After I settled into my hotel in Riverton, WY yesterday, a real basic motel complete with chipped paint and stains on the carpet, I made my way to their county fair. This is the first time I have actually been at a location while their fair is going on. It seems like at every stop so far I have either just missed it or it is days after I leave.
I found out only a few days ago that I was going to be able to check out the fair and I wasted no time in securing myself a ticket for their "Hog 'N' Mud" wrestling event. I had little idea what that was going to look like but knew I had to go. Where in PA do they have hog mud wrestling? I was pumped.
They broke the teams up by age group and all but the youngest by gender as well (8 and under - obviously the cutest, 9-13, 14-17, 18+). The teams were made up of 4 participants and the goal was to lift the pig and put them into the basket in the middle of the muddied fenced in area. Each team got a new pig. The pigs looked like they got larger with each age group, but it was not consistent as some of the older groups got mid-sized pigs. I would have been interested to know how much the pigs weighed as I have no clue. Each age group had a time they had to beat. Naturally, the adult men had the hardest feat.
The teams, complete with matching outfits, got to choose a team name. Many chose something pig-related like: "Wild Hogs", "Big Bad Wolves", "Don't Go Bacon My Heart" and "Silence of the Hams".
It was quite entertaining. The audience began hollering as each team showed signs of success (catching the pig, working together, lifting the pig, etc.) and challenge (someone getting a shoe stuck in the mud, someone falling, the pig wiggling away). I would say maybe a third of the teams were successful in getting the pig in the basket. I was super excited when the girls teams did better than the boys. One girls team even set the record for the night at 15 seconds, a notable speed compared with other groups whose average was probably closer to a minute. I will say, it was hard to watch the pigs. They were so clueless and innocent until the buzzer rang and four humans came hauling towards them. I don't think any of them got hurt but I had a hard time not rooting for them!
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