....Jefferson County Fair is OVER!!!!!!!!!!!! I feel kinda bad because I had some friends who wanted to go and I didn't have the time or the ability to remember to reach out and remind them... so they didn't go.... But I'm relieved it's over though. All the stress and 14-15 hour days is enough to ulcer anyone's week. So...for those of you who want a little update on how it all went, here we go (or just skip the next couple of paragraphs, but I talk about my arts in there too)...be warned, it may be a longer journal than usual because I am going through each day July 6th-12th >.>...

....Monday was pre-fair judging and I barely got my stuff done in time. I mean I just finished matting my ink entry when I had to leave. I had 7 art entries, 2 photo entries and 1 musical entry.
....All of my art and photo entries got firsts, while my watercolor, sketchbook, pencil arts and my landscape photos were nominated to get more prizes, only my sketchbook got a prize. It won the Award of Excellence ribbon. I had shown my horse Sophi at fair this year too, so stall decoration was on Monday and we chose a flowergarden theme with our educational information being about our horse breeds.........Tuesday I brought Sophi it and Fair started on Wednesday.

....Wednesday I had two classes I signed up for with Sophi. Trail and Non-state Showmanship. I warmed Sophi up for trail but sure enough, she was a butt. ....There were 6 obstacles and I could only get her to do 2 of them, but She did good considering she's only 4 years old. So I'm leading her back to the trailer to untack her (she's still on nerves end because of the trail class) but she sees a mini pony pulling a cart and stops dead in her tracks. I'm fed up with leading a nervous horse around so I decided I would take her back to her stall and untack her there. Right then, someone slammed a door or something really loud and that set Sophi off. She reared up and I had to let go because she was pulling too hard. Soon as I let go she flips over because of the lost pressure. I was hysterical and if you know Sophi, she's been through a lot already. (3 days old: she jumps over wheel-barrow and rips her knee open, 3 months old: she gets loose because the other horses pushed my mom trying to lead Sophi out and punctures that same knee on a hay rake, vet didn't clean it out well enough and the tendon gets infected, she still can't lift/extend that leg very well, 6 months old: she gets loose because my sister couldn't hold her and the gate wouldn't close, jumps into a 30x20 culymulcher (farm machine hitch that loosens the soil by the giant spinning blades) and rips open her chest, missed main heart artery by an inch....and she still has all those scars) so all of THAT was running through my head, but we took her over to her stall and she just bruised her hip, stifle and part of her hock and the rest were just scratches. After both of us calmed down, I found out my showmanship class was going on, so I decided to try the class anyways and braided Sophi's mane as fast I could and snuck in back...and lo and behold....we got a first. The judge told me I could've made Champion had Sophi squared up and I was the ONLY english person in the class of 17, So that brought my emotional level back up.

...Thursday was a neah day. No horse shows, but I had my violin solo at 3:00 that day. I practiced like crazy but my good ol' nerves don't give a crap. I get up to perform and my left arm starts spazzing because of the adrenaline rush so I can't hit any of my higher notes and my vibratos turn to shit. I got a 3rd, which for musical stuff, might as well say *you never should have tried*, but I wasn't expecting to do well, so other than my pride, I was fine.

...Friday I ride Sophi and find out she's limping on the leg she landed on after flipping on. It's a sore limp but we couldn't tell where, so my faithful Mother goes right up to the tall guy, Andrew, whom I told her was adorable, and asks him where he thinks Sophi is sore. I get all red in the face but he said it was hard to say, but that it was likely the hock or her stifle. I put Sophi away 2 hours later after soaking her leg and giving her some horsey painkillers and Andrew comes up and asks if she's alright and I'm surprised as hell when he shows up. But we had a little conversation about how Sophi was and how to help her leg.... but Gawd he's so adorable.

...Saturday was a horseshow day for people who signed up for state showmanship and english classes...and I didn't have to show no stress for me that day! But i signed up for a dressage class (Sophi stopped limping so I decided to follow through) and I get all dressed and stuff and find out they canceled it because the people running the shows that day said they didn't know that you need marked letters and the test for it.....that pissed me off, but Sophi did awesome in our little "dress rehearsal" afterwards

...Sunday comes and it's the last day of fair and I thought I didn't have to show until after lunch, so I go to church that morning. I didn't get to the fairgrounds until 10:30 when I find out that they are 2 classes until mine. So I freak out a bit but I got ready and just warmed up right when they call my class. There were 6 more classes and a lunch break after this class so we go watch some freestyle jumping dirtbikes which was AWESOME!!! They were backflips and other crap and and...i got goosebumps, they were like over 100 feet in the air!!! After that we hurry back and 4 classes before mine I get Sophi outside to warm up again. IT TOOK 2 1/2 HOURS TO GET THROUGH THOSE CLASSES!!!! Everyone wanted to kill the judge and the way she was judging was pissing everyone off....The girl that I believe should have gotten first, her horse threw a big fit in the line up for some reason, but she handled it professionally and apologized for her horse's behavior and stood her horse off from the rest, she did the pattern perfectly though. She ended up getting a 3rd because of what her horse did...IT'S EQUITATION CLASS FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!!! THE ACT AND ART OF HORSEBACK RIDING!!!! NOT HOW YOU SIT THERE AND HAVE YOUR STUPID PUSHBUTTON HORSE DO EVERYTHING!!! not only that, but it's Fair....come on! Sophi was a butt too, she stopped in the middle of trotting and refused to back straight, we got a 3rd place too...that girl really deserved better.

....ANYWHO....that was fair. No tents collapsing, horse trailers rolling away, 50 MPH winds, black skies or tornado watches this year like last year....but all in all, it was good. I am proud of Sophi and she did good, especially considering how green she still is Thanks for listening to some of my rants!!!!

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