair, it always rains.
It was a long week, and we were all happy to go home. Stinger had a little trouble with there being so much dust that he had a little cough after the fair. A quick visit from the vet and some nebulizer treatments and he was good to go again. The week after the fair, Angus went for a month of training, or as I called it ‘Kindergarten’. When we planned for Angus to go, we knew it was time to fix our barn. Last year when putting new tar on the roof, we saw one section was sagging. When we investigated it, we could see one of the main support posts was rotted off and dropped down. This was a big project and Angus and Diesel would have to be moved from their stalls to get the work done. So, after the fair, it was time to get to work.
Our first step was to build a new stall in the section of the barn that used to be for cows. This was now Diesel’s temporary stall for the rest of the project. Then we had to jack up the hay loft so we could fit new supports underneath it. Once we got everything sturdy, we started removing the outside boards until we could see the problem area. There was only a small section that was rotted, so we ended up using the same pole plus two new poles and poured concrete supports underneath to hold it all up. We framed in a new outside door so in the future Angus can have a small run and then we put everything back together. His old door got repurposed into a sliding door and the partition between the two stalls was reconfigured with a new frame and boards. It was a major project and we worked on it on the weekends and after work for about a month.
In between the fair and barn repairs, I have continued horse shopping. I tried three in September, and was really close to buying one, but I was so torn on whether or not I should. I really thought it would be easy to find one, but I was very wrong. I have sent tons of messages about ones I found on Facebook, some have major red flags and I don’t want to buy something with more problems than I already have. I have never picked out my own horse before and I never even went to try any before August, so this whole experience is new to me. For now I will just keep looking, so stay tuned for the next post…
The Barrel Racer's Journal 