Some small town culture at the County Fair

I couldn't turn down Elizabeth, my 7 year old niece, when she asked me to take her to the horse show at the county fair this week. She loves horses and I enjoy spending time with her. It turns out that she had a friend with her and Mommy came along too but she wanted to ride in my car. It was a warm afternoon as we pulled in a few minutes late – though I didn't need to be concerned about that since the schedule is approximate. Back in my 4-H days (30 years ago) I took some things to the fair but I have little memory of it. I certainly never went to the horse show. The actual judging had been done the day before so we were there to watch the games. They included: carrying an egg on the spoon while trotting, walking and then galloping (none of the eggs lasted very long at a gallop), barrel racing, poles, the key hole, the softball drop… Horses all have their own temperament and one in particular wasn't excited about getting too close to barrels, poles, buckets or anything else it was supposed to go around. A crowd favorite was the little pony with its junior rider who looked pretty good in each game.

Elizabeth's attention span was up before the games so I walked around the rest of the grounds. There wasn't much in the 4-H building but the number of animals in the barns made up for it. Maybe that's why I found the fair on the internet as the "Osceola County Livestock Show". The noisiest animals were the sheep. They were bleating pretty much non-stop. The hogs were pink and clean and it was hot enough they were probably missing some mud. The beef cattle looked like they had lots of thick steaks in them. I was able to discover the name of the best jam and salsa makers in the county in the open exhibit building. The commercial building was pretty sparse. The company reps who had made the trip looked pretty bored. Osceola County is too small to have a mid-way but there were several inflatable slides and jumpers for the kids. The one ride was the local REC (Rural Electric Company) boom truck that would rise to full extension (maybe 30 feet) and make a 360° turn. If that isn't enough excitement for you, you could have put $10 into the demolition derby raffle. The winner gets a car to drive in the feature demolition on Saturday night. It wasn't specified if the helmet was included.