Fair finish-up (for us atleast)

We did head back to the fair yesterday evening.  We walked through the llamas and showed Trent the 984 lb pig on our way to dinner.  We decided to support the lamb club.  Tyler had a hot dog (it wasn’t lamb), I had a lamb burger with cheese and Trent had a kelly burger (lamb burger with lamb bbq on top.)  I’ve had better lamb other places.  My burger was bordering on being dry and they just used nacho chip cheese for the chip (not really my idea of cheese.)  We did a quick circuit of a couple things: we let Tyler build with legos at the Science Central Exhibit, showed Trent the baby animals (including what Tyler decided was the exact chick that he held – how do you tell them apart when they are only a couple days old?) and the miniature horses.  We also stopped by the Exhibit Hall to show Trent the Junior Achievement Record Book example so that he can help with it next year.  Then we headed to watch the Saddle Club.  Trent & Tyler got an elephant ear to share on the way.  The Saddle Club was doing an event where they ran their horses down, circled a cone and then ran them back and stopped them in a designated area.  I’m sure it has an official name for the event, but I don’t know what it is.  I love watching horses.  However, I’m very particular about how I view the riders handling the horses.  No, I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination.  But I do know what I like to see.  I like to see the riders who work with their horses and treat them nicely.  I understand making a horse that is acting up actually do what it is supposed to do.  But I will never like the riders who whip their horses or ride them really rough.  There was one guy last night that I hated watching ride.  He just handled and rode his horses roughly.  Those are the times I wish the horses would throw their riders, but I’m sure they’ve learned the hard way not to do that.  We finished up the evening by walking through the horse barns and looking at the ones that weren’t in the competition that was still going on.  We also got to listen to Kellie Pickler.  Now I was not a fan of Kellie’s before last night because we do not watch American Idol.  And I have to say that I am still not a fan of Kellie Pickler’s.  I don’t think she’s a very good singer, she is mostly just a yeller.  Again, I am only an expert on what I like, but it didn’t seem like she had much range and I didn’t enjoy listening to her.

We are done with our jaunts to the fair now, unless we decide to go listen to Hootie & the Blowfish tomorrow evening while watching the horses some more.  Some have asked if I was a fair junkie, but I am not.  See, we had a good reason for going to the fair so much.  Tyler is in regular 4-H next year and that includes the opportunities presented in all the livestock clubs.  I am livestock clueless except to know that it is just like having another baby or pet.  Trent is the expert since he showed dairy cows every year and pigs a few years.  With animals you basically have to live at the fair because you have to keep your animals clean, their pens clean, fresh food and water, etc, etc, etc and you have to be there to show them.  So even though Tyler thinks all these animal clubs sound exciting, we thought we’d show him what fair is really like for a few days.  He thinks each club is exciting when he first sees the animals, but usually he reconsiders.  Like he thought it would be neat to feed the baby goats from a bottle, but he doesn’t want to do any of the other work associated with taking care of goats.  Last night, he decided that horses looked really neat and that maybe he should do Saddle Club next year.  So when we took him into the barn area, we showed him the big poops, how he’d have to haul food and water, how they get surprise visits from the judges that grade how clean they are keeping their pens and their animals, how some horses wear things to protect their tails so the owners don’t have to brush their tails so often, etc.  I don’t know if we succeeded or not.  Time will tell.  There were times he was ready to leave the fair forever, but then there were times he was sad that we were leaving.  I guess we’ll find out when it’s time to sign up for projects and clubs.