Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Tim Ryan Jenna Arens celebrates her 11th birthday by taking part in the halter class competition at the Junior Horse Show, showing off her horse’s walking and trotting skills Sunday at the Crawford Center during the Shawano County Fair.
Leader Photo by Tim Ryan Jionna Holewinski gets a little help from mom, Kelly, as she shows off her spring heifer calf, also named Jionna, at the Shawano County Fair’s open dairy show Sunday.
This was the first year since 2006 that John Arens could just sit back and enjoy the horse show at the Shawano County Fair rather than having to worry about whether it came off as planned.
He handed the reins this year over to Diane Schnell, the horse key committee chair. Schnell has been active in the program for several years and is also the drill team coach
Still, Arens had a strong personal interest in the outcome of this year’s event, given that his daughter, Jenna, was participating.
On Sunday, which was also Jenna’s 11th birthday, she showed off her horse’s walking and trotting skills in the halter pony class at the Junior Horse Show competition, riding a gelding slightly older than she is.
She was among 24 participants in the junior horse show class.
“I feel very relaxed. It’s fun,” Arens said, sitting in a shady spot outside the horse arena near the announcer’s booth Sunday.
Arens watched his oldest daughter go through nine years of this program, and was now watching Jenna compete.
“As a dad, it’s rewarding,” she said.
The horse shows at Crawford Center continue to be called “the fair’s best kept secret,” even though attendance rises every year.
Arens said he was pleased with this year’s turnout, which he said was probably helped by the mild weather.
“Weather like this, it does nothing but help the fair,” he said. “It’s a great show, and I think everyone involved over here with the horse project just does a wonderful job.”
The equine events take place at the other end of the fairgrounds, away from the midway, the grandstand and the livestock competitions, in what is commonly called “Shawano County Fair East.”
“We’re the eastern side of the Shawano County Fair,” Schnell said. “We try to get people coming because we have signs all over the fairgrounds to try and point them this way.”
Some 40 different classes of horses are shown during the fair — including miniature ponies, donkeys, mules and draught horses.
Schnell said the riders work with their horses all year round, which she said, is a difference between the horse project and a lot of the livestock projects.
“A lot of these horses have been shown for multiple years, and they get better every year,” she said. “It’s ongoing.”
The horses are handled pretty much every day, Schnell said.
“There’s a huge bond that’s created between the kids and their animals,” she said. “And it’s a lifelong bond because many horses live quite a few years. So it becomes a really huge pet.”
Horses are also handled more gently than can sometimes be seen in livestock projects, where more aggressive tactics are often required to get the animals to go through the necessary paces.
“It’s about persuading a 1,200-pound animal to do what they need to do,” Schnell said. “When you think about how the cowboys spent 24/7 with their horses — that’s what makes that relationship, and it’s the same with the 4-H members and their horses.
“You can’t just push them around and make them do things. You have to get their trust, get their respect, and do it that way.”