I just want to be a cowgirl?

This past weekend was the annual Illinois Horse Fair at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, and the kids and I went for the first time.  It starts on Friday and runs through Sunday.  Because we had a volleyball game on Saturday morning in southern Illinois, we didn't get up there until about 3:30 or so on Saturday afternoon.  It was a long lovely drive!

I'm not really sure what I was expecting, but I was surprised at all of the goings on.  There were shows and sessions occurring simultaneously in different buildings and arenas.  There were vendors set up everywhere with clothes, tack, horse feed, boots, trailers, jewelry, colleges, just about anything you can think of related to horses.  There were even horses there for sale.

We saw a horse trainer from Australia who is amazing.  Of course, I thought he was amazing...he's probably just like all the others, except for the nice accent, but the kids and I loved him.  At one point, he had one of his four horses lie down and then had the other three stand over the horse that was lying down!  He was on one of the horses that was standing.  And none of them batted on eye...of course, because why on earth would you do it otherwise?!  But still it was crazy.  Another trick was having a horse lie down and covering it with one of those big blue tarps like it was dead...again, he didn't move a muscle.  Those horses of his were very well trained.

And my kids' favorite act...these two men, one of whom was dressed like a woman wearing a "fat" suit and skimpy outfit trying to do tricks on a horse with "her" butt in the air and falling off and doing this and that to accent the large behind.  I told the people sitting next to me, watch, this will be what my kids remember...and sure enough, Lane can't wait to tell people and laughs when he talks about it.

I took in a lot of information on how to handle a horse...and I lost most of it.  Fortunately, someone in our group bought the videos for us to pass around.  I need some serious one-on-one with a horse if I am ever going to get the hang of things.  I'm not sure you'll ever see me on a horse standing over another one who is lying down, but I am committed to at least learning as much as I can so that I will feel more comfortable around them.  I must say that I am 100% more comfortable around them now than I was two years ago...so there is always room for improvement...I just need to get another 100% under my belt.

At Christmas, my main wish was for a pair of real cowboy boots.  I took a magazine and circled various styles and told Jay to get me a size 8 in any of the ones I had picked, he could choose.  And he did exactly that.  The boots were very nice and I liked them, but they were way too big.  I wasn't sure what size to get and I should have went somewhere and tried on some before just throwing a size out there.  Sometimes I act without thinking...I know, I know.

So we sent them back and I had planned to get the same boots in a smaller size, but just never did.  Well, lo and behold, wasn't I surprised to see all the vendors set up at the horse fair?  And oh, how delighted I was when I saw several that had boots!  I quickly honed in on a pair that caught my eye and I was in love.  I tried them on in sizes 7 and 7.5 and settled on the 7.  I texted Jay to ask if he thought it was okay, he said to go for it.  So I did and I love them.  They are the coolest boots ever!

I wore them all evening around the house and will need to wear them several evenings to get them broke in.  (Apparently that is a drawback to cowboy boots!)  I also need to purchase some very tall socks instead of borrowing Madolyn's very loud, tall boot socks.

I'm all psyched up again about horses after this weekend.  I just need to find a horse that fits my abilities (one that is alive and under 25 yrs of age hopefully) and learn a little lot more about what I'm doing and then I'll be ready to blaze another trail.  I don't own a cowboy hat yet, and I'm not so sure I'll ever get that far, but you just never know...