It’s hard to believe we’re about to enter the holiday season. However, as the party moose will attest, “It’s here.”
Of course the party moose means a BCS Communications party. I’m sure there will be more.
Make sure your friends in agricultural marketing know about your holiday party by letting us know here at AgWired.
It’s time for the agriblogger to hit the road home. The World Championship Appaloosa Show has been great fun.
Last night’s program included a short show by Diana Olson who is President of the Arizona Cowboy Mounted Shooters Association. She has a beautiful horse and just in case anyone was nodding off after a long day she woke them up.
Thanks to Steve Taylor and his staff at the ApHC for working with me and having come spend a couple days blogging there show.
I grew up in Sarasota, FL near where the famous Lipizzaner Stallions had a facility so I got to see this move quite a few times. Last night here at the World Championship Appaloosa Show this move got a big “ooh” from the crowd and I just happened to be ready to take a picture.
This was right before the Rope Race Invitational while each contestant was being auctioned in a Calcutta to raise money for Appaloosa youth scholarships. If you don’t know what a rope race is then you’re missing some excitement. Basically the contestants race to a wire that has ropes dangling from it where they have to grab one. The problem is there’s one less rope than contestants. So in each heat the number of contestants drops by one until only one person with a rope is left. You can watch the first heat on YouTube:
Pretty soon it will be National Farm-City Week. It’s held the week before Thanksgiving. To kick it off I’ll be attending the National Farm-City Week Kickoff Luncheon in Washington, DC next week.
The luncheon will begin at 11:30 a.m., and the keynote speaker/entertainer is motivational speaker and country music artist Michael Peterson. The award-winning country music artist not only sings, but also speaks eloquently about the value of agriculture and those involved in it.
We all know Michael will do a great job since we’ve seen him perform before. I’m really looking forward to it. I also want to thank New Holland for sponsoring my coverage of this year’s event.
Sometimes the photographer gets his picture taken. I hope Larry Williams is happy with this one of him and his wife Karen.
They’re the official show photographers of the Appaloosa World Show and boy do they have a job to do. You can only imagine how many pictures they have to take and take care of. They do thousands at a show and their system is very impressive.
Larry said he’d been trying to figure out how to make a living in the horse business for a long time. I think he found a way since equine photography is his business and specialty. Like a lot of people Larry has had some mentors and people to learn from and he talks about them in our interview.
You can listen to my interview with Karen and Larry here: awcs-07-williams.mp3
I showed Larry this photo I took at the stump races this morning and he said it looked good. I asked him for some tips on how to get a good one of something going this fast in relatively low light. His answer is “lots of light” and “shoot a lot.” He’s got lights rigged all around the ring that all flash with the camera on the floor.
After shooting Indy cars at 220 mph I’m not sure which is more difficult!
I know a lot of you are like me, “not very horsey.” But you work at a show like the World Championship Appaloosa Show and you can get pretty horsey real fast. How many of you know what a reining competition is? Quick show of hands. That’s what I thought. So watch this video clip and then you’ll have an idea
Of course you can see the action live on the arena webcam.
Hey, if Charlie can have some then I guess Steve Taylor can too.
Actually these were some of Steve’s helpers at last night’s World Championship Appaloosa Sale. They were responsible for getting the paperwork to the winning buyers in the auction.
And we wondered why Steve left Missouri for Idaho.
If you need your boots shined at the World Show then “Storming” Norman Miller is your man.
I got mine done earlier today and had a little chat with the shine king. He says he’s been doing this for the ApHC for at least 15 years and about 53 years all together locally. I asked him how many shines he’s done. He says that there’s 5,280 ft. in a mile and he’s shined a lot of miles! He handled my interview with him like the professional he is.
You can listen to my interview with Storming here: awcs-07-miller.mp3
It looks like the World Show will be in Ft. Worth for some time to come. Today the Appaloosa Horse Club signed a new 5 year contract with the city of Ft. Worth. Looking on just after the signing are ApHC representatives Steve Taylor, CEO and Eric Beené, President along with Ft. Worth City Councilmen.
I attended the signing and recorded their comments which you can listen to here: awcs-07-facility.mp3
After the signing there was the traditional exchange of gifts. The ApHC guys got some very nice leather bound note pads.
Steve Taylor brought along an Idaho (ApHC Headquarters state) favorite, Huckleberry Mead. The way the Ft. Worth City Councilmen were eyeing the bottles of mead I know which gift will last longer than the other!
Cottonseed Oil is greasing up the highways during its ‘Comeback Tour.’ New uses for cottonseed oil are popping up across the U.S. and the National Cottonseed Products Association is making sure consumers can track where and how the oil is being used, even if they can’t make a cross-country trek. Cottonseedoiltour.com takes visitors zigzagging across a web-browser sized U.S. to learn about the latest success stories of cottonseed oil. Paul Fraser, proprietor and chief operator of Cork’s Old-Fashioned Donuts in Albany, Oregon says cottonseed oil is the special ingredient in his healthier and better tasting donuts. The site traces the history of “America’s first vegetable oil.”
