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The Illinois State Fair kicked off Monday in Springfield.

One competition draws in dams and stallions from all over the Tri-States.

KHQA's Kristen Aguirre met a local man who isn't horsing around when it comes to winning at the state fair's horse show.

"He has eight different world grand champions," Paul Mast, owner of Mast Estates, said. "This isn't county fairs or state fairs, this is North America."

Royal Rowdy is the pride and joy of his owner, Paul Mast. Rowdy is a Tennessee Walking Horse stallion standing 16 hands tall. Mast thinks he can win the best all-around horse show but Rowdy needs to go through the judges first ... and they judge everything.

"They judge the way he walks, his overstep, the smooth ride he'll give to a person if you rode him," Mast said. "His overstep, for example, they move fast over the ground. If you have a Tennessee Walking Horse with a lot of other type of horses, usually they walk a lot faster."

Mast hopes that characteristics and the three months of preparation Rowdy has undergone will crown the horse a winner. After more than 70 years in the horse showing business, Mast says anything can happen.

"I think he's a nice horse, there's a possibility that he might do good but I don't know, I don't know," Mast said.

Mast has three other Tennessee Walking Horses competing at the fair, one is a yearling and two are weanlings born in the spring.

Royal Rowdy will compete at the Illinois State Fair on August sixteenth.

For more information on the Illinois State Fair, click here.