ANIMALS AT THE GRANGE FAIR

I guess for many people this first photograph would be a mystery photo. Do you know what it is? It is part of the harness which the Belgian horses wear when they give wagon rides to fair goers. Notice how shiny and clean the leather and metal work is? Part of good horsemanship is keeping tack clean. Many stables clean tack after every ride or drive. It also makes the leather last longer. Poorly cared for leather will dry and crack and mildew. As a result it is weakened and can break while the horse is wearing it. Believe me, you never want that to happen!

This is one of the Belgians in the hitch. They are huge! These horses stand around 18 hands. A hand is equal to 4 inches, and is measured from the level ground to the top of the highest point of the horse's withers. The withers is the hump at the base of the neck where it flows into the back. Look at the kind eye on this horse. Draft breeds are cold blooded breeds and are typically gentle and very calm. Horse folk call horses with this type of temperament bombproof, which means that rarely are they disturbed by anything in their environment.

Here is a young boy bathing his calf to prepare for the Holstein judging. Kids like this who are around animals at a young age definitely have something over urban kids. I believe that the farm environment grounds these kids and teaches them the meaning of an honest day's work.

Isn't this a beautiful face? This is a Brown Swiss cow. I remember seeing these cows in Switzerland as we were riding the gondola up the mountain side. They were wearing huge cow bells.

Another Brown Swiss peeking over the stall partition to investigate my camera.

I know nothing about breeds of sheep, so I can't tell you what kind of sheep this is. But I think there is something quietly noble about this face. Seems like (s)he is perfectly at ease with the noisy fair environment.

Shorn sheep being prepped for the show ring. I don't like the looks of the restraint. But this sheep seems to know how to space out while enduring the ministrations.

I'm always fascinated by pigs. I am enthralled with this eye. It looks almost human, doesn't it? I think it is pretty obvious that there's lots of intelligence behind that eye. If you only saw the eye and not the rest of the face, do you think you would know it belonged to a pig? What the heck does pig eye mean anyway!?