Hot Dogs Show Off Crowds in Zelie treated to entertainment
ZELIENOPLE – Hundreds of visitors braved rain and storms Saturday for the last day of the 57th annual Horse Trading Days festival in Zelienople.
Both the Horse Trading Days Dog Show, a newly revamped event from previous years of the festival, and the ShuBrew Hot Dog Contest, a returning favorite, saw nearly double the expected participants and gathered crowds of spectators from across Butler County, even as intermittent drizzles sent some running to tents.
Events started Thursday and ended Saturday. The festival included an area for children, live entertainment, food, sidewalk sales and a used book sale at the Zelienople Area Public Library.
Twenty-five pups went on stage to strut their stuff for the Dog Show, a contest that had been a part of Horse Trading Days in the past but returned in an updated format this year.Dr. RJ Skalos, owner of Windrose Animal Hospital in Cranberry Township and the emcee of the competition, was surprised and encouraged by families' enthusiasm to participate. Nearly 30 owners registered their dogs for the event.“We would've been happy with 15 or so people — we get to 10 or 15 for some of our other events, and those are established events,” he said. “To be pushing 30 people in our first year is phenomenal.”Prizes were awarded in four categories: Best Costume, Best Trick, Best in Show and Most Misbehaved, a category that originally started as a joke but saw nearly half the dogs get involved.“We were trying to come up with ideas for the awards, and I thought, you know what almost always happens at events like this? Stage fright,” Skalos said. “And then it ended up being one of the most popular categories. We wanted to make it fun.”All participants received goody bags with dog toys and candy inside.Mark Mangel and Lisa and Josh Reinhardt took home the Best in Show award for their trio of dogs, two of whom were dressed as “Jack Russels-in-a-box.”Lisa and Steve Fowler of Seven Fields dressed their dog, Jazmine, as a rainbow to match their leprechaun costumes and won Best Costume.“We've done this before for Halloween, and when we got Jazmine, I had seen a rainbow costume for dogs and thought it would be perfect,” Lisa said.
More than a hundred spectators gathered in the rain to watch the second annual ShuBrew Hot Dog Eating Contest. ShuBrew owner Zach Shumaker of Zelienople ran the competition, as 14 eaters did their best to devour as many hot dogs as possible.With a final total of 11 hot dogs, Tiler “The Hoover” Stoops of Harmony won first place and a $200 gift card from Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau.“I got 11 in, and then I thought, I can't eat no more,” said Stoops, whose family ran the Pedal Power Tractor Pull event later in the day. After finishing his plate, he had one word for the audience about how he felt: “Full.”Shumaker was also caught off guard by the level of participation. The previous iteration of the Hot Dog Eating Contest, which took place in the old ShuBrew pub location, could only accommodate about 50 spectators as compared with the big crowd at the festival.Shumaker said he actually had to turn some potential eaters down due to space considerations and that around seven people had signed on to a wait-list.“It was nerve-wracking because we put a lot of planning into this whole thing, and people signed up at the last minute. All week long, we were worried because we only had three people,” Shumaker said. “Then all of a sudden two days before, we got an influx where we had to start turning people away because we wouldn't have room on the stage.”He hopes to bring the event back for next year's Horse Trading Days.“We're sort of trying to build upon this being bigger every year,” he said.
