WEG: The Last Day Plus One

Officially, WEG was over as of 5:00pm yesterday, Oct. 10th. But for the KHC staff, WEG continued into today -- and will continue into tomorrow and beyond-- as the "follow-up" work is to be done.

Yesterday (WEG Day 16) we acted like the experienced trade show shoppers that we are, and put up LAST DAY OF WEG SALE signs. Just like all retailers (who advertise "THE DAY BEFORE LABOR DAY SALE" AND "THE DAY AFTER ST. PADDY'S DAY SALE"... or whatever reason they can dream up to pretend to mark down prices to some UNBELIEVABLY LOW (TODAY ONLY!!!) PRICES!!!

Our sale prices weren't THAT good, but everyone did save a few bucks on some popular items. Hats were selling well, as were pins (although, to be honest, if you looked desperate enough, we would slip you a pin under the table, free...)

The Village Arena that was right behind our booth had a great "END OF WEG" final performance. I watched part of it and they brought in most of the week's performers doing back to back, 8 minute shows. The stands were packed (even in that miserably hot sun), and standing room only on the sides.

My sense was that many of the visitors on Sunday were non-horse owning families (lots of kids around). They LOVED seeing the horses, and ooh-ed and aah-ed over the demonstrations of high skill, entertainment and beauty. No matter what we say about the future of the horse industry, this experience once again told me that EVERYONE loves to look at a horse perform at its peak, or pet the soft neck of a gentle horse. We have more friends in the non-horse owning public than we know or than we appreciate.

At the last minute, I decided to attend the Closing Ceremonies... and felt lucky to buy an $80 ticket for $30 at the ticket booth (from a lady who had to get rid of some...). But after sitting through the Closing Ceremonies, even $30 seemed too much. Well, unless you really like Lyle Lovett, then $30 was probably a good price. But the ceremony itself, preceeding Lyle, was slow and boring.

The athletes walked into the stadium, country by country, half-heartedly waving their flags. Applause was slim except for an occasional burst when a country went by it's cheering section... and of course a thunder of applause for the Americans. But then they all just circled once around, and out the exit gate, and were gone.

All that was left were some VERY ENTHUSIASTIC volunteers who were seated front and center and really seemed to be like a pep band at a high school basketball game. They cheered on cue, waved their pom-poms and generally were supposed to be the initiator of crowd noise (I think). The crowd, however, was not very perceptive, and sat sweating in the sun, waiting for some real entertainment.

And then the speeches started.
Normally I am patient at listening to speeches. I know they are appropriate in many circumstances, and need to be done. But for some reason, this time... I could hardly wait for them to be over. All I could think of is -- where are the horses? How can we have a closing ceremony without horses? It would not even have to be the competitive horses - I know they are expensive and very tired at this point -- but couldn't they have rounded up SOME horses, a drill team, some Pony Clubbers or 4-H clubs, something?

Oops, I'm getting pretty crabby aren't I? I've got post-weg-exhaustion, from my tired feet to my dusty hair to my brain-dead mind. Good thing this is the last day! Just in time.

Monday morning bright and early we arrived at the horse park to tear down and pack up our booth. It took about three hours packing and loading (one good thing about horse owners, we all had trucks we could bring to haul the stuff around in.) One load of furniture and brochure racks went to my storage building at home, and the rest went back to the office. I can hardly get to my desk at this point, with the boxes and bags all over the place in here!

I would like to say adios to everyone who read the blog and sent comments... I have enjoyed it - and will continue to blog although not every day. Different topics, different ideas... and if you enjoy them, keep reading and sending your comments too.

A plug for our KHC Annual Conference, which will be held in January at the Lexington Convention Center. More about that later here and on our website, kentuckyhorse.org.