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The colorful, hand-decorated signs outside the stable of Galimir encouraged visitors to pet her and to feed her carrots.

When 2-year-old Quinton Simpson petted the animal Tuesday at the Morgan County Fair and fed it a carrot, the boy said, “I saw a big cow.”

The boy’s parents, Chris and Rosaleigh Simpson, however, told the boy that the animal actually is a horse.

“That’s why we need more horses at the fair,” said Corrine Carter, owner of Martinsville-area Phoenix Acres, a small breeding farm that breeds one or two horses per year.

Katelyn Osborne, 11, Carter’s and Charles Osborne’s daughter, won a second place in open showmanship and other ribbons at the county horse show competition held before the fair. She will be in the fifth grade at Green Township Elementary School when school resumes.

Galimir is a 19-year-old horse. The chestnut horse’s son recently finished the 100-mile Tevis Run in the Sierra Nevada in 20 hours.

Katelyn and Carter set up a display at the stable that included a plastic envelope outside of the horse’s reach with carrots that visitors could offer to the horse.

“We wanted the display to be interactive,” Carter said. “We thought it would be fun if people had a chance to feed the horse.”

Directions are provided on how to feed the carrot to the horse. Quinton was given the instructions by his parents and fed the horse.

When Quinton was asked whether he liked carrots, he said, “Yes.”

For some adults this was also their first contact with a horse, Carter said. A 25-year-old man told her it was his first opportunity to touch a horse.

Carter and her daughter have been around horses most of their lives.

“I’ve had horses since I was 2,” Carter said. “I showed at the fair in the mid 80s.”

Katelyn has inherited the same interest. She slept at the fair and was awakened by her horse.

“Horses are fun to ride,” Katelyn said. “They’re very social animals.”