Smiles in every barn at the Holmes County Fair
It really didn't matter which animal barn you visited at the Holmes County Fair last week. The youngsters' faces and names changed, and the animals differed, but the results were the same. Smiles were all around, and this was before judging, before the market sales.The fair was in progress, and that's all these dedicated 4-Hers cared about. They had worked for months to prepare for the county fair, and they were determined to enjoy every last minute of it.
Surprisingly, their joy wasn't about winning or losing. Instead, the qualities they mentioned that brought them satisfaction were cooperation, responsibility, learning, and effort. Add that all up, and it equaled accomplishment. After all, they couldn't all win a blue ribbon or grand champion.
For the 15-year old Rebekah Schonauer, it was all about the experience. The West Holmes High School sophomore was happy just to get to show her Brown Swiss.
"You don't realize all the work that goes into it until you actually do it," Schonauer said. She explained that prior to showing her cow for judging she had to clip or trim the cow's coat and wash it, too.
"Being in 4-H is a good opportunity because we get to learn about dairy farming," she said. Schonauer, who leases her cow from Open Roads Farms near Glenmont, also had two other cows and a market hog at the fair.
"It keeps me pretty busy," Schonauer said matter-of-factly. She is a member of the Udder Ends 4-H club. Steve and Carol Watts, owners of Open Roads Farms, are advisors for the club.
William Hughes, Watts' grandson, is a member of the same club. The 12-year old seventh grader at West Holmes Middle School had something besides his Brown Swiss on display at the fair. The soft-spoken young man took the first-place awards he had won recently at the Ohio State Fair in the Junior Brown Swiss Showmanship division.
When asked what set his cow apart from the others, Hughes gave the cow all the credit. "She just set up faster than the others," he said. "I just used the halter and my hand to lead."
Hannah Hypes, 12, is an eight grader at West Holmes Middle School. Her eyes welled up with tears when she spoke about selling her market hog, Diablo. She bought the pig at 66 pounds in mid-May, and it weighed 240 at the sale. This was her third year at the fair as a 4-Her, and second year of showing hogs. Her older sister, Lindsay, also had a hog at the fair.
"Hogs were the only large animal we could do," she explained. "We keep them in our barn and practice walking them around the field that surrounds the barn." She is a member of Millersburg Explorers 4-H club.
"I thought I knew more about hogs than I did," Hypes said of her experience. "There is a lot of responsibility to keeping a hog."
Ashley Simpkins, 12, is a sixth grader at West Holmes Middle School and is in her second year of showing. She is a third generation 4-Her and is a member of the Doughty Valley 4-H club.
She petted her rabbit, Black, non-stop. It must have worked. Black won Grand Champion Polish Breed in 2009 at the fair.
"Animals are my life," Simpkins said. She also has a miniature Paint horse due to birth a colt next week.
Simpkins said the show judge checked the rabbit's teeth, coat, skin and claws to insure quality care. She said she arrived early each day and stayed late, but not overnight at the fair.
Still, she took her two-hour shift of watching all the rabbits in her barn while the other 4-Hers enjoyed the rest of the fair. That was typical of the cooperation the 4-H members exhibited.