Thank You from Horse Fair

This letter came today, it is dated April 13th, 2010 and only came from Springfield, IL, it took 10 days to reach us. What does that say about our postal service?

For those who can't read it because of the size this is what it says:

Kari Meister
Heart of Illinois Vaulters
823 S. Baer Ave
Peoria, IL 61604

Dear Kari,

Thank you for your participation in the evening show at this year's Illinois Horse Fair - Tommie Turvey's Night of Amazing Horses - and helping to make it a success.

The audience had a wonderful time and feedback from the horse people was excellent.

I hope you enjoyed the experience as much as the audience. Again, Thank you for being part of it.

(then in a hand written note)
Your vaulters were charming
everybody loved them!

Sincerely,
Joy A Meierhans
Manager
Illinois Horse Fair

Now for the rest of the story. Last year before the fair we got a note from breed and sport demo coordinator that this year we were only allowed 4 minutes. I called the coordinator and told her that perhaps we didn't belong in that part of the program as we need more time. She referred me to Joy. Joy told me absolutely we belong in that part of the program and absolutely we could NOT have any more time. She went on to say every participant of the breed and sport demos think they should have more time and 4 minutes was all we could have. I then asked her if I could buy time for the Friesians but give them to the vaulters and again the answer was absolutely NOT, "I am NOT going there!" was the response. Talk about frustrating! Because our money had been sent in the year before that, the year the fair was canceled, we really did not want to lose out on our entry fee. Karin sent in the music, the man running the music emails her and says your music last 10 minutes, you only have 4 minutes how should I handle this? Karin very strongly sends back an email, WE ALWAYS take more than 4 minutes and don't you dare buzz us, we can't have a child getting hurt because the horse shies at the buzzer. We pretty much decided then and there we are not coming back for 2010, except we won first place in 2009 and thought our entry fee for 2010 was paid. So back to the fair we went and this year was wonderful. Now the same lady that sends such a nice thank you note is the same lady that would not work with us at all the year before. Do you think she remembers us? Perhaps in 2011 we will be welcomed back and given more than 4 minutes.