Chapter 1, The Malone/Franklin County Fair

I drove to the town of Malone on a slightly rainy Saturday morning to see the Franklin County Fair:

This was the first day of the fair and I arrived only a half hour after the gates opened. It was not yet crowded, but I did take note of this motorcycle with barrel trailer from Ontario:


My first stop was at the horse riding competitions near the grandstand:

Folks of all ages were lining up to compete, some on horseback and others in a more leisurely manner:

And then I toured the horse barns. There were two horse barns, one for riding horses and one for race horses. I stopped and petted any horses that seemed to want attention:

And so did this little girl:

She somehow knew which horses wanted some human attention and was drawn right to them:

And then I visited the cow barn, actually a connected series of long, narrow barns which stretched for much of the length of the fairgrounds. The north country is real cow territory:

There were lots of dairy cows of various breeds, all of them tame, clean and healthy:

If and when they got dirty, there were shower facilities just outside the barn:

But mostly these cows lounged around, chewing their cuds and living the good life:

This group of cattle belonged to the farmer I'd visited not long ago who raised American British White Park Cattle. He was so busy, though, that I didn't stop to chat. His cattle looked beautiful:

Some farms even provided their girls with curtains:

And they had one baby Scottish Highland, the breed I used to raise. I stopped and had a long talk with this cute little fellow's owner. But there was lots more to see. I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: