WEG Day 9 (or 9.5?)

My Bad!

Last night I had dinner with husband and Madelyn and Jamie Millard, then went home and watched a movie... Forgot all about my blog!

Yesterday at WEG had just one theme: COLD!!!
I had the early morning shift and met volunteers Linda Starnes (Edmondson Co.) and Dennis and Pat Blackburn (Board member, from Mercer Co.) at 6:30Am for the carpool to WEG. We were all chilled but expecting that as the day went along, it would warm up a bit. WRONG!!! Cold, damp, and windy all morning. Spitting rain.

We moved everything (including ourselves) into the booth to get out of the rain and wind. Amazingly, there were quite a number of visitors, starting at about 10AM. They were glad to chat when out of the wind, AND we really had a run on our fleece vests! Including two of the volunteers in the booth who were shivering.

A nice comment came from a young student, Meghan, who had her eye on our raspberry vest and just assumed it was out of her price range. "WOW" she said, "This is a reasonable price!" "Yes", we answered, "The only booth here without WEG prices." And Meghan bought one, as did many other people.

At 11:30 I decided to get some hot chocolate at the restaurant, to warm up. The line was out the door, and 20 minutes later I was able to buy my $4 cup of hot chocolate. After 20 minutes of waiting, I decided I might as well buy lunch ( a healthy basket of fries...!) and sat down with two women from Michigan, my old stamping ground before moving to Kentucky.

I apologized to the Michiganders for our weather, know that no apology was necessary to ANYONE who dares live up north, between two Great Lakes that freeze in winter so that really you are living between two ice cubes. They were not fazed by the chilly weather (those Michiganders are tough!), and said it was colder "up home". I am SO glad I don't live there any more! (Lovely people, crummy weather, and now a totally crummy economy)

John Lyons and WEG treated the exhibitors and vendors to free hot dogs too... found that out AFTER my $8.00 lunch. But what the heck, I went ahead and had a hot dog too. They were hot, good and right off the grill.

Oh yeah, horses.

The demonstrations continued in the Equine Village arena, and I met a woman from California who owns Gypsy horses. In fact, she and her coach DROVE the horse trailer all the way here to KY to be able to demonstrate at WEG. It took them three days, and they are driving back as well after this is all over. She has some good connections in England where some of the original foundation Gypsy horses are being bred, and we are trying to see if she will set up a farm here in Kentucky for the horses she plans to import. We need breed diversity in Kentucky, and we need to support new equine operations. And where else can you get such good vet care, farrier care, pastures, proximity to the KY Horse Park.... an easy sell.

Linda Starnes, who is a Parelli practitioner, and I watched the Parelli demo..amazing. I have seen him before, but each time I see him I get a bit more out of the concepts. Problem is, to do it right means I need to spend a lot of time with my horses, and I hardly have time to feed them right now. Maybe when I retire? I sure hope I retire soon because my list is LONG. (But then I look at the savings account... and know that if I retired now, I might be standing in line at the Food Bank... Well, that might do my diet some good anyway. Of course, so would NOT eating French Fries for lunch.)

I left the Parelli demo early to meet up with John Hockensmith at the Dos Cavaleros pavillion. This family has established a ranch in Texas and is passionate about the Lusitano breed, and is going all out to educate America and the world about this breed, that just a few years ago fell into the endangered breed status due to a drop off in breeding operations. To tell you the truth... I can't tell the difference between a Lusitano and a Andalusian... and I know there is a difference. That is the ignorance that these folks are going to cure. (OR do you all know these differences, and I'm the only ignorant one? Very possible....)

Didn't realize how tiring it is to be cold all day. WOW, very little energy left at the end of the day. I trudged out to the car at 6pm.. and THIS TIME it was a breeze to exit. And I found my car.

[Did I tell you about how many people get off the shuttle and wander around aimlessly looking for their cars? A lot push their "panic" button on their key fob, just to have their car talk to them... but then there are a whole bunch of cars flashing and beeping and I'm not sure it does them any good. I tried my Panic button and it didn't work. Looks like I had better not panic any time soon.]