At the end of the 4-H year, we always had a regional show and sale where we would represent our club. If you’ve never seen the behind the scenes of a cattle show, I highly recommend finding a way to have this experience.
When I was in my junior, intermediate and senior years of 4-H, I took four animals to our regional show: a steer, a heifer and a cow-calf pair. On the first day of the show, we showed the females – meaning three of my four animals had to make it into the show ring that day. Starting bright and early at 5 a.m., we washed and dried our animals, so they were ready for grooming just before they went into the ring. If your animals won, sometimes you had to go right back into the show ring after you completed your last class.
Basically, on show days, you needed to do a lot of things, sometimes all at once, while also remembering to eat and drink. The rush of adrenaline certainly helped me get through some o