6-13-10

Bright and early, an hour before the doors opened to the exhibit hall, Macho Man and the crew were unloading.

First things first the booth had to be put in order. The Loomis branch committee took over the booth on Saturday so Macho Man and our staff could have a nice day off.

Macho Man was eager to go start making some new friend. This booth had promised him a nice halter, and he knew if he wore it today he might just sell some more buttons. He headed up the elevator to try it on.

We can't thank Pistoljane.com enough for donating a couple really cute halters for Macho Man. This is a cute red one with feathers on the nose. Check out their website, they have a lot of really interesting and fun items. Click here.

Macho Man knew he was really styling now!

A clinician stopped by our booth to ask if they could use Macho Man in their clinic today. Jec Aristotle Ballou was very glad that we said "Yes." Her clinic was supposed to be done in an arena with full sized horses, but somehow she got bumped down to a stage, where she needed a little horse.

Jec is a classical trainer in dressage and used Macho Man to point out the various muscle groups and some simple training methods that were shrunken down to Macho Man's size.

Macho Man was great and really won the hearts of the crowd over. Jec asked everyone to buy a button and support the rescue. To visit Jec's website, click here.

The expo had been a lot of fun, but all too soon it was winding down.

Larry and Janice headed out and started getting items donated from the hundreds of different booths. Open feed bags, a few wormers, it all really helps out!

Soon Larry was making trips back to our booth with all sorts of donated goodies.

Vita-Flex donated some supplements and other items along with some great grab bags and coupons to go into the adoption packets.

Macho Man won some hearts at the Freedom Feeders booth and they were more than happy to donate a feed bag to his favorite horse rescue. To view their website, click here.

5:00 came and it was time for the booth to be taken down.

O H Kruse grain and milling donated many bags of feed. We can't possibly thank them enough! Macho Man was really impressed by the bags of yummy food. He can't wait to try them all out, at least, that is what he thinks they are for. To view their website, click here.

Soon our booth was packed full of donated items. Macho Man felt very proud of himself.

Macho Man even got invited to attend the Grand National Rodeo at the Cow Palace in San Francisco in October. A free booth, free run of the entire event center, Macho Man feels like he could make a lot of great friends. He was so excited he wanted to hang out eating grass for awhile to calm down.

While Macho Man was working hard eating grass, the volunteers where working hard loading up.

Soon the first truck was loaded down with the donated feed. All the tables and chairs went in Macho Man's mini-van. Macho Man still had his stall in the back of the van and he made sure nothing else went in it.

Everyone got together for a quick group photo. It was a great team this year and we don't feel like we could have done any more to spread the word about horses in need. In all we raised almost $1,800, which is about the same as last year. Many of the booth operators we talked to said this was the worst year they have ever had at the horse expo, so we are really pleased we were able to meet our goal set last year.

The team hit the road for the drive back to the rescue. The sun was quite blinding, you have to love driving at this time of day.

Macho Man was quite happy to get out of the van and be back with Dottie. He managed to keep a straight face when she asked if there were any cute fillies down there. He has some stories to tell, but we doubt he will say a peep about the filly in the sports car.

It was great to regroup with the volunteers who had been caring for the horses while everyone was at the expo. Thanks guys, we could not have done it without you!

Many thanks to Amber C. and Marilyn R. for their generous donations over the internet, and to the hundreds of people who donated at the expo this year!