Horse Racing in Waterville?

I wonder how many people don't realize that there is horse racing in Waterville during the fair? And, by horse racing I mean the tiny saddles, knees to the chest, real jockeys kind of horse racing! We had no idea until we moved up here.

I remember going to the fair that first year and being disappointed at how tiny it was. Of course, I should have expected it. I mean, how big did I really think a fair in Waterville would be? Adam and I slowly browsed the exhibits, stopped to hear a little live music, looked at all of the animals and before we knew it, within minutes it seemed, we had seen everything there was to see! Or so we thought...

We learned that there was a rodeo/horse race scheduled for later that afternoon, so we decided to hang around. I had expected it to be very small and amateurish but it turns out, we've got an actual rodeo up here! It was so exciting! There were broncs and bulls, calves and steers and even some impressive barrel racing! The most thrilling thing for me, though, was when they guided the first set of horse racers onto the track. I remember grabbing Adam's arm and squealing, "Oh my gosh! THEY'RE ACTUAL JOCKEYS!!" I had never been to a "real" horse race before and I was absolutely giddy! Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, they topped the evening off with a crazy horse race that I had never heard of, the Indian Relay. One rider and three bareback horses per team. It was amazing to me how the riders could leap off one extremely tall horse and onto another so quickly!

The Big Bend Roundup and Horse Race, like the demolition derby, is an event that Adam and I look forward to every year. We were so disappointed, this year, because while we made it to the Saturday show, we neglected to double check the schedule and ended up missing the Sunday show completely! Oh well, there's always next year, right?