The Big E

For those who live in New England, it’s “Big E” time. The Eastern States Exposition, held in West Springfield, MA, is one of the largest state fairs in the country. The fair includes all six New England states, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, and Connecticut, and each state has its own building to display food, businesses, and anything else that makes that state unique.

For the past twenty-plus years, author Ellen Feld has had a booth at the fair to showcase her Morgan Horse series. Originally, her booth was outside the Vermont building (but right next to the building), directly in front of a stall that held a beautiful Morgan Horse. There were even times when the horse in the stall was one of the stars from Feld’s books! Blackjack, Annie, and Rimfire all made appearances. When the stall was torn down several years ago, Ellen’s booth was moved into the Vermont building. It made sense - the official state animal of Vermont is the Morgan Horse. Ellen also has a lot of connections within the Morgan world and would collect and then hand out pamphlets, flyers, Morgan farm brochures, copies of The Morgan Horse Magazine, and free temporary Morgan tattoos for the kids.

We’ve had lots of people ask when Ellen would be appearing at the Big E this year so that they could get her latest book. Unfortunately, the managers of the Vermont building decided that since she doesn’t reside in Vermont, they would no longer provide a booth for her. That means that there will be no Morgan representation within the Vermont building for the first time in over twenty years (actually, it’s probably over thirty years since Ellen wasn’t the first one to bring a Morgan to the display stall). For those looking for the next book in the series, or to learn about upcoming books, Ellen will be at Equine Affaire in November, signing out of the Taborton Equine Book booth in the Better Living Center at the Big E fairgrounds.