And They're Off!

It's that time of year when the state fair rolls into town for a week with all sorts of fun things to do and see. Since today was Labor Day and the kids were out of school, I took Aubrey to the fair to watch the horse races for the afternoon.

Aubrey and I both love horses, so this was a good fit for a "mommy-daughter date." We joined up with my cousin, her hubby, dad, and step-mom. We sat for a little while in the grand stands but with the Indian Relay races coming up, I wanted to get a better view this year. We headed over to the inside of the race track where you can see all of the action a little bit better.

What are the Indian Relays, you ask? Let me tell ya, you haven't seen an exciting horse race until you've seen this. It is what I look forward to every year - it is my absolute favorite thing to watch. But I'm not ready to explain it yet, that will come later in this post (but I've got a video and pictures of that too!)

Since Aubrey is a little shutterbug like me and there were horses all around, I let her take the camera and start snapping pictures. The dapple-grey horses were her favorite so we got a lot of pictures of those.

A day at the races!
Aren't horses just the most beautiful animals ever?

And they're off! I love being close to the race track when the horses run by. You can feel the raw power of the horses. The ground thunders with hooves and you can hear the jockeys yelling at each other. It makes me get goosebumps! So exciting.

Alrighty, now I will explain what the Indian Relay Races are. They are the most exciting things to watch! Indian tribes from all over the United States come and compete against each other with their horses. Each tribe brings 3 horses to each race. There is one rider who races all three horses. They start on one horse, race around the track once, jump on the next horse that is waiting by the grand stands, race around the track once more and so on. The first team to race all three horses and finish first is the winner.

What makes this so great is that these riders do not use saddles and they don't use a starting gate. They begin the race by walking the horses in a straight line and then they all take off at the same time.


These races are fast! But the most exciting part is when the riders exchange horses. When you've got 5-7 teams with 3 horses each that's a lot of horses on the track at the same time. This usually ends being chaotic, dangerous, completely unpredictable, and soooo much fun to watch. The riders will jump off their horses while they're still galloping in, run and jump on the next excited horse. There are horses and riders everywhere. Accidents happen, horses are rearing, riders sometimes fall off or get trampled and hurt. It's awesome!!!!! (I realize how morbid this sounds.)

Between the races, Aubrey and I met up with my mom and dad who were taking my boys around the fair, riding the rides, looking at all the fun exhibits, etc.

Rigdon loves dogs so he liked this event.

My mom and dad with the boys.

Ronin playing some games.

I love the fair!