Saddle Up at the State Fair #TBTStories

Jennifer, Noah and I made a trip to the Indiana State Fair yesterday, which I hope to blog about in the next couple of days. In the meantime, in honor of our great State Fair, I wanted to do a Throwback Thursday Stories post featuring Jennifer's years at the ISF 4-H horse show.

We had these photos laminated and used them to decorate her stall at the county fair for her last year showing. Sort of a trip down memory lane.

Here she is on Calipso Kid, affectionately known as 'Pee Wee.' For most of her show career, he was her trusty partner. He knew his job, and he was good at it. This photo includes her cheering section for that year: Jonathan, Caroline, and little Adam with his red belt and boots, Garth Brooks t-shirt, and his broken arm.

It was always cool to have a photo taken with your horse's halter off, standing obediently with no lead rope attached. Pee Wee posed no risk of running off, though he did sometimes attempt to eat the fake foliage.

In 1999, Jennifer and Pee Wee were champions in the horsemanship class. She gave a speech once, about the excitement of sitting on your horse in the center of the arena when they call your name as the champion. Pee Wee was 17 and Jennifer was 13. Now, good ol' Pee Wee is 32, and living out his retirement at Andrew's place on the cattle farm. We love him.

She showed Hope's Classy Lady, 'Bert', in 2000, leased from a friend.  It was a good experience for Jennifer to learn from and show a horse different from Pee Wee.

The next year she was back with Pee Wee. Another halter-less photo for showmanship.

And a vest I made her for horsemanship. I think there was glue involved. :)

In 2002, she showed her new horse Zip to Elegance, 'Ellie.' They won the showmanship championship that year. They made a great team.

Jennifer and I both loved our years in the horse barn at the State Fair. Early morning check-in, late night practice in the Coliseum, picnics in the lot during that looooonnnnng wait for our turn to enter the fairgrounds, eating a ribeye sandwich with Dippin' Dots for dessert, having your horse randomly selected for drug testing, banding a mane, missing a lead, forgetting to back, and, best of all, getting your name called when the placings are announced, are just some of the special memories we share from the Indiana State Fair.