By Scott Halasz
XENIA — After a long hot week of serious competition, 4-H members had a chance to, uh, horse around a little bit on Saturday.
Following a short hiatus, the Horse Fun Show returned to the Greene County Fairgrounds, where winning wasn’t as important as having a good time. Entrants competed in typical classes such as barrels, and cones and barrels, but there were also some more bizarre classes such as the catalog race, where the rider had to dismount, and rip a particular page out of a catalog before racing to the finish.
The dress code was more relaxed. In fact, at the end of the day, entrants dressed in costumes while riding and also had a chance to freestyle to music.
Some of the classes gave the youth a chance to try some new things with their horse, like actually racing into the arena instead of just walking beside the horse.
“The rush of adrenaline it gives you is kind of cool,” said Shana Lott, 13, a member of Just Horsin’ Around 4-H. “Obviously it’s pretty fun.”
The barrel race quickly became one of Lott’s favorites.
“The first time I did it, I was really scared,” she said. “I knew nothing about how to do it. After I did it, I didn’t want to stop.”
When Laney Hines, 12, raced through the gates, the smile on her face told the whole story.
“I don’t know how to explain it, it’s just fun,” the Just Horsin’ Around 4-H member said. “Getting to do stuff you don’t usually do.”
Despite it being something she doesn’t normally do in the fair, Hines had a fairly easy time.
“It wasn’t that hard because I’ve done the training for it at the clinics,” she said.
