The horse pull drew a crowd to the grandstand Thursday night at the Lorain County Fair.

The spectators oohed and ahhed as the large animals were brought out, two at a time, and hitched to a large sled of concrete blocks.

More than once the horses failed to cooperate, sending a murmer through the crowd, and prompting the announcer to scold them for it.

After each round the sled was reloaded with 1,000 more pounds of cement blocks.

The Junior Fair celebrated as their events for the week are nearly wrapped up with the Junior Fair awards ceremony and parade Thursday night.

Fair royalty was escorted in to the reviewing stand, awards were announced, and the parade began. First in the parade were animals, and their owners, in costume. Among the fan favorites was Snow White and her string of furry dwarfs.

Then 4-H clubs from around the county paraded through as info and honors about their groups were announced.

The Junior Fair this year has gone smoothly, according to Garrett Schwedt, Junior Fair king and a member of the Junior Fair board.

New this year are premier exhibitor awards that combine the skillathon, type grade and showmanship grade scores, resulting in one premier showman named in each of five categories: beef, horse, fowl, swine and sheep.

The premier showmanship awards are something Junior Fair Board members had seen being done elsewhere.

“We wanted to try something new,” Schwedt said. “It’s just some extra recognition for the kids that try the hardest.”

The winners got gift baskets that included show supplies and gift certificates, he said.

The Junior Fair has goat and dairy shows today and wraps up with market hogs and market beef being auctioned Saturday at the Junior Fair Livestock Sale.

If the recession is affecting this year’s Lorain County Fair, it wasn’t evident at Thursday’s Junior Fair livestock auction.

A record was set for grand champion single fryer rabbit. The buyer — Lorain County Sheriff Phil Stammitti — paid $800 for Jacqueline Squires’ meat rabbit, resetting his own previous record of $725 paid in 2004.

“He just couldn’t let anyone have his record,” said Garrett Schwedt, 2009 Junior Fair king and a Junior Fair Board member.

“The bids weren’t affected as much as I thought they might be” by the recession, Schwedt said.

Fair attendance has been relatively “in line” with recent years, according to Senior Fair Board President Brian Twining.

Wednesday, with 14,088 people, was actually a record-low Wednesday since the Fair Board started verifying attendance figures a decade ago. But Monday was a couple hundred up from Monday last year, and Tuesday was just a couple hundred down from Tuesday last year.

“With the economy, we didn’t know what we would run into,” Twining said.

The only major incident so far this week happened in the rodeo ring. A participant in Wednesday night’s Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association rodeo was thrown from his horse and kicked in the head as he participated in bareback bronc riding early in the program.

Nelson Miller of Coshocton was in stable condition Thursday, according to a spokeswoman at Metro Health Medical Center in Cleveland, where he was LifeFlighted from the fairgrounds.

Jim Bainbridge, senior public relations coordinator at the PRCA, said Miller suffered a concussion and a collapsed lung but is out of the hospital’s intensive care unit.

Several fairgoers caused a scene Wednesday when a power outage temporarily shut down the fair’s kid’s rides. The outage lasted about 25 minutes, according to workers selling tickets that afternoon.

Several parents became irate and several were threatened they might be removed from the fairgrounds, but “as soon as the rides were back up and running, everyone was happy again,” according to a fair worker.

As a result of the outage afternoon ride passes that day were honored an extra hour, until 6 p.m.

Otherwise, fair week so far has been “very, very smooth,” according to Twining.

“Just little things here and there,” sheriff’s Capt. James Drozdowski said when asked about fair incidents. “It’s been fairly quiet. Everyone’s been really good.”

He doesn’t foresee problems this weekend.

“Traditionally we haven’t had any issues,” Drozdowski said. “When it gets hot, we get issues, but this year the weather’s been steady.”

Jim Pilati, who was working the his brother Dick’s packed skee ball trailer Thursday afternoon, said business has been “down some but not a great deal.”

“We have an advantage with skee ball,” he said. “It only costs a quarter.”

Several vendors called business so far this year slow, but that wasn’t the case at the Wellington band’s doughnut booth.

Band director Toni Novotny said it’s been “a little busier” than other years and noted that the Sunday before the fair’s official opening, “setup day,” saw record sales for them.

“The weather’s cooperated for us,” she said. “But it really doesn’t matter if it’s hot or raining. At the end of the night, people come over and they buy their dougnuts to take home with them.”

Entries in the fair’s 4-H competitions were about the same as previous years, Schwedt said. Some categories were up slightly, and others were down slightly, he said.

The Junior Fair royalty competition, in which Schwedt was crowned king, had more entries than any year since the ’80s. And the Junior Fair Board this year added some new awards — premier exhibitor titles in the beef, horse, fowl, swine and sheep categories.

Most of the week’s 4-H activities have wrapped up, Schwedt said. Left this weekend are goat and dairy shows Friday and the hog and beef auction Saturday.

Other weekend highlights include a tractor pull Friday night, combine derby Saturday and moto-cross races and demolition derby Sunday.

“If the weather holds out, we anticipate a couple of great days days this weekend,” Twining said.

Junior Fair participants saw dollar signs for their efforts Thursday afternoon at the annual Junior Fair Livestock Auction.

Meat rabbits, meat chickens, market goats, turkeys and market lambs were sold to the highest bidder throughout the afternoon as crowds packed the Junior Fair Show Ring in Building 9.

Each child strode in turn to the front of the ring and meticulously arranged their animal, making sure each feather and hoof was in place. Some beamed brightly, while others bit their lip and several erupted into tears. Then the auctioneer went into action, rattling of the bids as they came in. In under a minute the whole thing was over, and child and animal scurried off to the side.

The Junior Fair Livestock Auction continues Saturday. Market hogs will be auctioned at 8:30 a.m. and market hogs at 12:30 p.m.