Ally at the Fair!

Ally survived her first county fair. She was a bit tired and wondered if she would ever get to sleep in again, but she had a great experience. We hauled in her steer, Curly and her heifer, Roadrunner on Tuesday and hauled home Sunday. We were up before 6 each morning to do chores here and then head to the fair by 7 to feed, water and muck stalls.

Curly decided in the last week to charge Ally with his head! Not me, just anyone under 5 feet tall. He is a big pet and pain in the butt all in one. One morning we turned him out in the show ring to let him run and buck and he decided to snot and chase Ally up a fence. A mothers heart can not take that!

Ultimately he got his wits about him and was perfect in the ring with her... which is a good thing since he outweighs her by 1173 pounds. He snores with his head up when you scratch his belly with a show stick. He also burps a lot. I guess its all the corn and grain.

Wednesday was the beef show which lasted most of the day. She showed Curly in the middle weight steer class, he weighed in at 1253lbs. He was 2nd in his class to the steer who would end up being the Supreme Champion steer and Ally did a great job showing him. You wouldn't know this was her very first show. She even went back in for Champion 4H steer (and didn't win).

Mid day she had showmanship where she placed 3rd in novice and moved up to intermediate. By then both she and Curly were tired and cranky, but they hung in there are did well.

Crazy witch, Roadrunner spooked at some kids while I was holding her and she took me down. It was shortly after that I gave up on her and took her back to her stall. I didn't want any kid getting hurt. As it was she kicked one of our 4H clubs kids and left a softball sized bruise. I don't have anything nice to say about her right now. I am very much looking forward to branding her and sending her up to the ranch this week to be a cow. Never again will I spend some much time trying to gentle and halter break a cow who just has a mean streak and a bad attitude!!

I can not conclude this fair blog without including the crazy boys. They have a Barnyard Scramble where they turn loose lots of farm critters; chickens, ducks, baby goats, bunnies, etc. and then they let loose hundreds of kids who get to keep one animal they catch. For your PETA folks, they get to trade the critter in for ride tickets if they don't want it or cant properly care for it. Dylan and his friend Austin got chickens! Oh boy. Thankfully grandma really wanted chickens.