GREEN COVE SPRINGS – If it’s bizarre and fun, it gets Tasha Hyder’s attention.

“I’m always looking for a way to keep it fresh,” the Clay County Agricultural Fair executive director said. “We want you to have fun when you come to the fair. The crazier, the better.”

A recent addition to the entertainment lineup was Cow Patty BINGO. It’s exactly what it sounds like: contestants buy a square, a field is divided into a grid, and a cow is turned loose. When they stop and drop, you are the winner if their meadow muffin lands on your number!

“We had some fun with it last year,” Hyder said, “so we brought it back.”

Where she plops, nobody knows.

New this year is a two-legged horse show, complete with Flat, Hunter/Jumper, Show Jumping, Barrel Racing, Western Trail, Puissance and Dressage competitions.

That’s right, two legs – and a stick.

The Clay County Agricultural Fair will open the corral gates to the new phenomenon Hobby Horse Competition.

It’s a sport in which stick horses are used to complete gymnastic elements like show jumping and dressage without real horses. The sport originated in Finland in 2002 and quickly spread to other Nordic countries. It’s no longer considered a trendy hobby for girls or young women and is now popular worldwide.

A hobby horse is a toy horse head on a stick. A rider puts the stick between their legs, holds the reins and “rides” the horse on a course with jumps and turns in the same manner as their four-legged counterpart.

One reason hobby horse riding is gaining popularity is that it gives children and teenagers who don’t have horses, especially those who live in inner cities, an opportunity to get outside and simulate being in a stable and riding school.

Don’t just bring your curiosity. Saddle up, make that stick up, and join the fun.

Other off-the-wall events include a Silent Goat Disco, complete with bellbottom jeans, sideburns and platform shoes, pig races, corn dog and donut-eating and slushie-drinking contests, a mullet-match contest, rabbit fashion sow, whip popping, and beard and mustache contests and demolition derby.

The fair also selected its Greatest Fair Fans – Mark and JoAnn Langley. They live in Key West, but Mark has a business in Jacksonville, and they always make room for the fair each year.

“They were picked because they truly are the greatest,” Hyder said.

Mark took a date to the fair in 1990 and was instantly obsessed with the sights, sounds and smells, which reminded him of the fairs he had attended as a child.

“I was on a date with a gal,” he said. “I was a young guy starting my career, and we went to Orange Park to a restaurant to eat, and I saw a sign for the fair. I always liked fairs and decided to check it out. We went, and we had a great time. Subsequently, after that, I moved to Jacksonville, and I went to other fairs around the area, but there was no comparison.”

He said he married another woman, JoAnn, who attends every day. Mark hasn’t missed a fair since 1990.

“I started inviting friends and family,” Mark said. “My wife and I started coming after I got married, and she fell in love with it. She hangs out every day. The kids love it, and they do the livestock auctions, concerts, and everything. They start looking forward to it every year, and it’s our big highlight.”

Especially the ever-changing lineups of zany events.