It was true! It was true!
The school kids came.... and came.... and came to the NHS Educational area. At least 1000, maybe more (how to count them all?) Middle school age - think Malcolm in at the Middle - girls all in one cluster, giggling..boys looking lost wandering around in twos and threes.
They loved the water testing stand! I'm shocked! Our KHC volunteers proved to be natural teachers,explaining it without talking down to the students. By the time they left our booth, they knew why Kentucky horses have such good bones.
Then there was the kid that thought that you should lick the water test strip as part of the experiment. Hope it didn't contain any carcinogens. I'm not sure our liability covers giving a life-threatening disease to 13-year old.
Oh, did I mention that that there were some horses jumping in the Allrech arena while this was all going on? At least that is what I was told...no,actually I did watch a few rounds. They all looked perfect to me.
At the end of the day, when the kids had left and it was really quiet, I scouted out the vendors that line the concourse. One place I encourage you to go when you are at the show is "Clear Rounds for Clear Water". this is the brainchild of JoJo White, an equestrian who wanted to give back, formed a partnership with Rotary International, and trades cool products for donations--- and all the donations go to provide clean drinking water around the globe.
So if you are in the giving mood - please stop and make a small donation (or large!) They've got a great T-shirt design, wine glasses, wine,jewelry...all for a wonderful cause.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Day 1, National Horse Show
Wednesday, first day of the Alltech National Horse Show. And the Kentucky Horse Council (along with a bunch of other equine associations with educational goals) moved into the Exhibit Wing (Educational Area) of the Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park.
I think someone cleverly named it "Horse Play" area.
If you've never had the pleasure of setting up an exhibit, let me know and TRUST ME I'll give you a call next time. Setting up is a royal pain in the derriere... packing, copying handouts, making signs, ordering brochures, digging out the tables and covers, gathering boxes of publications.... WHEW.
But I found a way to make sure someone else did all of the work... a good friend and colleague died suddenly over the weekend, and his funeral was at noon today. So I left Dawn and three dependable volunteers to drag all that stuff to the Horse Park.
It's not very nice to use a funeral to get out of work.. Sorry David. The funeral was very touching and seriously, we will miss you tremendously.
So I arrived on site at 4:00, just in time to drag boxes around and re-arrange our area. I must say it looks pretty good considering we aren't trade show specialists. Although I can thank Dawn for that. She worries about all these details like colors and balance and... you know, all that stuff.
Now the scary part, as if Halloween was not enough: in the next two days, rumor has it that 2,000 school kids are being bused in to tour the National Horse Show (remember going on a field trip? A time to get wild...)
So I had to get up some defenses against the hordes..and I thought of the perfect answer: At the KY Horse Council booth the kids have to do a SCIENCE EXPERIMENT. Now who's scared? HA! SCIENCE!
OK, so here's what we have them do: You all know (of course, having earned A's in your High School chemistry class) that calcium builds strong bones for people AND horses. We've got four bowls of liquids: Creek water, milk, tap water, and distilled water. Which has the highest calcium levels?
(The creek water is from East Hickman creek that runs behind my house and the tap water is out of my kitchen sink. Milk is compliments of Kroger, and the distilled water is from Highbridge Springs. No product endorsements intended.)
I'm not telling the calcium answer. You have to stop by our exhibit area to find out. We've got hardness testers and a color chart; you can pretend you are back in Chemistry again. But don't blow up the lab.
Oh and one more thing.. if you come, you also may be able to play horse shoes. We've got the posts & the horse shoes, now all we need is a place to toss them. Workin' on that.
Did I mention there are some horses jumping fences somewhere here too? I keep forgetting that part. Actually sometimes they don't jump, they walk and trot and canter..but they are VERY VERY good.
Til tomorrow.
I think someone cleverly named it "Horse Play" area.
If you've never had the pleasure of setting up an exhibit, let me know and TRUST ME I'll give you a call next time. Setting up is a royal pain in the derriere... packing, copying handouts, making signs, ordering brochures, digging out the tables and covers, gathering boxes of publications.... WHEW.
But I found a way to make sure someone else did all of the work... a good friend and colleague died suddenly over the weekend, and his funeral was at noon today. So I left Dawn and three dependable volunteers to drag all that stuff to the Horse Park.
It's not very nice to use a funeral to get out of work.. Sorry David. The funeral was very touching and seriously, we will miss you tremendously.
So I arrived on site at 4:00, just in time to drag boxes around and re-arrange our area. I must say it looks pretty good considering we aren't trade show specialists. Although I can thank Dawn for that. She worries about all these details like colors and balance and... you know, all that stuff.
Now the scary part, as if Halloween was not enough: in the next two days, rumor has it that 2,000 school kids are being bused in to tour the National Horse Show (remember going on a field trip? A time to get wild...)
So I had to get up some defenses against the hordes..and I thought of the perfect answer: At the KY Horse Council booth the kids have to do a SCIENCE EXPERIMENT. Now who's scared? HA! SCIENCE!
OK, so here's what we have them do: You all know (of course, having earned A's in your High School chemistry class) that calcium builds strong bones for people AND horses. We've got four bowls of liquids: Creek water, milk, tap water, and distilled water. Which has the highest calcium levels?
(The creek water is from East Hickman creek that runs behind my house and the tap water is out of my kitchen sink. Milk is compliments of Kroger, and the distilled water is from Highbridge Springs. No product endorsements intended.)
I'm not telling the calcium answer. You have to stop by our exhibit area to find out. We've got hardness testers and a color chart; you can pretend you are back in Chemistry again. But don't blow up the lab.
Oh and one more thing.. if you come, you also may be able to play horse shoes. We've got the posts & the horse shoes, now all we need is a place to toss them. Workin' on that.
Did I mention there are some horses jumping fences somewhere here too? I keep forgetting that part. Actually sometimes they don't jump, they walk and trot and canter..but they are VERY VERY good.
Til tomorrow.
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