Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
SPECTATORS WATCH as the tiny tot competitors are led out of the Iron County Fair livestock arena on Saturday after the showmanship competition.
By MEGAN HUGHES
SAXON, Wis. - The Gogebic County Fair Horse Show was held at the Iron County Fairgrounds this year due to ongoing construction efforts at the Gogebic County Fairgrounds.
Due to the fair's change in location, the horse show was unable to be held in conjunction with other fair activities, which took place from Aug. 8-11 at the Pat O'Donnell Civic Center in Ironwood. Instead, horse showmanship occurred this past Saturday and Sunday.
"When they moved the fair down to the Civic Center, we couldn't take the horses there, because stalling and boarding horses there would have been way too prohibitive," said Diane Maccani, one of the horse show organizers. "You can't run horses on an open space on grass and gravel and expect them to work."
She added that, although the horse show was moved to the weekend following other fair events, it still was considered a part of the fair. "The fair is supporting it," said Maccani.
Horse show participants competed over the two designated days. The first day included a portion of the games classes, as well as the tiny tots division.
Due to weather issues on Saturday morning, the tiny tots class competed beneath the livestock arena, which at Iron County is covered.
The older classes competed on Sunday.
"It was a little smaller than usual," said Maccani. "Because we had it here (in Iron County), it did affect our numbers. But our youth performance classes have four to five in each, and the games had seven to eight. Our adult division is our largest, and has around seven to eight in the variety classes, and in the games we have close to 10 entered."
The competition included classes broken down into halter classes, showmanship, trail class, ranch classes, English and western classes, and several others.
"And then we have the games (class)," said Maccani. "For many many years, it was not real big around here. We didn't have many gamers, but that is totally switching."
"Other shows have one judge that judges everything," said Maccani.
According to her, the Gogebic County Fair has two judges, which allows for the flexibility to accommodate kids who - in typical years - show livestock and also compete in horse shows on the same day. Despite this year's change in timing and location, the tradition continued.
"The horse people love it, because when you show one day at one time, you are changing clothes and tack many times," said Maccani. "This way, you start the morning riding English, and the next day you are riding western."
When asked if there were any challenges in changing location, Maccani replied that there were, but she added, "Thankfully, some of the kids already compete in Iron County as well, so they are somewhat familiar with it."
She said that, in order to compete across state borders, riders needed paperwork for their horses that they otherwise wouldn't need for the in-state competition.
Maccani said that both the Iron County Fairgrounds and the Gogebic County Fairgrounds have very nice arenas, which are a pleasure to compete on.
