Helen Stephenson's Wild West Show Pictures - May 2007

We used our own two feet to get around the exhibits, but The Hop Farm provides various transportation options for those who don't want to use up too much shoe leather.

As soon as we entered the site, we started seeing the paraphernalia of the American pioneers.

Stephen became a "wanted man", although I don't think he looks too worried about it!

The Confederate soldiers were to be seen doing their drill.

The trick riding team put on their show. They started out parading around carrying the Stars and Stripes and the Confederate flag, but discarded these later when they got down to their stunt work.

Do note Minnie-ha-ha on the left here. I believe that she could well have been the coldest woman at the Wild West Show. It was not a warm day and her nether regions are clad only in tights.

Then we were treated to two horses shared by three riders. It's just as well the one on the back had long legs when the horses parted slightly! He did a backflip flying dismount at the end of the stunt which didn't quite come off, and he ate a bit of dirt.

Minnie-ha-ha appeared to be the star of the show. Here we see her right out of the saddle. She got back up again without mishap, too. There was another rider performing a flying dismount and bounce back into the saddle, but I didn't capture that moment.

Back to the settlers: there were lots of campfires and tents, and the occasional wagon to be seen.

I found this man very photogenic, and snapped him a number of times, both by himself, and with some of the other "settlers".

Here are some more settlers that I found photogenic.

And here are one last lot of settlers, who look to be quite glad of the warmth of their campfire.

A confederate soldier guards his firearms and ammunition, stored in a nearby tent.

There were several gun carriages on display.

I think that this flag is announcing the presence of the Irish.

An interesting "battle" was staged in the paddock. There were multiple sides to this battle, including settlers, local milita, British troops, French troops, and native Americans. I got a bit confused at the end of the day about who was who, except that the ones wearing drab clothes had rifles while the ones in bright uniforms only had muskets, so if you wanted to charge, it was best to charge at the uniforms, as a musket was less likely to hit you than a rifle.

This colourful band made up some of the native American contingent.

Here I believe we have the coldest man at The Hop Farm. I have inspected the photo on the left quite closely, and there is a skimpy garment underneath the raised bumflap, so this gentleman's modesty is just about presenved.

The paint job being worn here reminds me of Spiderman. I managed not to flinch when he and his cohorts charged the audience in full cry!

I'm not entirely sure what the allegiance of this group is. They seem well armed, so they are probably militia.

The next lot are firing muskets. I'm a bit hazy about whether these are the British or the French.

This lot are mounting a bayonet charge. They are whichever of the British and French that the last lot weren't!

I got this lady to pose for me because I admired her hat so much. She wanted to know if I collected hats, so I had to explain that I admired it without wishing to own it.

There was a lot of Native American jewellery on sale, but it virtually all contained blue turquoise, which I am not keen on, so I didn't come home with any extra earrings. Apparently turquoise occurs in colours other than blue, but it's less common, and I didn't see any pieces I liked in alternative colours.

I strongly suspect that most of the Native Americans I saw had as much Caucasion blood flowing in their veins as I do. These three were picking their way across a field, having probably just changed into their finery.

Whatever his origins, I'm very pleased with the close-up portrait I took of this man.

The rest of the pictures were taken inside the pavilion (good name for a marquee!) where there was a demonstration of Native American dancing.

This lady was the spokesperson for the dancers, and she was the real deal, even if many of her troupe were only playing at being Native Americans.

The dancing was accompanied by a single drum, which was being played by at least two people.

Here most of the troupe are gathered prior to the beginning of the dancing.

I particularly admired the costumes of these men, and when I first selected pictures for this page, I found that I hadn't included any of the others.

I did go back and find a representative sample of the other men.

Krystal, the butterfly dancer, was very good. Stephen felt that her costume was made from non-traditional materials, and so he downrated her, but I thought that she was very good. The steps she did were quite similar to Irish dancing, and she did really good twirls.

We finished up with a quick look around the farm animals which are resident year round at The Hop Farm, and then made our way home. I didn't get a photo of the llamas this time as they were turned out to graze in a paddock on the far side of where that multi-sided battle was being re-enacted, so I didn't get close to them.