For the past 21 years, the ladies of the Congress shavings office have been supplying WD Quality Bedding to over 6,500 horses that attend the All American Quarter Horse Congress annually. For over a month, they spend their days confined to a small office that resembles a concrete bomb shelter.
“Horse show? There are horses here?” leading lady, Robyn Storey quips.
The ladies work no less than 12 hours a day, organizing the delivery of product and the maintenance of every customer’s account. Although it is hard work, which is quite often accompanied by stressful situations, the ladies try as often as they can to inject humor into their days. Whether it be from their own imagination, or inadvertently provided by a customer, the laughs are plenty.
“One of the funniest things they did and caught me off guard was when I walked into the office one morning and the ladies were dressed as Nuns,” bellows Wayne Davis, whose company supplies the shavings for the Congress every year. “Or the time they put shavings bags on their bodies and rode around the entire fairground in a golf cart doing the Queen wave.”
In an attempt to liven the rather plain and limiting office, the ladies decorate their office every year for Halloween. Their collection of decorations has grown every year.
There has been the odd dance contest, secret word game, Halloween costumes, and light-hearted pranks. One year, they changed the words of The Twelve Day of Christmas to The Twelve Day of Congress and performed it live. Another year, the ladies requested a transfer to work at the tree farm after a customer came in and asked if they could buy the trees sitting out in pots by the shavings.
They laugh when recalling a game they played where they kept track of how many times in a day people ask, “Is Wayne here?” Or how many times people call to order shavings and do not know what barn they are housed in or their stall numbers. “Would you call and order pizza and not know where you lived?” Robyn jokes.
Ruth Moore and Stacey Ewing giggle, “We are not only the shavings office, but we are the post office, fax service, information booth, traffic directory, waste removal, pseudo-stall office, bank, sewage, ice store, doggie daycare, braiding signup place, grocery bag depot, highlighter store, laundry depot and today’s latest add – phone charging station.”
Jennifer McIlwraith remembers the day that a lady angrily stomped behind the counter to report that there was no toilet paper in the restroom. “The lady was so angry, she was red. Like it was personally our fault,” laughs Jennifer.
This year, Mo West recalls one day when they opened the office. “There was a full Monopoly game on the table and a cooler of beer and neither were ours nor did we know who put all of it there. It was so random. So we are going to set up a rotating never-ending game of Monopoly where you walk in and sit and play one hand and leave it for the next person. I mean seriously, who has time to play Monopoly at a horse show?”
Robyn’s favorite pastime is watching Ohio Expo Center transform into the “magical city” that we all know as the All American Quarter Horse Congress. Storey fondly remembers all the partners in crime over the years, “Shout out to some of the great shavings ladies of the past: Shari Irwin, Tracy Pendergast, Heather Lemke and Jada Leek.”
The ladies are indebted to their boss, Wayne Davis who has always been their biggest supporter and champion of their most fun memories. They would also like to thank the All American Quarter Horse Congress for two decades of great fun and lasting memories.
Storey applauds, “Without the Congress, we would have never met the all of the great people that we have been able to call friends over the years.”
Wayne’s laugh is unmistakable and genuine as he reminisces, “I love these girls. They are dedicated. They are beautiful. They are smart and most of all they can track the money and I trust them. Robyn knows where everything is. This operation runs because of them.”’
