Buttercup goes to the Big Ex!

Last year we went to the Exhibition at Windsor and there were dogs there - so this year when my Dad asked me if I wanted to go with him to the Exhibition in Bridgewater to watch the Ox Pulls I said sure, and I took Buttercup with us so that she could come along and share the fun of the day - because I knew that if Windsor had been a dog friendly exhibition, that Bridgewater probably would be dog friendly too - and sure enough - it was - there were a lot of dogs everywhere, which was great to see - people out spending time with their animals on a Saturday afternoon and also pumping money into the economy, their dogs spending time with their owners, getting out of the house, smelling fabulous stuff - the way life should be.

So on to the photos -

I guess we'll start off with the oxen - because that's always ostensibly what we go to these things for - my Dad likes to go and watch the oxen pulls -
And this year we stayed and watched two bouts of it - so we saw a lot of oxens(s) ! I liked this little guy - I've seen him and his oxens at the Halifax shows - he's not a farmer, he just has these 2 oxens that he keeps on his little hobby farm for fun - he almost won his class on Saturday too - I think it was the overalls that gave him the pluck to almosst pull off the win.

This is a picture of a couple oxen that were at the Halifax Exhibition last year


This is Buttercup with me in the stands - sometimes she is pretty much 100% convinced she's people.

This is the guy who actually won one of the oxen pulls that we watched - the win is based on how much the oxens pull + plus their weight and then done by a percentage - so it's not done by the last oxen standing, so you don't know until the very end who won.
He had some very nice looking, um, oxen though.

Don't ask me what this swash-buckling female pirate has to do with ice cream or cinammon twist pretzels, because I have no idea - but she was propped up outside refreshment stand called "Chipstix" - and nothing they sold seemed to have anything to do with pirates.
I guess they were looking for a certain demographic to come to their ice cream stand, maybe....

This was one of the carney's dogs - I walked by him several times over the course of the day and he never moved - in the heat of the day - and it was HOT - never moved once. That is one laid back dog. I'm pretty sure he wasn't dead, either - because he looked up at me and Buttercup each time we passed.
A view of the midway.
Remember the "Scrambler"? I remember that ride - I remember almost falling out of it when I was a kid - I grew up in Amherst where they used to have the "Blueberry Harvest Festival" every year - so probably this same midway came to town every year - Cumberland County in case you don't know is the blueberry capital of Canada! (I used to go rake blueberries every summer - that's how I bought my very first 35mm camer actually) - and the Scrambler stands out in my mind as being a ride to be nauseous of - growing up I would get nauseous playing on a swing set - so going on a ferris wheel? PLEASE!
You could even play bingo there!
This is all the fabulous stuff you can win when you played the BINGO!
Another one of the carney's dogs - he (or she) was very cute!
This was the live entertainment inside the main hall - for some reason I didn't stick around to hear what type of music they were playing...
I really get a kick out of horse barns and what the horse owners put outside the horse stalls to display - some of the people can get really ornate with the stuff they put there with all the bridles and saddles and boots and harnesses and stuff - this person even had photos of themself with her wedding photos and pictures of her and her husband's wedding and diamond rings and stuff - and people think dog people are nuts.
Another shot of this lady's stall
Another horse stall - but this time obviously a teenager's horse - a bit more sedate
And to end off our tour of the Bridgewater Big Ex - I leave you with some oxen bums.

We had a great day - if you go - and your dog can handle it - it's almost all outdoors - I'd say you should take your dog with you - although there are some displays that you can't take your dog in with you - like the poultry exhibit and the petting zoo - for obvious reasons - like the fact that your dogs might think they are prey and try to eat them. So I can understand why those areas are not dog friendly! I wish the Halifax Exhibition was dog friendly, but it's not. But it's a great socialization day for the dogs, they get to smell lots of great new stuff, hang out, get into the country, it's all good.


On the way home we stopped in at Hubbards and the Shore Club and got some lobster to take home - so we even got to have a super yummy supper!
Buttercup thought it was an awesome day all around, and so did I!