Showing steer -- a good day
As I try to write this, my dad is yelling at me through the window to go to the barn to work steers. I guess that’s what you get when you wait until the last minute to do it. Our family is still recovering from a long day in Van Wert and our tempers are still a little frayed, as my mom says.
One of our family’s favorite shows usually happens Labor Day Weekend a the Van Wert County Fair. We have shown there every year I have been in 4-H and we were disappointed when they had to cancel their open show this year because of COVID-19. Luckily, they rescheduled and we got to get out and show.
The rescheduled show took place on Sunday and my mom hates that because she doesn’t like having to work the day after. My dad doesn’t mind because he can make us load the trailer and get things ready on Saturday. Of course, getting things ready for a show means we have to turn into fashion models in the living room making sure our show clothes fit and some times I might forget to have my jeans washed which means I get to hear my mom remind me about planning. Almost like she did about this week’s column.
It seems like whenever we go to a show my dad wants to leave super early. This week was no different and we were in the barn loading steers at 7 a.m. The problem was that registration didn’ty start until 9 a.m. and then the scale didn’t open until 11:30. We had plenty of time to wash our steers and get ready but by the time we were in line to weigh in we were already tired but we still had a lot of show to happen yet. They were supposed to start with heifers at 2 p.m. and at 2:30 the show finally started.
I think our family wasn’t the only one who wanted to get out and show. Van Wert usually gets about 40 head of cattle during their fair but on Sunday, they had 140 register. That meant that the steer show didn’t get started until after 4:00. We had steers in the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th classes so we were pretty busy. I love getting to pull up hair and use my clippers so I was happy my dad let me. When it was all over, we did realy well and stood in the top half of the class with every steer and Caroline even got to be 3rd in class with the steer we raised.
After they picked the Grand Champion Feeder Steer, they showed Dairy Feeder Steers and then, finally after everything got to show, they had Showmanship. It made for a long day but I’m sure glad we stayed because Kate was Reserve Champion Beginner Showman and I was Reserve Champion Intermediate Showman. I had to beat Caroline for that and it was hard because she showed her absolute best out there.
After we finally got all of the hair products washed out of our steers and the trailer loaded we could finally head for home. It was past 9 p.m. when we hit our drive way and all of us were tired fron the long day in Van Wert but we’re all happy we could get out and show.