September 5, Saline fair -- horses and cattle

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But what are they looking at?





Halflingers, getting ready to show.





I believe this class was for four-year-old geldings.

Some of them were got up regardless!

I know exactly nothing about what halflingers are supposed to look like, or how they should function. This handsome lad came in second, so I guess he's pretty near to what they ought to look like.

(I promise I did not flash at him -- or anyone else. My camera makes an array of little beeps and clicks, and I suspect that is why he was looking right at me.)







I know that horses compete in a raft of different activities. Performance from cow-cutting to dressage. Conformation. Costumes ("fancy Arab" is one class I've seen at the state fair). On the 5th, for halflingers, it was conformation.

I was interested by how similar it was to a conformation dog show. The handlers encouraged the horses to put their feet just so. They carried those rubber-tipped rods you see, and tapped or poked the horses to get them to move their feet. (Dogs are enough smaller that people pick up their feet and reposition them.)

The horses were trotted out and back, just as dogs are, so the judge could evaluate them in motion. I guess I've never seen this sort of competition before; I don't remember seeing that. I wonder how often the handlers get stepped on. Ouch. Only one of the handlers was younger than I. They've got to be in pretty good shape to run fast enough to get a horse to trot right out!





The judge was younger than I, by considerable.

Here he is, looking over all the horses once he'd seen each of them individually.





All smooth and perfectly groomed, with flowing tresses and painted toenails.....





Back in the cow barn, some of the inhabitants break for a rest.





Some are still looking out. These are steers. Hard to not imagine he is wishing he could be a horse. And not get eaten. I am feeling less and less happy about eating animals. This sort of vignette pushes me in that direction.



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