Day 31, July 14th

We're off for the Bates County fair in Butler, MO. We arrived at 7pm. They have a Harness Horse Show in progress. I had Knight tied to the trailer and was brushing him off, getting ready to saddle him when a team of halflingers rattled up beside of us. Old Knight has never seen anything quite like that.! He jumped and snorted but that's why we're here. I talked to the person with the team for awhile, then processed to saddle Knight so I could ride him around all of the commotion. He was fine until one of those teams with the big wagon behind them would come towards him, then he felt like he had to leave. The ground was hard and the grass was really slick. This added to the excitement of the evening. Knight seemed to be more settled up in the crowd than he was on the out skirts of it, that was strange to me. So I just rode around, as those teams would go around , I would follow them, hoping to gain Knights confidence that those wagons were not going to hurt him. I decided to go on the far end of the arena and ride him up and watch the show and I heard a commotion and I looked over and a team of Half lingers had gotten away from their handler and were in a stampede mode headed for the crowd. Then the announcer screamed for everybody to watch out. The horses rounded a corner crashed into a car one horse on one side, one on the other still hooked together , rough night for the car. Thank God no one was hurt. Also I am Thankful I was watching that wreck from a distance , if I had been on the other side I would have been in it. After that excitement the show resumed and the final class was a 6 horse hitch. So I went to the far side of the arena and sat on him to watch the last class. Every time the horses would come close to where we were standing, Knight would feel like a powder keg under me. He would whirl and pull at my hands and try to escape. After the class was over, I rode him into the arena. As we started around the arena, at a walk he was fine, at a trot he was fine, I asked him to go into a lope, he would try to take me to each corner of the arena. I believe he remembers the first arena that I rode him in at the Lincoln County Fair where the out gate was in the corner, I think he justs wants out of the arena. So I rode him around for a hour or so, at each corner we would work and I would try to let him rest in the middle of the arena. I finally just called it a night. I put him in a stall, fed and watered him and we were finished.