ALEXANDRIA, Ind. —
Tuesday morning, Sean Cave sheared one of his sheep as part of the grooming routine for the competition today.
Showing animals in the Madison County 4-H Fair competitions is more than just strutting animals around an arena.
There is a lot of hard work that goes into raising the animals, and then caring for and prepping them for the fair competitions.
“At home I feed and water them regularly, clean their pens out, put new bedding down,” Sean said. “Every day I do that.”
Sean was showing three pigs, which he raises at his Pendleton home, and four sheep, that are owned by his uncle.
Caring for the animals teaches him responsibility and good work habits, he said.
“I’ll know what I’m doing if I have my own farm,” he said. “I will know how to take care of the animals.”
Often, kids and teenagers become attached to the animals they care for and show. And then they have to face the possibility that those animals will be sold to other farmers for breeding, or to be slaughtered.
“Sometimes I get a little attached. I miss them a little at first,” Sean said. “But I get over it.”
Working next to Sean was Kaylee Dunham, 12. The young Tennessee girl sat in her wheelchair while using a hair dryer to dry the wool of one of her sheep.
She enjoys working with the animals, and has been showing them at the fair for three years.
“Some of them get sold to loving families. The girls go to breeders,” she said. “I get attached a little bit, but I know they go to loving families. And then I get new ones.”
Dunham has a good relationship with her sheep. The sheep are owned by a family friend in Alexandria, and Dunham visits them often.
“I sit with them and talk to them to calm them down. I use a calm voice to tell them ‘It’s OK. It’s fine,’” she said. “Sometimes they get annoyed with loud noises.”
Deanna Gray says that showing sheep has been a great experience for her sister Kaylee, who has cerebral palsy. It has given her a sense of independence, as well as the opportunity to be included in a big event, something that often doesn’t happen due to her having to use a wheelchair for mobility.
“She has learned how to do a lot of things on her own,” said Deanna, 14, of Michigan. “Before she was always asking for help, but ever since she started working with sheep she had been working harder to do things for herself.”
Deanna and 10-year-old brother Harley Dunham show cattle at the fair. And in order to be successful, they have to devote time to building relationships with the animals.
“It’s really hard with cattle because they need to be used to you,” she said. “You need to interact with them, otherwise they are scared and hard to control.”
And working with such large and strong animals requires dedication, patience and physical strength, she said.
Lucretia Lawler, 71, said showing animals has changed a lot from her day.
The Anderson woman began showing cattle in 1950 when she was 9 years old, and continued to do so until she was 21.
In those days, there were no buildings at the fairgrounds and animals were walked and shown out in the open, rather than in an arena, she said.
Lawler has attended the fair almost every year, since she was in 4-H, so she has witnessed the changes in the competitions.
“Before we didn’t know much about showing animals,” she said. “We just cleaned them up and walked them around. Now there are all kinds of tricks.”
Among those are using hair spray and back-combing a horse’s tail to make it fluffy, putting shoe polish on hooves to make them darker and shinier, and keeping fans on cattle all year long.
For Lawler, showing animals in 4-H taught her some lifelong lessons.
“You learn how to get along with everybody,” she said. “In the ’50s, when you’re on a farm, you didn’t get out much — just school, church and the farm. Through 4-H I learned that people that didn’t live on farms had different kinds of lifestyles. I met so many people and still have friends now that I met at that time.”
Find Melanie D. Hayes on Facebook and @MelanieDHayes on Twitter or call 648-4250.
4-H Fair
Related Photos
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Megan Green, 11, gives her hog Patches a drink while washing him during the 4-H Fair on Tuesday. Washing hogs is part of the daily routine of caring for the animals. Don Knight
Discussion
Raising, showing animals is hard work
Experiences teach kids many lessons
- 4-H Fair
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Horses big part of 4-Hers life
Nine-year-old Micah Hardy, like many 4-Hers, has never known a life without horses. Her mother joked that her daughter was even on a horse before she was born as she rode while she was pregnant with the girl.
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Souped up and ready to go
It isn’t much of a spectator sport but the competitors readying their garden tractors for the decades-old pull sure do enjoy it. “It’s not that exciting to sit and watch,” joked Wayne Richards, the coordinator for this year’s Garden Tractor Pull at the Madison County 4-H Fair. “But it is a lot of fun to be a part of.
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More to 4-H than livestock
Don’t go into Exhibit Hall just to escape the sweltering heat at the Madison County 4-H Fair. 4-Hers like Tressia Phipps and Jackie Lieurance want you to go there to appreciate the hundreds of projects on display inside that air-conditioned building.
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Teen loves her pigs — and lets them go
In her fifth year of 4-H, Cheyenne Morgan is part of the Grand Champions Club. This year she won two reserve-champion ribbons, a third, two fifths and a sixth place and showed six hogs.
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Midway rides thrill fairgoers
Despite the heat and the storms, the midway at the Madison County 4-H Fair has a lot to offer for Alexandria and the rest of Madison County. Between classic fair food and new and returning rides, the fair has delivered another carnival for the entire area.
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At 4-H Fair, responsibility an age-old component
For Isaac Mohr and his brother, Cade, of Pendleton, raising and showing their animals for 4-H is about responsibility.
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Raising, showing animals is hard work
Showing animals in the Madison County 4-H Fair competitions is more than just strutting animals around an arena. There is a lot of hard work that goes into raising the animals, and then caring for and prepping them for the fair competitions.
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Frankton teen takes first attempt at 4-H competition in stride
Lexie Bousman is participating in her first Madison County 4-H Fair, and though her pet rooster, "Quail Bird," didn’t fare well with the judges, the bird was still a hit in other ways.
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Struggling to find the cool at the fair
As temperatures once again soared into the mid-90s on Monday, finding effective ways to keep animals and their humans cool became job one at the Madison County 4-H Fair.
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Rising early to get rabbits ready
By the time you read this Tuesday, Emilee Hollingsworth will have been up for hours, prepping and primping, cleaning and clipping the nails of her 18 rabbits, readying them for judging at the Madison County 4-H Fair.
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