Horse Fair March 5th, 2016

Marika was much worse this morning, Dr. Monfort is here at the fair with Natalie's Friesian stallion so Amy went over and begged if he would come look at her. The nail hole had closed up but it was obvious she had infection in the hoof, she didn't want to put any pressure on it. Dr. Monfort took a hoof knife and opened up it up at the nail hole site and sure enough liquid came pouring out. OF course Dr. Monfort had all the supplies on hand needed to iodine, pack and wrap. Marika was feeling much better once that was taken care of. We had a very busy morning at the Horse Fair. At 8:00 am the man in charge of the youth judging came over to our stalls to make sure we were getting Oksana, Eliza, Jenis and Zalena for the English halter class. Of course we were ready early.

All 4 mares were very well behaved with the hundreds of kids all gathering around checking them out.
The next class was Hunter Hack for Evan, Eliza, Oksana and Jenis. This class the horses have to walk, trot, canter working, extended, collected at all three of those gaits plus the hand gallop. Eliza just couldn't handle what seemed to be hours of canter but the class was really only about 15 minutes.

 Were they ever glad to get out of that class! What was funny was Karin forgot to put on a helmet so for sure she came in LAST!She didn't even notice that she forgot until she saw the picture below.

 

Evan had to warm up just a bit later for the Stallion Parade. It is always so much fun to watch Rhoda and Evan work together. When they get moving they always draw a crowd.

The stallion class went just fine. His daughter Zoey was brought in with him to show how nice these foals by Evan are.

 It was nice to see the crowds back. The livestock arena was standing crowd only.

Poor Evan he had only a little over an hour to rest up before the next class, the liberty class.

We felt that class went well even though Evan was too tired to buck and rear. He showed a good gallop and a big trot and used the entire arena.  The crowd really enjoyed watching him. Ruth said, "when Evan took off at a gallop I got CHILLS!"
The Vaulting demo was next in the coliseum. That too was nice to see a full crowd watching the demos.

I was so proud of those vaulters. We had new kids join in with a few of our more experienced vaulters and they really made their tricks look professional. I can't wait to get the video's up on the blog. That will be done on Sunday night or Monday morning so you won't want to miss reading those days.

The last demo for us was the Pirate Play. Most of the pictures turned out just too dark but I was able to lighten a few. More will be worked on when I get home and can use the home computer. There was so much hooting, hollering and laughter during this play. The crowd really got into this one. Each rider was so entertaining that it was hard to even know where to look.

After the play we rushed back to the stalls to put the horses away so we could get to the hotel in time for dinner but didn't realize how the crowd would follow us back to the stalls. To tell the truth they didn't want to look at our beautiful horses, no no they all wanted their pictures taken with the PIRATES!

WELL that is probably the last time these guys are hired..we WANT people to notice the horses at least a little.Just kidding, these guys were the hit of the entire weekend, the fair people want them back next year! There were plenty of people that wanted to see the horses too.

We have had a fabulous time at this 2016 IL Horse Fair. Sunday's are usually a let down as the huge crowds won't be here but that day is a day for fun. The performers are all relaxed and will enjoy playing it up. Looking forward to TOMORROW!