Equestfest - Dec 29

Yesterday was a blast! At breakfast we were discussing the big day ahead of us and Wyatt commented, "it's not the enchilada though, that's Friday".  We had Equestfest and they sold over 3500 tickets to the show.  The boys drove great with Jack and Thunder in the lead, beautiful as always.  Bud and Hank were in the swing and Jim and Duke in the wheel. Owners, Houston and Judith Haugo were here to watch the crew get the horses ready for the show.  Joe was interviewed by LA ABC.  He knew we were from the midwest immediately as we were all running around in short sleeves and the Cali's had on their parkas! There were other film crews on site as well. Ellen Swagerty, Equestrian Chair, said the Shires brought tears to her eyes.  Not gonna lie, there were several people who had tears!
The other horse exhibitors were awesome too. You can check out the Rose Bowl events for the other exhibitors. http://www.tournamentofroses.com/rose-parade/participants
Judy (Hart, originally from Fulda, MN, she graduated with Delano, Carol's Dad) Freking, son Fred and his sons, Jack (how cool is that? same name as one of the lead horses) and Trey stopped at the barn before the show.  Ed Thraen's (LeRoy's sister Janice's niece) daughter, Shelly stopped out too.  What a wonderful afternoon!
We relaxed in the evening and Fr. Tim made a great supper for the crew.  Gotta tell ya, we function pretty good as a team.  Everyone has their role to play: caring for the horses, getting them ready for the show, cooking, cleaning, errand runners - it's actually organized chaos!

Made a couple of local newspapers back home:
http://www.marshallindependent.com/page/content.detail/id/578381/Headed-for-the-roses
http://www.dglobe.com/news/3912558-coming-roses-shire-six-horse-hitch-be-featured-tournament-roses-parade