Pima County Fair - Sunday April 18

Sunday was pretty much filled with a lot of waiting. Kris packed up a bunch of our stuff in the RV to make it easier to unload, and then we just hung out at the fairgrounds until the judges came through to rate the stalls one last time. Once the word was given, the real work began. All of the kids in the club pitched in and cleaned out all of the bedding in the stalls. They had to make it just as clean as before we arrived there in order to get back all the deposit money. Once all of that was done, we loaded up all the horses again and headed home. To say we were all exhausted is an understatement. We are very proud of everything Krystal accomplished over this season, and had a great time ourselves.


The list of people we have to thank is a long one.

Thank you to Mom & Dad for delivering, setting up, picking up, and cleaning the RV!!
Thank you to Midge, Krysti, Diane, Dan, Gail & Lynn who have taught us so much.
And another huge thank you to Lynn who let us use Missy this season.
Thank you to all of the club members; Kyle, Emma, Alex, Mark and Connor. With a very special thank you to Calli who took Krystal under her wing and helped her prepare her horse for fair and made sure she had fun on the rides!

And for everyone not listed here, I’m sorry because I know there are a lot of you I neglected to thank.

Pima County Fair – Saturday April 17th

5AM wakeup again for the big day of Western Rider’s competition. Krystal was still a little difficult to get up, but she was ready well before 6AM. I wasn’t sure if anyone else would be down at the stable so I gave her a ride. I’m glad I did, since the place was deserted and the lights weren’t even on. After feeding, we went back to the RV to get ready for the day.

Her first competition was Showmanship. This showcases how well they can prepare their horse and control it from the ground. The horse has to be spotless, with hooves painted (or clear polish if the horse has socks), main flat, facial hair and ears trimmed etc…

Krystal got all prettied up in her black outfit and did a wonderful job. One of the things the horse has to accomplish is to pivot on one foot while turning, and Missy was perfect. In addition to the pictures here, you can see the video at this blog. They won the overall blue ribbon (First Place) in Showmanship.

The second competition was Horsemanship, They have to ride a set pattern in this one. Showing control from the saddle, they have to memorize the pattern then perform it in the arena. They change gaits, and change leads for direction changes. Once again, they performed beautifully and pulled out a blue ribbon (second place) for Horsemanship.

Her third competition for the day was Western Pleasure. This is one of the rail classes because they ride along the outside rail the whole time. The competitors are told when to change gait, change direction etc… This is supposed to show how pleasurable your horse is to ride. They had gone through several gait changes and direction changes already, when something spooked Missy and she freaked out. Krystal did a good job staying on until she felt like she may be thrown over the front of the horse so she bailed off to the side. She is still a little sore, but I think her pride took the most damage. She opted out of trying the trail course after her rodeo ride.

Pima County Fair - Friday April 16th

The alarm went off at 5AM again on Friday. I woke up Krystal, then I woke up Krystal. After that, I woke up Krystal and eventually, she even got out of bed. She headed down to the stalls at about 6AM to feed. I headed back to bed.

Friday was for the English rider competition and Krystal only rides Western so she was helper for the day. Since Calli was using two different horses, Krystal spent a lot of her time holding one of them. When she wasn’t doing that, she was helping in the stables to keep them clean and organized.

Friday morning, Kris and I had ran into a couple who we see at Ranch sorting every other week. They had a litter of Border Collies that they had been slowly adopting out. As a matter of fact, several of our club members had already adopted some of them. Well, they had the last two of the litter with them. I got to thinking that it might be nice for Rocky to have a friend around the house when we aren’t there. They only wanted $15 to cover the shots and yes, we ended up with a cute little one. Krystal decided to call her Shania.

Friday evening, the kids hit the rides again for another late night of fun before hitting the showers and bed.

Pima County Fair - Thursday April 15th

Well, our portion of the Pima County Fair is over so it is time for a recap. We didn’t have access to the net while living at the fairgrounds so I wasn’t able to keep up with it daily.

Thursday, April 15th.

We woke up around 5AM and finished loading the truck with the remaining articles we would need for the show. We had already taken all of our clothing and personal items out to my parent’s house and loaded it all into the RV Wednesday. My folks were kind enough to not only let us borrow it, but also to deliver it to the fair on Thursday morning while we were going after the horse!

We headed out to the stables where we met up with Calli and her mom. We had arranged to haul their two horses out with us as well. Loading everyone was an adventure. Missy loaded fine, and Slicker went in without much trouble either. When it came to Ice, that was another story. And our problem wasn’t that she didn’t want to load, it was that she was so excited and wound up, she was hard to control. When Calli let her get in the trailer, she had so much energy flowing she didn’t know what to do and as soon as no one had a hold of her lead rope, out she flew. Luckily she ran in between two sets of stalls where Bill was feeding horses and he was able to catch her quickly. On the second try, I climbed up on the wheel well of the trailer and grabbed her lead rope as she came in and was able to get her hooked up while they closed the door in behind her. I could feel her moving around in there all the way out to the fairgrounds.

The Ranch Sorting competition started at 9AM and by the time we got out there it was already after eight, so as soon Ice was situated in her stall, the girls tacked up and headed out to the warm up area to get the horses ready.

Krystal is in the beginner category so she had a long wait for her first run. She got in there and was able to get three moved from one pen to the other before time ran out (60 seconds). It wouldn't be so hard if you didn't have to do them in the correct order. 

After another long wait, she had her second run and sorted one calf in the allotted time. There was one calf that just wouldn’t break away from the herd.  We found out later that she did well enough to get a red ribbon with the points added from the Winter Points Show to this show.

After Ranch Sorting was over, she put her horse away and the rest of the day was spent keeping the stalls clean. Part of the competition is the appearance of the stalls. Every year, a different theme is designated and all the clubs decorate. Then, they are judged daily. They never know when the judges may show up so they have to keep the horse droppings cleaned up all day long. And adults are not permitted to help at all during any of the competitions. The only things adults are allowed to do is help with a saddle that is to heavy, or help with anything safety related. We get to just stand around and be bossy LOL.

Thursday evening, a bunch of us went to eat at Piggly Wiggly’s which is your typical fried food heaven at the fair. The women were convinced that it isn’t so bad on the first day since the grease is fresh. I of course had to bring up the point that they probably hauled it in from the last fair where they were set up. After supper, the kids went to enjoy the rides and we headed back to the RV. They went on a few rides and then came back to get their shower stuff so they could go down to the arena to get cleaned up. By the time they were in bed it was after midnight.

I Can't Believe it.

I heard about this on the radio the other day and finally had a chance to check out the video. I watched it, and heard the words coming from this man's mouth and STILL could not believe he was saying it. How can an individual attain a post so high and be so ignorant? This man really needs to turn on the Discovery channel from time to time. Is this the best that Georgia could find to represent them?

Remember folks, this is one of the individuals who thinks he knows better than we do how to run our own lives.

I really have to hand it to the Admiral! I don’t think I could have managed to sit there with a straight face and keep the conversation moving forward without calling Johnson an idiot. I would have at least had fun with him. “Well congressman, we don’t expect it to be a problem as long as all the people keep spread out. If there is a big beach party and everyone congregates at one side of the island, it could be catastrophic! We could always pull up the anchors and move the island closer to a large continent so people wouldn’t have so far to swim in an emergency.” AAAAHHHHH