Whew!
Still recovering from a very exciting first weekend of horse fair at Springfield.
The Illinois Horse Fair was successful for ASAP and ISOBA because of the hard work and dedication of so many people.
I want to personally thank Michelle Daniels and Barb Daniels and daughters Christian, Katie, and Emily for putting up such a gorgeous booth display this year.
We arrived with Taser Gun and Janimal at 12:30 AM to find them all still decorating.
It was so great to see them and Michelle's wonderful power point presentation about Standardbreds was informative and entertaining. The demonstrations were exciting to watch because we had three young ladies ages 10-12 in the ring riding Rhyma Rose, Lonely Dreamer, and Janimal. It was great to see Rhyma Rose's beautiful single foot moves. The girls were just trotting around like they had been riding together with their horses their entire lives.
I kept things a little more low key with Taser Gun, since he had only been to horse fair one other time and at that time I was not riding him. He was a true gentleman. Still, I could not resist riding him around the fairgrounds and getting my fast trots in before and after the demonstrations. He is such a great horse - I would love to ride him at 35 mph! Maybe I will get that chance this summer.
The shopping was fantastic, and all of us girls made sure we got our share of it!
I want to also thank Tim Jones for doing the interview which was posted on the ustrotting web site this morning, and for taking pictures.
I want to thank Bob Walker and his wife for coming to see Taser - that meant so much - and for their help in getting ready for the demo on Sunday.
I want to thank Ralph and Bunny Daehn for coming all the way to Springfield to see us - I have known this family for almost 20 years now - Ralph has adopted three horses from ASAP - E.G., Monte, and Copper Cadet - and he and his wife's friendship and support after all of these years speaks volumes about bonds that occur within the ASAP family.
I want to thank the anonymous woman who stopped by on Friday and dropped off some colorful and gorgeous bouquets of tulips and some cookies. She said she had adopted through ASAP seven years ago but did not leave her name. Who is it? Thank you sooo much.
Thank you to John Cisna and ISOBA for paying for our stalls and making our presence at Illinois Horse Fair possible.
Thank you to Eunice D. for her donation to ASAP to assist with sponsorships and help the horses, and also to Ralph and Bunny for their donation. You are all very precious.
We are all a part of this great program that has served the industry for so long!
Oh I HAVE to give a "shout out" to the King family, without whom we could not have made the trip this weekend. With Girlie having 8 puppies that are only 2 1/2 weeks old or a little better, we could not leave the house empty. Judy and Jessica and Kelly and Ben - you are all so very much appreciated. Words cannot express! They took impeccable care of our house and our family of pets. It's not just anyone who is willing to attend to a chicken who cannot walk, a cat who has cerebellar hyperplasia since birth and walks like a drunk cat or rabid cat (LOL), guinea pigs, rabbits, and 8 little pups!!! I don't think there is enough money to pay someone for that effort. Hat's off to the Kings!
If Michelle is willing to share digital photos (yes I forgot my digital camera), we'll get some great pictures up of the horse fair! We have a mud pit here at the farm........so now to go outside and wallow in it.
Hugs,
Susan
