The start of the new year is usually when local 4-H and independent horse exhibitors start gearing up for the Stanislaus County Fair show in July. This year, however, there will be no show as the Stanislaus County Fair Board of Directors voted to cancel all junior horse events for 2026.
“It’s just been kind of stagnant,” said Fair CEO Kim Williams. “There just haven’t been hardly any participants from our county for 4-H and it does operate at a loss. Ultimately, I think that the board would like to see it come back here.”
The horse show has been a staple of the pre-fair events for decades. For the past few years, the horse show was held not at the fair’s arena, but instead at the Diamond Bar Arena in Ceres with the fair staff hosting the event and it being open to participants from other counties. Williams said the horse show was moved there because the fair’s arena was not up to show standards.
According to Williams, there were 38 participants in the 2025 Junior Horse Show, with 20 from Stanislaus County. She said in 2024, there were only 10 participants in the show from Stanislaus County.
News of the Fair board’s decision to cancel the Junior Horse Show was met with criticism from the local community. Comments on the Fair’s social media sites included statements of disappointment, with one person posting: “As a parent to one of these kids this is a disgrace. The fair has been trying to get rid of the horse show for a few years. Just because the fair doesn't make money [like] market animals they will just drop it…These kids work not just a few months for this show but year round and years at a time to win. What a complete disaster this fair board is. Taking it out on kids.”
Abigail Cahoon of River Oaks 4-H was also greatly disappointed with the news of the cancellation of the Junior Horse Show, stating that many local riders will not have a chance to qualify to compete at the California State Fair now. She was also very upset that the Fair board or staff did not reach out to the county 4-H leaders before announcing the cancellation.
“We have a countywide leaders and parents meeting once a month throughout the 4-H year…they didn’t even come to us and tell us they were considering not having it,” she said.
Cahoon said that for some kids, the only project they have is their horse events and now these kids won’t have anything at the Fair.
Cahoon said that like many 4-H and other groups across the state, COVID had a big impact on their participation numbers.
“We lost a lot of members because of COVID, but we’ve been working really hard to build it back up, especially the horse group…I think we have over 20 kids. All of our kids work towards being able to show at the Fair at the end of the year.”
