Have you missed me?
I told you last time that sometimes I don't feel like writing anymore, that I feel like chucking it all in and just quitting.
"You can take a break if you want to," my Miss Rosie told me, "but don't quit. I would miss your stories and all of your beautiful photos too much."
So last week I took a break from writing. With Miss Rosie's permission echoing in my head, I tried not to feel too guilty. I missed it though. I missed spending time with you. Rather than rest and relax from the stresses of writing every weekend, I went on an adventure instead; an adventure that you will just have to wait to read about. Just know that I got my story tank all filled up to overflowing and can't wait to share my adventure with you. In the meantime, had I written a letter blog last week it would have been about the fair.
We went for the last day of the fair and rented a scooter for Mike then sought out our favorites; pierogies for me and an Italian sausage sandwich for Mike...
...then we made our way to the area where The Rhinestone Cowgirls Show was to take place. We were early. Like forty-five minutes early. Needless to say, we had our choice of seats.
Nearby was a whole line of Port-a-johns.
Being an old woman, I seldom pass up an opportunity to pee. There wasn't a lot of activity on this end of the fairgrounds so I took a chance that they were clean, and I was right, they were. As I sat there 'letting my water down' I see these little plastic houses of relief were made by Satellite Industries in Minneapolis, MN.
That's where my sister works! I thought. I should take a picture! But I didn't bring my camera. After washing my hands at these nifty little water stations that Satellite also makes...
...I got my camera and took a couple of pictures. Satellite isn't the only maker of portable toilets, just the best, and that's why I always look.
Going back to where Mike waited, I see he moved from his scooter onto a bench.
There was nothing to do but wait for the show to start. I look around for pictures to take. Ropes and pulleys.
In a pavilion across the way, girls in their bright purple outfits catch my attention.
On the other side were the cowboys.
It started to sprinkle and Mike and I moved to under the awnings of the RV's. It wasn't heavy and lasted only a few minutes so we were able to go back to our seats.
People were starting to wander in and take seats. People watching gave me something else to do.
I was excited to see people come out of the tent in which we were sitting in front of. They were getting ready for the show so I knew it wouldn't be much longer.
Then, twelve o'clock right on the dot, music started blaring and a beautiful horse came trotting out of the tent flaps...
...followed by a beautiful woman. She runs him around the ring a few times...
...then asks him to do some fancy stepping.
A smaller horse — or is it a pony? — enters the ring and together they go around a few times.
Then she has the little one weave in and out of the legs of the big one.
The big horse takes a bow...
...and she starts her introduction as he leaves the ring.
"That big, beautiful guy headed out right there, that's Capricious, he's an Andalusian Horse."
Andalusian? She said that like it should mean something to us, and maybe to a horse person it does, but it didn't mean anything to me — until I Googled it.
The Andalusian, or Pure Spanish Horse, is a strongly built and compact yet elegant horse with long, thick manes and tails. They are known for their intelligence, sensitivity, and docility. When treated with respect they are quick to learn, responsive, and cooperative. They have a fascinating history. At one time, the bloodline was almost completely wiped out through crossbreeding, warfare, and disease. In 1832, an epidemic seriously affected Spain's horse population, from which only one small herd survived at the monastery in Cartuja. All living Andalusians trace back to them.
"This little guy right here is Lucky Star, aka Trouble," and she laughed as the pony was leaving the ring. "You're going to see a lot of him in the show and you're going to see what I mean." She welcomed us to the show then told us a little about herself. "My name is Heidi Harriott, I'll be the host of the show. I'm proud to be a third generation horse trainer, entertainer, and horse lover with roots that go all the way back to the days of the Wild West shows."
I Googled Heidi and found a video of her performing on a dancing horse at Circus World Summer 2011. I knew I had the right Heidi Harriott when she brought out a trick pony named Lucky Star. Here's the link if you're interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dJLovXGRqM
Heidi introduced the other half of the Rhinestone Cowgirls and Morgan came out into the ring with a hula-hoop and performed for us.
Next were two little ponies with puppet riders. "Diamond Lil and Buck Shot are not ponies —" Heidi tells us.
Oops!
"—they're not babies, they're actually full grown. They're All American Miniature Horses. And I find the miniature horses have pretty nice temperaments."
Lilly and Buck did a little do-si-do around the ring for us...
...got on stands and saluted,
then they bowed for us before they left the ring.
Then it was time for Lucky Star again.
"Lucky Star was on Americas Got Talent. All the judges gave him a yes and you're going to see some of that performance here today!"
Heidi asked Lucky to salute us and Lucky didn't. A consummate entertainer and able to deal with whatever happens with the horses, Heidi looked at Lucky and told him, "I'm in charge today!" she laughed and to us added, "I hope!" She turned back to Lucky, "Big salute! Nice wave!" Lucky did and she praised him. "Good boy."
"Now Lucky Star really is a smart little horse and if you don't believe me, just ask him." Heidi turned to Lucky. "Are you smart?"
Lucky nodded his head.
"I'm pretty smart too, aren't I?"
Lucky shook his head no three times!
"You didn't have to be so adamant about it!" she mock-scolded him and laughed. "I know what kind of show this is going to be. Alright Lucky Star, I want you to look out here and give all these folks a big welcome-to-the-fair smile! Big smile! Big Smile!" And Lucky showed us his teeth. "Spin around," and Lucky did, facing the other side of the stands. "We got some folks in the cheap seats over there. Good. Big smile. Come on, don't be stingy." She made sure Lucky smiled long enough for everyone to get pictures.
Then Heidi went on to the next skit. "Now if any of you have smart animals at home or have trained some you know they can be a lot of fun to work with because they are very smart, however, they also learn how to undo it, or do it on their own terms, don't they? Well, that's Lucky Star. He likes to untie things. We're not thrilled about this. When we get ready for the show and tie him up out back, he knows how to untie himself and he can get Buck Shot and Lilly and off they go through the fair, right up to the Kettle Corn, right?" She looks at Lucky. "Yes. We can tell by that physique." She turned back to us. "I want to show you how he does it so I brought a handkerchief out here, I'm going to tie it right around his front leg, then I'm going to ask all of you to help me count to three and we'll see if he can untie it. Here we go."
Heidi bent down to tie it but didn't get it done before Lucky pulled it off. She wasn't speaking into the microphone, she'd set it down, but I could hear her talk to Lucky. "You're in a big hurry!" She managed to turn his nose away while she got it tied but before she could stand up and get the microphone, he had it off.
Heidi counted fast. "Onetwothree," and she laughed with us. Lucky dropped the handkerchief and Heidi told him to pick it up. He did. Then she had him get his front feet up on the stand and wave the handkerchief at us. After he did he started to get down.
"Stay up there." Lucky stayed. "I want you now to show all these folks what you do before you go to bed at night."
We awww'd as Lucky showed us how he says his prayers.
"Now we're going to have a little fun with Lucky Star and you boys and girls can help us out with this," Heidi said. "This horse right here is a little mathematical wizard. He can actually count out the answers to math problems and he does it using his little hoof. Now the way we're going to do it so you know it's fair, our buddy Jared is coming out with some big dice. We're going to hand those out to you boys and girls. Stay in your seats and just toss them on the ground in front of you and we'll take the two numbers and add, subtract, or multiply."
Jared gave one die to one little kid and the other to another kid and they threw them out.
"What do we have there, Jared?" Heidi asked.
"Five and a three!" I was close enough to hear Jared's answered.
"Great! We have a five and a three to start out so we're going to add five plus three. Now don't yell out the answer, however, you do need to think about the answers so you know if Lucky Star's right so you gotta do the math right along with him. You didn't know you were having a math quiz today. Okay. Here we go," she turned to Lucky. "Five plus three."
Lucky pawed the ground eight times.
"Eight!" Heidi declares. "Is he right? He is!"
We go through the process three more times, subtracting, adding, then multiplying the last time.
Heidi gave Lucky an A in his math for today... "and you boys and girls, when you're back at school, be sure and tell your teachers you practiced math at the fair on Labor Day with Lucky Star! Boy, are they going to be impressed. Right up until the time you start counting..." Heidi 'pawed' the ground like Lucky did as he counted out the answers for us, "...like that." We laughed.
"All right, there's more. This little horse is pretty amazing. He can talk!"
The audience gasped in disbelief.
"Yes! You heard me right. He's a talking horse and I'm going to have him talk for you right now. This is pretty special. We're probably going to be on the news and be famous. Okay, Lucky Star. I'm going to have you talk right into the microphone," she put it in front of his mouth and commanded, "Talk!"
Lucky worked his lips but no sound came out. "The lips are moving but I don't hear anything, do you?" Heidi asked.
"No!" everyone answered.
"I don't either. We're going to face the other way and see if he'll talk to those folks." Heidi turned Lucky to the other side.
As you can guess, the same thing happened.
"The microphone's on, the lips are moving, but nothing's coming out. I don't know what's going on. He's been gabbin' up a storm in the back, driving us crazy. Let me see what's up." Heidi turned her attention to Lucky and asked, "Lucky Star, what's going on?" She put her ear to Lucky's mouth and 'listened' as Lucky's lips moved.
After a minute or so, she came back to us. "Okay, I got to the bottom of it. He says he can't talk right now. He's a little horse!"
"Awww," we say, laugh and clap.
Lucky took a bow to end his show...
...then Morgan came out and performed on the aerial horseshoe.
It was hot and we had to sit in the sun for The Rhinestone Cowgirl show. The next show I wanted to see was the rodeo in half-an-hour. We made our way to the arena and although we weren't first, we still had our choice of seats. I got high in the grandstand so I could take pictures over the fence and Mike parked in the shade where he could still see the arena. Pretty soon he had company to help him pass the time.
The rodeo opened with the red, white, and blue and the national anthem. Most people took their hats off, most of the men anyway, but women are not required to.
The host introduced the judges and rodeo helpers, then the event competitors paraded the flags of their sponsors around the arena.
Our rodeo funny man was Hollywood. I remember him from when I took Momma to the fair several years ago. I wondered if he would have new tricks and jokes this year and he did.
This was a combination of up-and-coming professional riders and high school kids. I don't think they let the kids do anything dangerous, like bull or bronc riding, but I'm not sure who took the arena first because the bulls had saddles on.
Then the bronc riders came up.
Once the horse threw his rider, he proceeded to run over Tom, one of the officials.
The others quickly surrounded Tom as he got to his feet. He limped away but they said he was okay and he finished judging the event.
They only had a few men participating in the first two events, so we moved through them pretty quickly.
Next up was 'chute dogging', an event where the cowboy wrestles the 400-pound steer to the ground. To be considered a legal fall, all four feet of the steer must be in the air. Not everyone was successful.
And sometimes it looked like the steer was winning.
But the kid got back on top and tossed the calf. I think he was the only one to do so.
This eleven-year-old gave it go but he couldn't do it.
Uh, nope. I was wrong. The last kid up also tossed the calf and he did it pretty fast too.
Next up was the pole bending. That's where the girls race as fast as they can, weaving in and out of the poles, trying not to knock them over. The gals handled the horses expertly but most all of them knocked down a pole or even two.
To break up the rodeo a little, Hollywood entertained us with his bullwhip.
He chose a man and wife from the audience and had Kurt hold paper sticks while he cracked his whip and cut them from his hand.
Then he put a paper cone — stick, whatever, in Kurt's mouth, turned him sideways and asked the wife her name.
"Pie?" Hollywood asked when she told him. "Are you an old hippie?" He waited for her answer and repeated it to us. "Yes! Of course!"
Then he forgot Kurt's name. "What was your name again?"
"Scared," Kurt said and everyone laughed.
After getting Kurt all set up, he went back to Pie, took her umbrella, and gave it to Kurt.
Then he went back, took her camera, and asked someone from the audience to take pictures for them. Then he guided Pie's hand as she cracked the whip and cut the cone from Kurt's mouth.
"Hey! She did it!" Hollywood almost sounded surprised. We cheered and clapped.
"Give it up for Pie and Scared! Scared of Pie!" Hollywood jokes and we clap a little harder.
Next, they had an event called Junior Ribbon Roping.
It's where a team worked together, the rider ropes the calf and the other kid has to take a flag from the calf's tail and race it back to base. Not all of the kids were able to rope the calf in the allotted time.
Then it was calf roping. Again, not all of the kids manage to rope their calf. It was still fun to watch and cheer them on and we clapped for them anyway.
This rider had a little paint pony.
"You could offer him a million dollars for that little pony and he wouldn't take it," the announcer told us like he knew them, which he probably did. These kids follow the rodeos around in order to get qualified for state competitions.
During the bronc riding a guy got tossed kinda hard from the horse and ended up being knocked unconscious.
Hollywood was the first to reach him.
The announcer called for the EMT's and they came running from someplace out in the fair. They weren't 'standing by' like you might expect them to.
They got him up and helped him out of the arena.
"Being knocked unconscious is an automatic trip to the hospital," he announced, "but he's alright."
Another bucking bronc caught one of the other judges out in the middle and chased him to the fence.
One of the parts that Mike liked best was The Rawhide 'n Dusty and The James Boys show.
This guy had these two longhorn steers. He cracked a whip at them, running them around the arena.
Then the truck and trailer come in and I totally wasn't expecting this, but this truck and trailer come in and he chased first one...
...then the other to the top of the trailer.
Then he joins them.
Stands on his saddle and cracks his bullwhip.
Watching the bulls get down was almost as much fun as watching them climb up there!
He gets back up on the trailer top...
...and has the horse do this teeter tot thing.
The truck drove around the arena and he pointed at everyone, including the old lady standing on the tallest bleacher taking pictures.
He comes down...
...and does a Hi-ho-Silver thing before leaving the arena.
There was more to the rodeo but Mike and I left. An hour and forty-five minutes was enough.
I hope you enjoyed our trip to the fair and let's call this one...
Done!
