Recently, I attended the sheep show at California State Fair. Being a true sheep girl at heart, I had no problem sitting in the sweltering heat from 8 AM when the show started, to 3 PM when the last animals were picked for the FFA Final Drive. Since I am no longer an exhibitor, I see everything in a much different perspective now. And one thing I couldn’t help but notice was the alarming amount of kids who weren’t focused on themselves. As soon as they would hit the ring, their eyes weren’t on the judge or on their own animals. Their eyes wandered to every other sheep, scoping out…

A few weeks ago, I was judging a small, local jackpot show. I had just finished sorting a pretty large class and my brain was a little on the fried side. I had finished giving my reasons and the two exhibitors that had first and second came up and shook my hand. Not really a surprise, since multiple exhibitors earlier in the day came up and shook my hand. That seemed to have started a wave of handshakes. Kids throughout the class (mainly those who were in the top end) came and shook my hand. Then I got a little surprise, the young man whose goat I placed last came…

Stock show kids are some of the most intelligent, hardest working kids around. This comes through in everything they do: in the show ring, sports, in the classroom. Sometimes, though, they need to miss school to go to the show. If you’ve ever struggled with explaining to teachers or principals the importance of showing livestock, if you couldn’t find the words to tell them how much the stock show kid learns from their livestock projects, here is the answer: The Stock Show Kid School Excuse Letter.   Dear Teacher/Principal/School Administrator, Please excuse (insert child’s name) from school tomorrow. He/She will be participating in the (insert livestock show). We are fortunate…

Growing up, my 4-H livestock were a once a year deal. I would have the animals for three to four months, take them to my tiny fair and repeat the process the next year. The older I got, the more competitive my sister and I became. This lead to having anywhere between six to ten animals in the barn from January to October. Though this may not seem like much, for us this was an extreme shift from what we were used to. It took a toll not only on our wallets (sorry mom and dad), but also on our desire to keep going. We would start off the year…