The 2nd Annual Blanco Western Showcase, featuring the 12th Annual IKTHOF World Championship Knife and Tomahawk Competitions on November 1-3, 2013 brought in people from Russia, Germany, England, Canada, and all across the United States. It was a weekend full of talent and tons of fun. The Showcase took place on the grounds of Carriage Hills Ranch, and was also hosted by Buggy Barn Museum. There were many exciting events that took place over those three days: Knife and tomahawk throwing, mounted action shooting, bullwhip contests, atlatl, archery, a chuck wagon cook off, musical entertainment, a kid’s area, museum tours, and many vendors.
On Friday, we welcomed nearly 300 students from Blanco schools as well as Burnet schools. They were given a tour of the Buggy Barn Museum, and were able to watch all the events that were taking place at the Blanco Western Showcase, and learn about history in many different ways. We also had performances from Doc Whiplash, who demonstrated bull whips and had the students participate.
Saturday continued all the events and included the chuck wagon cook off. The IKTHOF competition was definitely a sight to see. There were competitors of different ages ranging from 12 years old to 83 years old, men and women, and a youth division. This year’s competition was tough, but several competitors scored higher than last year, which made the event even more successful. New world records were set: Mikhail Sedychev of Russia, placed 1st in Expert Knife with a new record of 276; Werner Lengmuller of Germany, placed 1st in Expert Tomahawk with a new record of 251; and Gillian Sitler of USA, placed 1st in the Youth Tomahawk Division with a new record of 152. Scores were high and some were only points away from each other. Next year will bring even more determination to beat scores.
Saturday night was the chuck wagon meal, in which 7 wagons competed in their overall wagon as well as food categories: meat, beans, potatoes, bread and dessert. We have food judges for each category that taste a sample from each wagon (just by a number, not the name of the wagon so there is no bias) and they rate the sample. Others judge the different wagons to see if they meet the requirements. A lot of hard work and time goes into cooking, and these wagons did a great job! After the meal, we presented awards for the knife and tomahawk competition, chuck wagon cook off, and had a live auction and concluded the silent auction.
Sunday morning, we held a church service and breakfast for any and all who wanted to join. Then the knife and tomahawks had a day of “games”. These games included events such as the speed throw, long distance throw, walk across Texas, fast draw, silhouette throw, Texas three step, and the Texas Hurricane. It is a day of fun and fast, exciting throws. The speed throw was one of the best events with last year’s record being broken and tied with a previous world record by Melody Cuenca from Las Vegas, by throwing 23 knives in 20 seconds. Then we had Roger Jals from California shatter the world record by throwing 26 knives in 20 seconds! If you missed this event with these two phenomenal throwers, you missed quite a show!
We had a great time hosting this extraordinary event again this year. We would like to send a special thank you to all the sponsors who helped support this event. Without your help and support, we would not have been able to bring all this excitement to the city of Blanco. Also, thank you to all the knife, tomahawk, bullwhip, atlatl, chuck wagons, and mounted action shooting competitors. To all the incredible entertainers, thank you for coming out and being a part of the 2nd Annual Blanco Western Showcase. Thank you to everyone who donated an item to the live and/or silent auctions. To all the vendors who joined us this year, thank you and we hope you enjoyed yourselves. A big thank you to everyone who came out for the events, the schools who came out, all the volunteers, and to everyone who has been behind us supporting us from the beginning. Without all of you, this event would not be a success! We hope to have more people join in and support this great, exciting weekend.
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