The Horsemeister Pirates of 2017

Introducing the horses and riders of our production this weekend at the 2017 Illinois Horse Fair:

 Above is Rhoda Bork on 4 year old Rosalie, below is Nolan Smith on Eliza.

 Above is Tyler Stembridge on Indy and below is Caleb Sauder on Zalena.

 Above is Amy Koch on Anna and below is Hannah Reinhard on Galena

 Above is Jake Gerst on Oksana and below is Anni Davidovics on Ayanna

 Below are Emily and Mitchel Cooksey on Jenis

 Above and below are the Horsemeister pirates. What an amazing group of young people. 

 Below is Amy Koch riding very pregnant Anna. Anna is due in a couple weeks so Amy had to be careful of what she asked Anna to do. We told Amy if Anna starts to deliver during the performances to just go with it and act like that was part of the show. (we were reasonably sure she would be fine but she could not be left home this close to her due date)

 Below is Hannah Reinhard and Galena. This was Galena's very first time to go to the Illinois Horse Fair. We were a little worried how she would behave but she did better than expected. Our only problem with taking Galena is all of those WHITE markings that must be kept clean.

 Below is Karin Meister on Oksana. Karin was the trainer of 7 of the horses and all the horses did extremely well even with the applauding, screams, whistles and noise of the crowds at the fair.  We are not sure if it is because Karin is a really really good horse trainer or these are just good horses. 

 Below is Caleb Sauder on Zalena. Caleb started out as a vaulter when he was just a young whipper snapper. Now we have problems with him always wanting to point those toes instead of heels down. He and Zalena were a good match, Zalena loves to go fast and so does Caleb. 

 Below is Nolan Smith who had the hardest job during these performances. He had to ride with the mask as he was Davy Jones. He is riding Eliza who was the perfect horse for this year's performance for Nolan. When Davy Jones is killed, Nolan had to fall off his horse and pretend to be dead. Eliza would just stand there and look at him and we could trust her not to step on him. 

 Below is Anni Davidovics on Ayanna. This was also a good match. Ayanna is a hard mare to ride as she has such big movement and sometimes kicks out. Anni had no problem sitting that movement and finished each performance with a bow. 

 Below are Rhoda and Lee Bork. This was Lee's first year to perform. We needed land pirates and Lee was willing to step in. He did an amazing job fighting Captain Jack Sparrow in front of that huge admiring audience. Rhoda is riding Rosalie who just turned 4 years of age and had never been to the fair. Rhoda has done all the training on Rosalie and we were all absolutely thrilled with how well she performed all weekend. 

 Below is Mitchel and Emily Cooksey. They were married December 31st, 2016 so still considered newly weds. At the end of the performance, when Will Turner (Mitchel) kills Davy Jones then rides over to pick up Elizabeth (Emily) we told them to kiss. The first performance he just gave her a quick peck. We told him to make it much more romantic as these two MET at the horse fair years ago. 

 Below is Tyler and Samantha Stembridge on Indy. We met Tyler a few years ago when he started working for Hungarian Handyman (Fedi) He married Samantha last year and now we get two pirates for the price of ONE. 

And the absolute STAR of the show was David Jacob Sauder as Captain Jack Sparrow.

He was so convincing in his part that the breed and sport organizer asked if we found him at the university, asking "is he a theatrical major?" Our honorable mentioned are Jessica Sauder and Rebekah Schwind. Jessica was our photographer the entire weekend and took most of the pictures posted while Rebekah organized and choreographed the play. A special thanks to both of these ladies they are a true blessing to us.

Last Fair Day

Sunday greeted us with clouds but not too cold. Yesterday's fair pictures were posted while I was waiting for the hotel to serve breakfast. Actually I had to get up at 4:00 am to get them posted by 7:00 am.

Below is Jack working the audience while the riders were sword fighting. 

To see the first album click HERE.
After 3 days of fabulous fun at the fair we were all a bit tired. Karin and I didn't get over to the barns to feed the horses until almost 8:00 am. We found the barn swept and everything cleaned up. Thankfully Emily and Mitchel stayed late last night cleaning stalls, topping off water buckets and giving the mare extra hay so none of the horses were anxious about not eating early. Karin and I work so well together that we finished the chores in about 20 minutes. Sally Rush, the lady in charge of the entire fair stopped by to see if the Pirates could perform twice today but Karin had already told them they could leave after the first performance. Our performance today was scheduled for 11:15 am and I wanted pictures taken before the practice so everyone had to check out of the hotel a bit early. Jessica took amazing pictures. Below are the HorseMeister Pirates:

What a great group of kids! The performance went off without a hitch, the audience laughed, clapped and were thoroughly entertained. After the performance they rode the horses straight to the trailer, untacked and packed the saddles and bridles then led the horses back to the stalls. They then took down all the stall decorations and hauled everything to the trailers except 1 bale of hay, 1 water bucket for each horse, the stall guards, horses, halters and lead ropes. At 1:20 Eliza was taken to the carriage room for one of the clinicians who was giving a talk on horse safety. My camera had been packed away in the trailers so I just snapped the picture below with my phone.

After that talk, Karin, Amy and Rhoda brought Oksana, Rosalie and Ayanna in to join Eliza for the talk on bloodlines and breeding. As soon as that was over we packed up the rest of the stuff and then walked the horses over to the trailers and were on our way home by 3:40 pm. Mark was waiting when we arrived back at the farm and we were very glad for his help. He had put a new round bale in this morning then held the trailer doors for unloading. The wind was fierce and kept trying to slam the doors on the mares as they were backing out. Karin, Mark and I had the trailers backed, the left over hay and straw put away within minutes. So glad to be HOME! A few more of Saturday's pictures were downloaded and posted on Facebook. To see them click HERE.
I worked on a few of today's pictures but those will need to be posted later, I'm exhausted but euphoric. What an amazing weekend for Horsemeister and the Pirates.

The BIG DAY

We had a great breakfast at the hotel then Karin and I left for the barn to feed, water and clean stalls. We work so well together that everything was finished in about 20 minutes. We are really thrilled with how well the straw has worked out for bedding. IF we had to clean the stalls AFTER the fair it would be awful but because we are not expected to strip the stalls we have those stalls thick and soft with tons of straw. 
The horses are very comfortable laying down. This morning Rosalie and Jenis were both sacked out in their stalls enjoying those softly bedded stalls.

 This was the biggest day for the 2017 Illinois Horse Fair and we enjoyed every minute.We had hundreds if not thousands of people come through the stalls. Almost all enjoyed that skeleton.

 Miss Molly wasn't too happy with her costume but she sure was cute.

There were pirates roaming around all over the fairgrounds and each stopped in for prizes.

The play went great but there was one problem. The breed and sport group finished a half hour early and after telling everyone we were on at 1:30 pm the fair people asked us to go in and perform 15 minutes early to keep the crowd entertained. Many people came up after we were back at the stalls to complain that they missed the performance. Oh well everyone knows if you want a good seat you need to be at least a half hour early. We had lots of funny stories today. The play was going on in the arena, Samantha was in the play and during the time she was near the railing a lady walked up to her and said, "you are all doing so well, do you do birthday parties?" Lots of pictures and videos were taken but it is late and all will need to be worked on later. The horses were all well behaved and so many people enjoyed the horses, pirates, the cave with it's treasures, and the entertainment. Such a great day!

Illinois Horse Fair FRIDAY

Karin, Rhoda, Amy and I headed down to the lobby at 6:00 am for coffee and breakfast. Sarah and Nolan met us there. After a good breakfast we were on our way to the fairgrounds to feed and water the horses. While Karin, Rhoda, Amy and Sarah tacked up, Nolan fed, watered and I cleaned stalls. We were at the livestock arena for practice just before 7:30 am..a RECORD. We have never had 9 horses tacked up and down ready for practice that early. Below are a few pictures of the practice.

 Sarah held the horses in the middle while Amy, Nolan, Karin and Rhoda rode them one at a time. Below is Amy on Anna.

 Sarah is in the middle of those horses, we just can't see her.

 Below Karin is riding Indy

 Amy is on Anna and Rhoda is riding Rosalie

 Below Rhoda is riding Ayanna

 Rhoda asking Ayanna for a bow. The arena was getting busy with lots of other riders so we took ours out.

 We had lots of visitors, below is our guard for the cave of wonders and a little girl who was brave enough to stand next to him for a picture.

 WE had lots of visitors at the stalls today going through almost 50 pounds of popcorn. Our stalls were very popular.

 Below is a happy pirate that came to visit.

To see the rest of the pictures of a few of our many visitors CLICK HERE.
We shut the pop corn machine down at 1:15 pm so we could go watch the trick riders. Becca Watson, one of our vaulters from years past has now graduated and become an amazing trick rider.

To see the rest of the trick riding pictures CLICK HERE. We had a good performance with a surprise ending. That is a surprise to US. More on that later too. We were tired and hungry by the time we made it back to the hotel. Ate a quick supper, swam with the grand children, enjoyed the hot tub then came up to work a bit before heading to bed. Tomorrow morning hopefully I have a little more time.

Thursday at the Fair

Karin and I loaded the horses at 7:30 am. We put the 4 biggest mares in the smaller trailer then crammed the other 5 in the other 4 horse trailer. Galena was the last mare in that trailer and Karin pretty much shoved her in with a shoe horn. Karin drove that truck and trailer while I drove the smaller trailer. Rhoda actually beat us down but just by a few minutes, she honked as she flew past just before we turned on to Peoria Rd.
The first order of go after unloading was to start bathing the mares.

 We were thankful for the heater running in this barn, the weather was sunny at first but snow started flying a bit later and chilled everything down. The horses were all comfortable in the heated barn even though they were wet. Karin put up stall guards so they could have their heads hanging out. Most of the mares used that opportunity to push their hay out into our aisle.

 The next two pictures are of the 'cave of wonder'

 this is where the prizes and give-aways are kept but you will need to get past the guard to grab one.

 When everything was finished, Karin and Rhoda tacked up Galena and Rosalie to introduce them to the fairgrounds. Neither of these mares have been here before and both needed to be exposed to the sights and sounds around.  Below they are in the warm-up arena.

The fair organize came and told us they could bring the mares into the livestock arena and the man running the sound system put on the music for the girls. This was perfect to introduce both of these mares to the arena they will be performing in tomorrow afternoon.

 Rosalie was kind of up but soon settled down giving Rhoda a good ride.

 After that the horses were put back, the stalls cleaned, horses fed and off we drove to our hotel. We arrived there around 5:00 pm and hit the hot tub. How wonderful that felt. Amy arrived just before supper and brought down the guard for the 'cave of wonders'. Just wait until you see that guy! After a good FREE dinner at the hotel we went back to our room for dessert. Rhoda brought a home baked apple pie from Erin Funk. Oh my was that delicious.  Below Amy and Rhoda are cutting and dishing out the pie.

 

That was the perfect ending to a great day. We are heading out to the fair early tomorrow morning..can't wait.

Fair Information

This afternoon was our first trip down to the fairgrounds. On this trip we took all the tack, water buckets, stall decorations, popcorn machine, candy machine, prizes, and banners. The man bringing hay and straw beat us there but just by a few minutes.  Rhoda had already arrived so she and Sarah helped  unload the 40 bales of straw and 20 bales of hay while Karin and I unpacked the trailer. We were able to drive to the back of the building and unload right into the stall area.

 Below is our aisle as the straw and hay were being unloaded. 

 Karin and Rhoda worked on putting up the banners. They seem to be much bigger than 10 feet by 10 feet so Rhoda measured them. We were surprised to find out exactly how big 10 feet tall by 10 feet wide actually IS!

 Below Sarah is putting up the lights along the top of the stall front. 

 Above is one side almost finished and below is the second banner. 

 Below is how the stalls looked when we quit working at 7:30 pm.

We were tired, hungry and no longer making good decisions. These stalls are much harder to decorate than the stalls in barn 14 as no two are the same size. We still have more to do tomorrow morning on the stalls, plus will need to bathe 9 horses.
A very nice feature in this barn is the heat coming right into our tack room. We are going to be toasty warm this weekend. The 2017 Illinois Horse Fair is going to be one we will remember for a LONG time. We are thrilled and excited to be bringing down the Horsemeister pirates and the pirates are thrilled to be coming. If you have ever been even a little interested in horses or have sons and daughters, grand children that love horses you will for sure want to come and bring them down. Children are FREE and adult tickets for this all weekend long entertaining show is only $30.00. If you only want to come down for the day, a single day pass is only $15.00.  Talk about bang for the buck! There are lots of shops, lots of bargains to look at and purchase. Brand new horse trailers to walk through and drool over. The trailer dealers offer good discounts if a brand new horse trailer is in your future. The different breed organizations have fun give-aways, there are prizes, educational clinics, training clinics, jumping clinics, reining clinics and lots lots more. If you come stop in at barn 18 and visit the Friesians, go into the cave of wonders if you dare to grab a gold coin, pirate ring, or other treasures. The fair opens each morning by 9:45 am and stays open ALL day Friday, Saturday and Sunday. HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!