Stewarding

On Monday I was given a great opportunity to Steward for a local judge.  I got to dress up for the occasion in my new straw hat and my new blingy belt... yeah, I finally got one...a little girl in the restroom said "I like your cowgirl suit!" and spend the day with the judge at a local 4-H county fair western show. I first helped place the showmanship teams on the rail after their patterns were finished. After each class I took the placings to the announcer. I reset objects for the Mini-Horse in-hand trail and jumping, then for horsemanship I sat next to her and got great insight into what she was looking for in the patterns. For the pleasure classes I got to be the go-between and tell the announcer when the judge was ready to see the next gait, which was kinda funny towards the end of the day when the announcer ran out of steam and forgot to watch me. :)  I can't blame him, I was out of steam to! I almost went home with the walkie-talkie on my belt!  For trail we sat and I scribed for her.  It was a long day.  I don't know how she does this THREE DAYS IN A ROW with travel days in between as she had just gotten back to Ohio from Michigan following two 15-hour days of judging Pinto.  She's a wonder, and a wonderful judge and mentor.  It was a great day, but I never realized I could get just as exhausted doing that as I do actually showing!  Watching the 4-H kids brought me back to my own fair days and I just loved hearing the other shows going on at the same time in the beef barn, the dairy barn, and the swine barn.