Ryley's Debut

Last week was the county fair which is held a few miles from our house.
We love it.  The food, the people, the events, the rain and mud, the whole experience is jammed pack with moments that are meant to become memories.
We had a fair budget of $100 which isn't much considering we planned on going several times and adult admission is $10 and child admission is $5.  We managed to make it there 4 times; JD and I had free passes every night we went and we only had to pay for the kids twice.  We also ate very little fair food.  We brought drinks and snacks from home as much as possible and only spent about $70 for the 4 days we went.  Not bad.

I worked at our school booth, Zeke went on rides, we watched tractor pulls (basically a huge family reunion),  and Ryley showed horses for the first time.

Friday was her big day.  JD took the day off from work and went to the fairgrounds early to help with the horses.  Ry spent the night at the fair in the horse trailer and was quite excited and anxious about her big day.

She showed in the draft horse show with my Aunt Lisi's horses, a Clydesdale cross named Willow and a Belgian named Macey.  The first class was a halter class with Willow.  Ryley was nervous but did great.  She is naturally shy but anything that has anything to do with horses tends to help her reach beyond her comfort zone.  She did great as the youngest child in the 13 and under class and placed 6th out of 8.

Later in the day, she drove Macey in the 13 and under cart class.  There were 12 kids in the class, most of them older than her.  She did great and placed 5th out of 12.  It was a great experience for her and I have no doubt that she'll only get better as she gains experience and confidence. 

Apparently not too many kids do more than one event and we were surprised to find out that she won Reserved Grand Champion for the 13 and under crew!