Provincial 4-H Beef Heifer Show

Yesterday I got to head down to Olds to help judge at the Alberta Provincial 4-H Beef Heifer Show. This was a program my sister and I grew up attending, and have many fond memories of. Crystal had 2 Reserve Champion Females, we had many breed champions, several aggregate wins. We learned how to do show ring judging and about color coordinating outfits while doing this. Jenine and Garth were always the 2 best in this department! And most recently I have memories of having my front teeth knocked out during what was supposed to be a fun night of being hypnotized...

This trip however, I was down helping being an official judge for the judging competition as well as for the marking competition. It was really fun to get back and see some of the kids. It sure does make you feel old when kids who were just born when you were showing are now senior members and almost out of the program.

In the judging competition, there are classes with 4 animals in which the kids must place and give reasons on why they think that they should be placed that way. There is an official judge for the class who will place the animals 1-4 and then there will be people who will listen to the kids reasons. The kids are given a score out of 50 on how closely they placed the class to the official, and then a score out of 50 on their reasons. The perfect score is 100, but I have only seen this achieved a few times in my life.

The kids also got to participate in a team grooming competition. I was not helping with this, but it is still fun to watch the kids in this competition. They are placed on teams of 2, most of the times they do not know their partner before hand. The teams get 15 mins to groom the animal just like it was to be shown in the ring right after. They are judged on their knowledge of what they are doing, how well they do the work, if they work together as a team and how much they are able to change the animal (hide their faults) with their grooming.

It was great to be able to give back to a program that I have been able to take so much from. Everything from life lessons and great friends, to steer cheques to pay for cars and life long friends. There are many memories that I will forever cherish, and it is great to be able to go back and see the next generation continuing where we left off.