Showing livestock is family affair
By Turner Walston
Published in News on September 25, 2005 2:06 AM
By TURNER WALSTON
News-Argus Staff Writer
For some competitors, showing livestock is a family affair.
"We do a little bit of everything," Cindy Wheaton said. She's not kidding. Mrs. Wheaton and her 9-year-old daughter Amanda are regulars on the livestock show circuit.
This past week, they showed goats and horses at the Wilson County Fair.
Mrs. Wheaton, a 4-H director, has been showing horses since the 1980s. She's currently showing Pathfinder's Miss Kitty, a saddled mule.
"I used to show all through the show season, which is spring, summer and fall," Mrs. Wheaton said. "In the '80s, I showed just about every weekend at the open horse shows. The county fair was kind of an extension of that."
Amanda is in the fourth grade at Brogden Primary School.
"We've been naming the goats that we show at the sale 'Bank Account,' because the money goes into her savings account," Mrs. Wheaton said.
Amanda has been practicing daily leading up to this season's shows, her mother said.
"Just practicing leading and setting them up, where they're standing properly and brushing," she said.
Mrs. Wheaton said Amanda shows livestock for the fun.
"I think she enjoys being with the other kids and their goats. She just enjoys the socialization."
The night before the show, Amanda and her mother will wash horses and go over a showmanship pattern. Then, they will lay out show clothes and load the trailers.
"That would be our ritual," Mrs. Wheaton said.
Amanda is not the nervous type, her mother said.
"She's been doing it long enough," she said. "She's a very outgoing child."