Sussex County Farm and Horse Show
| Sussex County Farm and Horse Show | |
|---|---|
Incorporated in 1940
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| Genre | non-profit Agricultural Fair |
| Dates | August 1-10, 2014 |
| Frequency | Annually |
| Location(s) | Augusta, New Jersey |
| Inaugurated | 1923 in Sussex County, NJ |
| Website | |
| The New Jersey State Fair | |
The Sussex County Farm and Horse Show is a ten-day agricultural fair that is held at the Sussex County Fairgrounds in Augusta, New Jersey every August and attracts approximately 220,000 attendees annually. It has been run as a non-profit organization since 1940.
Since 1999, the Sussex County Farm and Horse Show has been designated the New Jersey State Fair.
The mission of the New Jersey State Fair/Sussex County Farm and Horse Show is:
The origin of the Sussex County Farm and Horse Show dates back to 1919 with the formation of the Branchville Riding Club. At a time when automobiles were still a rare sight in the countryside, the horse was the primary mode of transportation. The Branchville Riding Club was established, however, for recreational riding, with its members riding together for pleasure to various destinations throughout the county.
In 1923, Walter R. Wright, the President of the Riding Club and proprietor of a riding stable at Culvers Lake, enlisted the aid of Mr. and Mrs. Condit Compton and Miss Lydia Bale, who was a well-known horsewoman in the county. Together, they organized a small horse show for Walter Wright’s pupils at Rolison Farm. This first horse show was such a success that the Branchville Riding Club organized an open horse show at Ackerson Field, Ross’s Corner the following year. This was the first of many such shows that would be held in the years to follow.
In 1926 the horse show was moved to a new ring on the William L. Bass Farm on the Old Newton Road. At the time, the Club charged 25 cents for admission and offered ribbons and trophies to sharpen the competition.
The Depression years intervened, however, and no horse shows were held until October 7, 1933 when members of the Branchville Riding Club organized the Branchville Community Horse Meet on the grounds of Selected Risks Insurance Company (now known as Selective Insurance Group, Inc.) in Branchville, New Jersey. The Club held the meet on the grounds of Selected Risks at the invitation of D.L.B. Smith, that company’s founder and a horseman himself. He was also a horse show participant. The horse show would be held in this location for the next 43 years.
The 1933 horse show included 15 classes of competition with 51 participants, with the monies generated by the competition ($280.43) donated to the Sussex County Tuberculosis League. Prompted by the success of the 1933 show, the Sussex County Horse Show Association formed, with Augustus S. Whitmore as President, W.R. Decker as Secretary, and Lydia Bale as Treasurer.
The 1934 horse show saw a doubling of the number of participants, with similar numbers occurring in 1935, when attendance exceeded 1,000 spectators for the first time. The first “queen of the fair” competition took place during the 1935 horse show.
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Wikipedia