Parham Fair – hot and dusty but a lot of fun

Aug 25, 2016

The Parham Fair was well attended on the opening night this year, the new location of the bandstand tying the two main events of the evening together, the annual horse pull and a performance by Old Habits.

The midway was also up and running all evening.

By Saturday morning the fair was in full swing, with one of the cornerstone fair events getting underway long before noon. 4-H club members competed in the horse show in two divisions, beef and dairy. They brought their own animals into the ring and were asked to bring them around to line up in different locations, and the judge came over to see how the cattle reacted to being touched, and how well they reacted to the subtle controls by the 4-H members.

For the club members it was a matter of trying to keep their animal calm and following their lead without betraying any stress themselves. The increasing heat of the morning had an impact on young farm kids, who were trying, mostly with success, to present an air of calm even as they were sometimes pulling reluctant cattle in a direction they did not seem to want to go.

The contest culminated when the top two entries in the dairy and beef categories were brought into the ring together. They were then told to leave their own animal and move over to one of the animals from the other category. The contest was about how well each of them could handle an unfamiliar animal.

The contestants were sweating as they used all of their skill to immediately learn how to handle not only a different animal but a different breed altogether. They did well, and the overall winner for 2016 was crowned.

Freed from the stress of the cattle show, the 4-H club kids joined with other kids of all ages to play country fair games; the egg toss, pie eating contest, nail hammering, log sawing, three legged races, and more.

The pedal pull was a new addition to the fair this year, and in the evening HD Supply closed out the festivities, as the midway powered on through the warm summer night