Colorado State Fair

My parents and I headed down to Pueblo for the State Fair.  I hadn't been to one since I was about 5 or 6.  There weren't any competitions going on at the time we went but we visited the animal barns.  One of my dreams that ties in with horses is that once Steve and I buy some land, we'll give homes to other farm animals.  Steve wants a donkey, I want a miniature cow and a handful of goats.  Anyone who knows me can tell you I love all sorts of animals.  Right now I own a 55 gallon tank with 5 goldfish and a plethora of other water babies, a gerbil, two dogs, a cat, and a spider.  I used to have more but my lizard and other gerbil have since past on.  Anyhow it was fun to look at all the critters and think about the future when I will have the land and ability to tend a little "farm".

The goats were awesome!  I simply adore goats!  The house on the corner where I turn up the road to Laurie's house for my riding lesson has a herd of miniature goats.  I could easily load up my Honda Civic with a few, they are so cute!  Anyways at the Fair, one of the friendlier goats got up on the railings of her pen and was eye to eye with me, rather curious about my camera.  The goats were very friendly and nice to pet.  I've read that they are good to graze with horses, they tend to eat the vegetation that horses don't necessarily touch so it's good for pasture maintenance.  I also enjoy their quirky little personalities and their inquisitive stares.

The cows were also really neat, a lot of them were huge!  There were some miniature Zebu cows, not the miniature breed I want (I'd love to find a mini Jersey or something like that) but they were still pretty cute and soft to pet.  The babies were to die for!

We also went to watch the horses, we watched two girls go over their western routines.  They did circles and then did some sliding stops.  I still don't understand why people don't where a helmet!  Anything can happen on a horse, no matter how good a rider you are or how "slow" you'll be going on the horse it just makes sense to protect your noggen.  Anyways we toured the stables and looked at one shop that had some cute rope halters.  A lady came over with her chestnut Quarter horse named Smarty.  He was very sweet and Mom and I spent some time petting him while the owner bought a few things in the shop.

Later when we were looking over some of the shop stands I found a beautiful metal horse wall hanging, it shows different colors in different lights and angles.  It was very pretty and made me think of riding in the Colorado Rockies; I love this state.  Of course after all the animal stuff we went on the rides and a had a great time but I won't bore you with that, just know that my mom and I scream in sync on the rides!  I wanted to post about the critters even though most were not of the equine persuasion they were still very fun and perfect additions for my dream mini farm!  I'll be working on the horse ownership dream first!