Spencerville Fair

I can't remember the last time that I had a chance to visit Spencerville Fair, but Saturday was the window of opportunity and I took it. Years (many years) ago, I showed my fantastic pony, Red Velvet at Spencerville Fair in the open jumper division. The afternoon, you jumped on the track in front of the grandstand, filled to capacity. In the evening you jumped, first class and last class in the hockey arena, cum horse arena.
My girlfriend, Margrit Wigger, used to ask me how I developed such a great eye for distances to a fence. My response was, "You had to learn to see and feel, as the jumps were set up wherever the tractor driver stopped". There was no such thing as counting your strides in those days.

Later, I enjoyed being a judge at the children's show on Fridays, with the costume class being a highlight. Years after that I enjoyed taking my young children, Didi and Keith to participate in the same show. Keith was an awesome "chipmunk" on a beautiful grey pony we had from the Goods.

And even later, I was judging the hunter show that took part and also driving hackneys, draft horses and hitches for competitors.Fifteen years have passed since then, so Saturday was a real eye-opener. It took awhile to discover where everything now was in the much enlarged fair grounds, but I soon found the horse show and met with some great old horsemen and friends of the past. Morris Douglas, a great buddy of my father, his son Kirk and wife Catharine who show beautiful hackneys, Susan and Penny Armstrong who go back to elementary school days, Carol Anne Clarke and the judge of the day Terry Jones.

Ted and I took in the exhibits that ranged from baby bunnies - chickens - school classes to the home baking, quilting and flower arranging. It was great to see competitions for the school children featuring photography. There are some up and coming photographers out there.

For supper, we enjoyed the Woodland's barbecue chicken, which has been at the fair as long as I have been. Mary and Richard Woodland have kept up the tradition and it was a pleasure to see them being involved still. Richard's mom, Marion, had been the show secretary of the horse show for many years.

What a great way to step into the past, but feel part of agriculture and rural life for the future.