9//22/2017 - Draft Horse Classic - Day 2

Friday - We gave the horses a break this morning and went into town instead.  Our local flock of geese was in residence as we drove out of the campground.

We drove around Grass Valley a little, got some breakfast, then stopped at the North Star Mine Powerhouse Museum on Wolf Creek, which is only about a mile from the campground.  This was an interesting museum, it is about a mile away from the mine, and it is where the power for the mine was provided.

There was some equipment outside, and then more inside.  The cool thing was that some of the equipment still worked, so Joe was able to get demonstrations of some of it.  He was quite interested, this was different than any mine we had ever visited.

Of course, most of this stuff is Greek to me, but there were a couple of depictions of the drilling process that I could actually understand.

On display was a 30 foot Pelton wheel which was the source of power.  That was interesting.  They also had an extensive exhibit of small Pelton wheels that had been donated by the family of a local collector.

We walked across the bridge and spotted a gray squirrel in the tree branches -- more wildlife!

We headed back to the RV and hung out until about 5:15, when we wandered over to the fairgrounds and had corndogs.  They had music performed throughout the day today, and the rest of the weekend.  We caught the end of a Johnny Cash tribute -- the singer was really good.

Then we went to our seats and got ready to watch the horses again.  We went in sweatshirts but took our coats and a blanket again, and used everything.  I actually loaned our blanket to the guy beside me who was suffering in the cold.  The show was excellent, here's a few more pictures.

Tomorrow there are morning competitions as well as evening, so we will probably spend most of the day around the fairgrounds and the horses.  Now that we've seen the horses in the arena, we want to walk back through them and check them out up close.  I still think my rose clydesdales are the prettiest horses I've ever seen, but there are a lot of really beautiful horses here.  We learn something new about them every day so it's been a good experience for us.  We are hoping for a little warmer day tomorrow -- it's really been chilly here.  We had a few sprinkles today but they didn't last long, then the sun came back out.  But I don't think it got above the 60s. 

9/21/2017 - Draft Horse Classic - Day 1

Thursday - It was a chilly day, partly sunny, but no more rain.  We headed back over to the barns about 10:00, met some more horses and owners, learned a few more things.  Joe peaked inside this trailer where two ladies were shining up the bridles -- takes a lot of tack for these gentle giants. They invited him to start cleaning and shining, but he declined.

We saw these antique freight wagons which had been restored.  We saw them tonight in the show.  Each wagon can haul 8 tons, and they are 14 feet tall.  Joe wondered how they transported them here since that is too tall for most overpasses.  They were pretty impressive.

We went over to one of the practice arenas and watched them working some of the horses, several of the ones we saw yesterday.  These were Belgiums.

Percherons

We walked over to another staging area and met Lenux, a 7-yr old black Percheron, 19-3 hands tall, probably the tallest horse here in the show.  That is the equivalent of 6'4" and doesn't include the head.  Pretty awesome.  These owners were very friendly and told us a lot about these horses.

Joe met Zack, a Belgium.  The gal here said we could tell the Belgiums -- they are "blonde beauties with cute  booties." 

Not sure what they do with this chariot, but thought it was worth a photo.

All 6 breeds of draft horses are represented at this show.  I think this is the first Suffolk we saw.

This next one was a little different, a European Belgium.  They were harnessing him up for a warm-up.  His cart is called a Meadowlark.

Then we came upon a pen with a totally different looking horse -- almost looked like a paint.  And a mare and baby were in the pen with him.

We walked over to the "fair" part of the grounds since everything was open by now, and shared a cinnamon roll -- yum.

We bought raffle tickets for 2 quilts.  This one is not part of the raffle, and is not even for sale, but it sure is pretty.

One of the more interesting craft booths was figures made out of nails.  Also, some clocks -- Joe really liked the tractor one, and I liked the windmill.

After we finished with the craft area and the small engine area, we had some lunch then finished walking through the barns.  We found the last breed, the American Cream.  This may be the only one of this breed here.

Joe spotted another tack case, this one was a fold-up on wheels.  We talked to the owner here for quite a while.  He told us there is another draft horse show next weekend, in Mona, Utah, that is bigger than this one.  We will have to think about that.  He had 8 horses here, and he won the last competition tonight, the Six-Up Driving Competition.

We went back to the RV for a while, had dinner, then headed back over about 6:00.  Joe bought 2 sweatshirts today, one hoodie and one pull-over.  So we wore our sweatshirts and took coats and gloves, and a blanket.  And we used them all.  But it was a good show, we thoroughly enjoyed every competition.  A team of white mules opened the show.

California Highway Patrol Mounted Patrol Unit was here.

My camera did not take real good pictures of the events -- between the movement, the distance and darkness, I finally gave up, but I did get a few.

 This was a big class so Joe took a panoramic shot -- it was an arena full of horses and wagons.

Here's those freight wagons -- pretty impressive.

There was some kind of entertainment between each competition, and there were 5 competitions.  Bobby Kerr Mustang Act, with his dogs and jalopy, were one of the acts.  We had seen this at the Reno Rodeo.

Everything was well organized and moved right along.  It started on time at 6:30 and finished at 9:00.  It was in the low 50s by the time it was over.  It was fun seeing some of the horses in action that we had petted in the last two days.  We had our favorites.

Tomorrow will be more of the same, different competitions, and a horseshoeing clinic in the morning and some bands start playing at 11:00.  Should be another interesting day.