A Day At The Fair

Yesterday, I spent the day at the first day of the local County Fair.  The main event was the 4-H horse show.  A friend, and band member, had kids competing.  They invited me to check it out, so I did!  

Despite spending the whole day at a horse show, I only took a few pictures.  I was more focused on hanging out with friends and watching the events.  When I got there, Showmanship was going on,

A cute level of competition (I'm not at all versed in 4-H, this was the first event I'd been to) was "Cloverbud", where the youngest kids had a helper.  A couple of the kids in that division had ponies, the others had full size horses.  I loved this palomino:

There were a lot of beautiful horses, another one that caught my eye was this gorgeous buckskin tobiano:

Before going to the fair, I'd given Bo a light breakfast and then trimmed his front feet.  During lunch break, I decided to run home.  Bo met me at the fence and let me know he was not impressed with me leaving him light rations and then going to look at other horses (how did he know?? haha)

I gave him MOAR hay and went back to the fair.  

Trail and the games classes were after lunch.  Games were fun, some of the horses were SO hyped up and fast that you almost had to cringe watching them run the patterns, but the kids piloting them were great riders.  The only picture I took was of the buckskin tobiano above, when I realized I hadn't gotten a picture of that one yet.  They were one of the horses who wanted to GO!   

Brent stopped by the fairgrounds on his way home from work and just as our friends were packing up.  He had ridden his motorcycle and I had to take a picture, as I always do.  His bike is so cool!  

After saying goodbye to our friends, he and I wandered over to the buildings where the exhibits were.  I had spontaneously entered a couple of my older tatting projects the night before.  Last minute...  because I wasn't sure I wanted to enter anything.  I deliberated way harder than I should have, but that's how my brain works...  Also, there wasn't actually a class for tatting.  But when I finally got brave and went to the fair office, to show them what I wanted to enter, they found classes for me.   Turns out they used to have a class for tatting, but no one ever entered so they took it off the list...  10 years ago.  

Anyhow, we found my American flag first, with a blue ribbon.  Cool!

We walked around all the rest of the Open Class entries and I didn't see the Barbie wedding dress I'd also entered.  Then I spotted it, from across the room.  It was up on a shelf  on the wall, and...  oh wow!  

One of the reasons I'd had the night before for not wanting to enter was that I wouldn't be able to tell my Granny about it...  She's the one who taught me tatting (she passed away in 2020).  Brent said, maybe she'll still be able to see it.  Then he asked me what she would tell me to do if she was here.  I said she'd want me to enter.  I'm glad I did.  

The last stop we made was in the building where the 4-H exhibits were.  It was interesting to see the things that the kids had made.  (Our friends son made a bow and a wood cabinet!)

After that, we headed home.  It was a great day at the fair.  

The Cass County Fair runs through Sunday.  There are rides, food, and quite a few things going on.  Relevant to my interests, tonight there is an Open horse show - which is actually more of a gymkhana, the class list seems to be only games.  I've toyed around with the idea of hauling Bo over there.  Even if I don't enter (and I probably wouldn't, because both he and I are rusty and have both been hermiting a long time now) it might be fun to just hang out and ride around a bit.  Sometimes I do miss actually doing things with my horse... 

Then again, I realized this morning that I have less than a week and a half until I leave for Kentucky - which sent me into a mild panic.  I have SO much to do... 

BreyerFest is coming.  

Wordless Wednesday - Bo Spam!

 

Trip Check In

First off: Happy Easter!

I am finally stationary for more than a few hours, somewhat rested, nothing else going on for a bit, AND have Wi-Fi.  So I figured it was way past time for a quick check in.

I'm a little over halfway done with the Epic Tour of the US.  Two days ago, I reunited with Jeff in Texas and we are now in Arkansas for a couple of days.  It was good to see Jeff again after a few weeks on my own, touring the western half of the US.  It's also really nice to not be the only one doing all the driving - hence the reason I am sort of feeling rested, finally.

The great picture upload, sort, and edit has just barely begun and I wanted to share this picture first.  It's my handsome Bo boy at his vacation home in Arizona.  I took a bunch of pictures of him and also my friend took several pictures of us together on my last morning there.  Stay tuned for some Bo spam!

There is SO much that I want to share about the trip so far, and it's not even over yet.  I may have a month or more worth of blog material to wade through and compile.  For now though, I just wanted to say "hello!".

Bo in Arizona - Our Last Few Days

Back in March, we took my boy Bo to Arizona where he'll be staying during our time here in Japan.  Well, we took him halfway, before our truck broke down and my friend had to come the rest of the way to get my trailer, Bo, and her three horses we had picked up for her.  The whole thing turned into a giant mess, but in the end everyone arrived in AZ safely.

I had taken a ton of pictures (it's what I do..) and I had meant to share some of them on here.  However, life got even crazier with the move fast approaching, and I was pretty depressed about saying goodbye to my boy.  So the pictures never did get shared.  I found myself looking through them today and I thought I'd share them now!

An interesting thing about where Bo ended up is that his old flame, Leah, is there too.  Once upon a time they had two foals together and Leah has always been his first love.  He had the chance to make googly eyes at her shortly after his arrival, but she was NOT interested.

We turned him out while we shuffled horses around, and he got to check things out.

Handsome, shiny guy.

 Showing off.

Bo says hello to Pink, Leah's filly by another stallion.  I wonder if they remember each other.  I used to turn little Pink out with Bo right after she was weaned, so that she would have some horsey company.  He's always been so kind to babies.

Sort of an artsy shot of Bo doing what I call his "stud prance".  Again, showing off for all of the new horses.

Saying hi to Pink again.

A new favorite picture of my boy.

Later on, I had gone in the house for a while.  When I looked outside, this is usually what I saw: Bo staring right at the back door where I'd gone in.

At one point during our time there, I decided to take him out for a ride in the desert.  We had done a lot of desert riding during our years in the same desert, the Mohave, only a few hours west of here.  When Bo was 2 years old, he was shipped from South Dakota, where he was born, to southern California.  We spent the next several years there.  That's where he was started under saddle and where we did a LOT of riding.  However, this was our first time out and about in the desert in around 7 years.

 It was a beautiful day, only one cloud in the sky.

There were wildflowers everywhere along our ride.  Here the trail, really just a wash, was sprinkled with tiny yellow flowers.

A very welcome sighting for me was the Indian Paintbrush.  This has always been my absolute favorite wildflower.  I remember my Granddad introducing them to me when I was a little girl.  He always thought they were beautiful and so do I.

Beautiful.

We didn't quite make it to our goal, the top of the mountain at the end of the valley.  The terrain suddenly became quite steep and we were both sweaty and getting tired; it was hotter here than South Dakota in  March!  So I stepped down at the top of our ride and we had a bit of a rest.

After a rest, and a good shake, we were ready to head back.

We took a slightly different path coming down the valley and once we hit the flat again, we found ourselves in a field of yellow-orange flowers.  Poppies I think?

They were everywhere in this spot.

That night there was a beautiful desert sunset.

It was so pretty.  That's Bo, down at the bottom of the picture.

Finally, the time came to say goodbye.  I told him to be a good boy and that I'd be back.  :(

I didn't want to go, but eventually we left.

I have missed my boy terribly ever since we left Arizona and the next four years seem like far too long a wait to see him again.  I'm hoping to at least be able to visit in between now and then.  Until we see each other again, I'll picture him like this, watching and waiting for me.