Final volunteer weekend of the year

** Just a quick note on Spencer - I have had two updates from the riding program and Spencer is settling in well so far!   Thanks for the comments on my last post - I'm not as sad about it this week as I was last week, so that is good!

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We are well into fair season here, with the big ones wrapping up in the next month or so.  This past weekend was one of our local fall fairs that I had two volunteer commitments to finish up.

My friend is a judge, so I often tag along with her to the western shows at the fairs. I think I've been to most in a 2-3 hour radius from here, just to see what they are like.    This year, I was her ring steward as a favour to her.   I got into the fair for free, so that is a bonus.

These two percherons were close to our ring and kept geting excited every time another horse went by. 
Luckily none of the riding horses spooked!

This fair is a cute one - they have cattle, draft horses and a light horse show on the same day as the western ring.  I went for a quick tour around and it seemed to me that all the horse show entries were down. The western show only had 6 people, which is really sad. A lot of fairs have cancelled their horse shows and I wouldn't be surprised if this one follows suit.

Cows!

The fair board sometimes pays groups to come in and host events. And on Sunday, we put on our last cowboy obstacle show of the season at the same fair.   As of Sunday, I'm officially done volunteering with that club, which is a really good thing.

I'm very burnt out from volunteering on the boards of these local show clubs. It is such a drain on time and resources, especially if you work full time and, oh, I don't know, want to ride and show your own horse!  And don't get me started on politics and people not pulling their weight!

Cute!

The good news is that the show went well and our entries were decent, considering there were many other events on at the same time.

The other good news?  Mini donuts.  My favourite thing at a fair!  I know you can find them elsewhere, but I only let myself eat them at a fair.  And yes, I totally use my bucket for snacks or a dog water dish for the next few months!

Volunteer time - cowboy obstacle show

I think I've mentioned it before, but I've done a fair bit of volunteering for horse show-related stuff over the past 10 years.  It started out being fun, but slowly become a complete drain on my time and energy.  I resigned from all my positions but one last year. I'm on the board of directors for a small club that does cowboy obstacle races.  I stayed on to help as a favour to a friend, but this will be my last year of helping out to this level.

Part of a course from last year. That is the barn owner's dog drinking out of the water box!

I'm the treasurer and I do all of the finances, paperwork and prizes - forms, entries, order-of-go for the classes, scoring, sponsor letters, etc.  It is fun to a point, but it takes so much time and we have 4 shows this year.   Our first show is coming up this weekend, so I've been spending a fair bit of time in the evenings doing paperwork.

Charlie is my manager - she isn't very helpful...but she is super cute!

Shopping for prizes and exhibitor gifts is the fun part for sure.  This year my friend picked up a few things she found.  Some years we have bought a bunch of different stuff at Congress.  This year I  found a great local vendor of horse treats and placed a big order before the show.  I have to stop by the local tack shop for a few things on Friday and and make a run to the bank.  This year, aside from a few fun prizes, we are giving out cash for 1st-5th place in all divisions. We find that everyone likes cash - it doesn't collect dust like a trophy.  :-)

These are the gift bags the treat people made for us!  The cookies are edible by humans as well - they are soft molasses cookies that aren't too sweet.

We have a long weekend coming up, so this will keep me busy until Saturday, then I'll have Sunday AND Monday to relax and get some stuff done around the house.