When 4-H club members in Prince George want to party, the invited guests might just be exactly what you imagine.
Eight horses, eight goats, six chickens, two dogs, two guinea pigs, a sheep and a cow all dressed up in costumes stampeded the Agriplex Sunday afternoon as part of the Dress Up contest, one of many fun aspects to the BC Northern Exhibition (BCNE) 4-H showcase.
There was a caped super chicken named Mary, Sir Lambcelot - a sheep in knight's armour - a Horse in the Hat, Wet Paint - word play on the breed of horse. There was a blue ballerina hen called a Silkie and a uni-goat - a goat dressed up like a unicorn.
Even a couple of 4-H fairies graced the barn with their presence. And no less than two goats each wearing a set of wings.
Yes, it's true. No fake news here. Two winged goats.
And you might be wondering how many 4-Hers it takes to catch an 'es-caped' super-hero chicken.
The answer is four. One to take the hands-on approach to their fine-feathered friend and the other three to strategically create a barrier to fence in the soon-to-be-captured chicken.
All in all, it was great fun for participants and spectators, judging by the amount of laughter coming from the bleachers.
Each animal and handler was judged and the top three were declared victorious in the senior and junior categories. All six were beribboned for their efforts.
Senior top prize went to Kaila Vanleeuwen, 14, and her Prince Uni-goat and junior top prize went to Princess Azalea Cartwright, 10, and her Sir Lambcelot.
"The dress up party is the last show of the weekend at the fair," said Becky Wasstrom, who has been with the local 4-H for four years, is the vice president of the district of Prince George, chairperson of the Cloverbuds, a Cloverbud leader, and junior council representative. "This is a time for the children to let loose and relieve some of the anxiety that these kids have because it can be a little bit tough getting ready to show their animals and this is just a way to end things off on a good note."
During the costume contest pigs are not welcome in the Agriplex because they're hard to control, so the judge visited any piggie participant in their own pen for safety's sake.
This year there are 144 children participating in the 4-H program in the Prince George district, Wasstrom said, and those numbers are way up from over a number of years. She's thinking the numbers coincide with the farm to fork movement where many people look to eat local produce and meat.
"What we like to say about our 4-H kids is that these are our future farmers," Wasstrom said.
"So they're learning young."
Lachlan Naydin, 11, brought Mary the naked-neck fowl as Super Chicken to the dress up party. Lachlan made the costume himself and sewed Mary's Super Chicken cape by himself.
It wasn't really a big deal.
"It only took about 10 minutes to make," Lachlan said with a modest shrug. He's been in 4-H for five years and besides Mary, his chicken project, Lachlan also has swine and a five-year dairy project that results in him having a beautiful, full-grown milk cow at the end of it. It's a gentler kind of project as opposed to a beef project where the cow is sold at auction at the BCNE and butchered to be put in the buyer's freezer.
"This is the first time in 13 years that dairy has been a project in Prince George," Wasstrom said.
"One of our strongest showings is beef. That seems to be the biggest and then swine. This year we had interest in dairy and we've got five projects right now and we're hoping for more next year."
Lachlan definitely has a favourite part of 4-H.
"The animals and the fair," he said.
