A week in the life of a Little American Royal participant

Alexis Cook, Corner Post staff

During the week of Oct. 14, the Block and Bridle sponsored a Little American Royal to give students a chance to take care of an animal for a week and go through all the preparations for showing it. These preparations included everything from feeding the animal to bathing it. It was a showmanship competition, focusing on the calmness of the person and not the appearance of the animal.

The contest featured three categories for showing: novice, intermediate and expert. I was placed in the novice division because I had never shown livestock before. This division made the competition fair for those who had never shown before. The week was an exciting, tiring and rewarding experience - so I kept a diary of my week so that others can see what it was like.

Monday, Oct. 14, 2002, 7:30 p.m.

After the brief introduction, we were separated into our species groups. The first thing on the agenda was choosing our heifers. It was crazy! I got a halter off the stack and timidly walked into the pen. The idea of having a 500-pound animal on a rope terrified me. It wasn't the animal itself - as I have worked cattle my whole life, but the idea of just me against this one animal scared me. Luckily, I wasn't alone as there were several girls who were also scared and several that were even scared of the heifer. This made it a hundred times worse for them.

As I looked around, I realized that I could choose from like 30 of these animals. I began to look to see how the others were going about catching one. I heard someone say to put the halter behind the ears first and then around the nose. I finally got the courage up to actually catch one of these beasts. I began to search out one whose head was facing me and to my horror, all I saw were tails!

Finally, one turned around and I pounced on it. Fortunately, it was fairly calm and only jumped a little as I wrangled the halter over its head. Success! Now that I had the wild beast caught, what was I to do with it?

Quickly, this question was answered as I saw others tying theirs to the rings on the wall. Of course, what else would rings on a wall be for? Finally I put out straw and food - something I was familiar with. I left the building tired and excited about what was to come.

Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2002, 7 a.m.

I awoke and saw the numbers on my clock. As they registered, I became slightly panicked. I had made plans last night with Jen down the hall to get up at 6:30 to feed our heifers. Now as I looked at the clock, the numbers changed and it was 7:01. I quickly jumped out of bed, threw my clothes on and pounded on Jen's door.

The two of us ran to Trowbridge to get our animals fed before our 8:00 class. I quickly threw out hay and dumped the grain on top and then I walked Betsy over to her watering pan. As soon as she was finished, I signed my initials to the feeding chart and off I went to catch a shower before Ag Econ.

Tuesday, Oct.15, 2002, 2:30 p.m.

The time had come for me to bond with my new friend. As I looked at Betsy, I figured that we should start small, so I took her out of her pen to water her. As she drank, I petted her back and figured she seemed calm enough that we could try to go out to the ring and walk around. Calm was right, because she was so calm, she didn't want to move at all!

I pulled and sweated and pulled some more on her halter and finally we were in the ring. I was too exhausted to do anything else. So we stood there, and I gave her a strong talking to about how when I pull, she should follow. After that, I timidly started walking around the ring, but Betsy was not in the least inclined to follow.

After three exhausting tries, my friend Jen said, "Here, come switch me calves."

So I took her calf, and to my amazement - it followed me when I pulled on her halter. It was an amazing feeling having an animal actually do what I wanted it to do. As I looked up, I saw an even more amazing sight: Betsy was following Jen! I was elated and switched her back. As I took Betsy's halter, I became determined that we would conquer this task at hand.
I gave Betsy the "I pull, you follow" speech again and gave her halter a pull - and she willingly went with me! Wow! We took some turns around the ring, which turned out to be very relaxing. The slow, relaxing walk around the ring was good after my stressful afternoon. Finally I took her back to her pen, fed her and left for the evening.

Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2002, 7 a.m.

I don't know what I was thinking. I had another 8:00 class and here it was 7:00 again, but it had worked yesterday so I figured it would work out again today. I again practically flew down to Trowbridge and threw out the hay and grain. But today, Betsy was in serious need of a stall cleaning. I quickly located a shovel and wheelbarrow, and I went to work scooping out Betsy's stall. I finished this task and dumped the wheelbarrow, then signed my initials and I was off to the shower.

Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2002, 5 p.m.

Today we were going to learn the "proper way to show." As the instructor showed us how to place the heifer's feet and how to hold its head, I began to wonder if Betsy was up to this. After the demonstration was finished, we were given the opportunity to try out our new information on our own animals. To my surprise, it was much easier than it looked.
Betsy took right to standing the proper way with only a few not-so-gentle nudges from me. We practiced walking in a circle and then stopping for about thirty minutes, then I took Betsy back to her stall, fed and watered her and I was on my way back to my dorm.

Thursday, Oct. 18, 2002, 5 p.m.

We had a really successful early morning checkup - I was in a good mood and so was Betsy. In the morning, I had jogged down to Trowbridge to take care of Betsy, and tonight, we were learning how to fit our animals. This was the part I was really dreading. I had friends who spent all their free time fitting animals. I figured this could take hours to do. To my surprise, all we really had to do was wash them and shave them. Also, cleaning out their ears and fluffing their tails was recommended. To further ease my mind, we were not supposed to shave our animals as we had no clippers that worked. This made it really simple. I led Betsy over to the shower room and scrubbed her up, then rinsed her off well, taking care that there was no leftover soap residue. Then I took Betsy back to her stall to dry and left for the day, after taking care to feed and water her.

Friday, Oct. 19, 2002, 7 a.m.

I went through the same routine: feed and water, then clean out the stall. As I finished, I began to think that I hadn't taken the time to lead Betsy around yesterday. I took her up to the ring and we walked in a few circles, just enough to ease my mind that she hadn't forgotten how. Then I sprinted back to my dorm for a shower before I began the day.

Friday, Oct. 19, 2002, 5 p.m.

Tonight, I fed and watered Betsy, and then I decided that she was a little dirty so I should wash her again. I led her back to the showers and really focused on getting her white spots white. When I finished with Betsy's shower, I left for the day, worry already knotting in my stomach about what was to come the next morning.

Saturday, Oct. 20, 2002, 7:30 a.m. "The Big Day"

Today was the big day! I woke amazingly calm for my lack of sleep and headed down to Trowbridge. I took care of the routine chores - yet again feeding and watering my heifer, and then I decided to give her one last shower. This last shower was a quick one where I just concentrated on the spots I thought looked dirty. Then I took Betsy back to dry and I headed upstairs to watch the showing begin.

This was a new experience for me as I had never seen a show before of any kind. The pig show was slightly comical - as even the experienced ones seemed to just be running after their pigs desperately trying to maintain any sort of order. After that, the beef cattle went. This was a lot more orderly as everyone concentrated really hard on looking just right as the judge walked by. As most of my friends were showing in this category, I paid close attention and was pleasantly surprised to find that they all did really well.

After that came the sheep, which went really quickly. So quickly, I almost was late for my event. I got Betsy out and gave her the pep talk about "when I pull, you follow." Then we were off. As I entered the ring, I became surprisingly calm. Betsy preformed wonderfully, and we didn't have any mishaps. As the judge began asking questions, I became slightly panicked, wondering if I had paid close enough attention to everything to know. Luckily she asked what month my heifer was born and I had noticed that it had been born in March. I let out a sigh of relief as the judge walked away.

I didn't get into the finals, but my friend Jen did. I took Betsy back to her stall and then I bid her a sad farewell. Then I hurried back upstairs to watch the horse showing, which was very structured.

Finally, the finals came. The winner from every section - experienced, intermediate and novice in each category - all had to come back and show every species. I was thankful that I didn't win because this was a scary prospect. I watched in admiration as my friends, new and old, took their turns at this. Then, the winner was announced - Cody Brock.

The experience of the Block and Bridal Little American Royal was really amazing to me - I made a lot of new friends and gained some really valuable life lessons along the way.

Diary originally posted 11/04/02

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