The other day, my family and I took the afternoon off from our respective occupations and went to the county fair. It was Zelly's first fair and we'd gotten her all excited about the prospect of petting animals, seeing baby pigs and, most of all, riding a "pony-horse".
Most of that didn't happen, but we had fun anyway.
The first animal encounters were with the goats brought in by the FFA members. There were goats of all sizes and colors, including some days old babies, triplets. While we were all gawking at these cat-sized kids, a neighboring goat decided to make a move on me and started licking my arm. I wasn't that put off until he took an experimental tug at my shirt sleeve, then I had to put a stop to it. Can't be disrobed by a goat in public in front of my child! That just wouldn't be right.
We passed by the pony ride next. We checked out the price and stood watching for a moment. Some of the littler kids were strapped onto their saddles by seatbelts -- something I didn't have riding ponies as a kid. Zelly watched with big eyes. I squatted down and asked her if she wanted to do that, if she could sit up on the saddle and hang on like the other girls and boys.
She was very quiet for a moment and when she answered, I could barely hear her, "I don't want to ride a pony-horse now." I think she was a bit intimidated. Anyway, I told her we'd check it out before we left, in case she changed her mind.
In the next barn we saw more goats, some sheep, lamas and an alpaca. Alpaca's are very small and delicate looking, almost alien with their huge eyes. We walked down to the horse arena where a young woman was trying to keep her Arab in line during a contest. Her inability to get him to behave reminded me of my own attempts at 4-H horse showing with Jamiel, my 7/8 Arab-Appy. He was a booger-head, very independent, showy and generally not interested in things like shows and rules and stalls. I don't think I went more than once with him, it was much more work than it was worth, especially since he did a good job of wrecking any stall he was in.
After a moment of watching, we walked down to the stalls where a couple of very nice girls asked if Zelly would like to pet a horse. Zelly's beaming face was her answer. DeeDee was very patient and let us all stroke her soft muzzle and rub her forehead. I chatted with the girls a little about horse 4-H before we headed back up to the other exhibits.
The cow barn was next on our tour. Wendy explained to Zell where hamburger comes from as we walked past the black angus cows. There were two nursing calves in the barn and while watching them we explained to Zell where milk comes from. Another helpful resident helped to explain where cow sh*t comes from and prompted Zelly to hold her nose for a while. I thought the smell in all the barns was pretty mild but both my city girls informed me that it was quite stinky.
We went from there to the "small furry animals" barn with rabbits and guinea pigs. Zell was very excited about these smaller animals and told us she wanted a guinea pig. I answered with, "not until you can take care of it yourself"
Farm fowl were next with various plain and exotic chickens, ducks and turkeys. Zelly did such a good imitation of a rooster crowing, it prompted one of the 4-H parents to comment.
Wendy and I wanted to go through the other exhibit halls with their quilts, baked goods and other home science displays. Zelly was less interested and started to get antsy. The air-conditioned Floral Building was last on our tour. There were some very imaginative floral arrangements and some goofy fruit and vegetable scuptures on display. We had to restrain Zelly from grabbing some blue ribbon carrots to munch on.
Speaking of food, we did have some but we didn't do a Fair-style pig-out. We split a milkshake, some strawberry-lemonade and a shrimp kabob.
At last we were done with the exhibits and had come to the carnival area. Zelly pointed out lots of things she thought she wanted to do, like the rock climb and various big-people rides. Then she saw the merry-go-round. "I wanna ride that horsey ride, Mommy, I wanna ride that one." She was tugging on us, trying to get us to go faster.
Wendy accompanied Zelly on the ride so I could snap pictures. When the ride began to slow down, Zelly burst into tears -- she didn't want it to end. We consoled her and distracted her on our way back out to the car. We had a good time this year and I'm bettin next year she'll be ready for that pony ride.
Posted by buggy at August 3, 2003 04:25 PM