To Brooks, Ho!!

Never, not in a million years, as a young equine enthusiast, could I have dreamed that I would end up performing with a Mongolian Hoard at a Medieval Fair in southern Alberta...  could it get more random?

Well, truly, random kind of suits me to a tea really.  So I supposed in the long run, it really does fit me.  In any fact, it was an absolute riot performing to THOUSANDS of medieval enthusiasts with the Khanate of Himorii troop and my best boy, Jose Jalapeno.

There were a wonderful troop of Japanese drummers, fire breathers, costumes and costumes galore, knights in armour (some shiny, some not so much...) gladiators, Mongols, Victorians, vendors, peddlers, and very excited children.  Every hour I sat for a few minutes and just thought how crazy this whole experience was!  And oh so cool! 

We did 5 performances total, 3 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday.  Performance 1 on Saturday was a bit rough.  I'd pulled him out while the drummers were performing and he was not nearly as focused as I'd like him to be when we work.  But I knew better for the second round and he was quite brilliant.  We talked with the crowd a lot about Standardbreds, what they are, how to recognize them, how many of them are around and how we've grown together.  Apparently a lot of the jousting horses (yes, real jousting!) are rescues so that played in well.  His third performance was lack luster as he was quite finished but we'd brought out his beautiful barding, put him in it, got up on him and called it enough.  Unfortunately our demo area was a small, ropped-off round ring on the grass.  Not much space to actually move in.

Sunday rained and cleared, rained and cleared... but we did get the opportunity for a fantastic photo opp.  I'm waiting for the photographer's images to come back, but this is a cell-phone shot of the "drunken Mongols" inclusive of their trusty mount...  He was incredible for this shot, it was tough and he did great!  There were at least 3 photographers clicking away while we were down there.  It will be interesting to see where those images end up. 

In any regard, it was an incredible opportunity and we're looking forward to going again next year - despite the 6-hour drive!  We'll get time in the big arena and put on a better show. 

Happy Horseing!