Showing cattle was where I invested most of my time between the ages of 9 and 18. Sure, raising and selling show cattle was a huge part of my family’s business at the time, but it was truly something I enjoyed from selecting the calves I wanted to show, to the daily care and work associated with showing animals. I experienced enough success in the show ring to make me proud and enough not so successful days to make me keep working. There were dozens of lessons learned in the showring and even more while preparing for the showring. It has been quite some time since I have been on the end of a halter at a show, but the lessons continue from a new perspective.
Recently I had the opportunity to help with our district cattle show, which gave me a front row seat to the heifer and steer shows. I would be negligent if I did not say that the quality of cattle at the Northwest District Show in Woodward, Okla. was (and always has been) top notch. Since I have covered those bases I will move on to the my focus – the kids. My role for the day was selecting just a handful of beef exhibitors that I felt deserved a showmanship award. THAT was no easy task, but by the final breed champion drive of the heifer show, I had compiled my list of those that had impressed me throughout the day. I placed my list in a manilla folder and set it aside to watch the selection Champion Commercial Heifer.
The judge selected champion and reserve. Champion had just left the showring; something spooked the reserve champion heifer as she was leaving and she ended up getting loose. What caught the eye of most everyone was a little girl named Jillian who dropped the halter of her own heifer (on purpose) and walked calmly over to help a fellow exhibitor catch her heifer. When Jillian returned to her heifer it was still standing right where she left it. Show staff was blown away, the cattle judge publicly complimented little Jillian, and you know what . . . I opened the manilla folder back up! Jillian earned herself a showmanship award. She obviously had invested a lot of time into working with her heifer, she did a great job showing off her animal, but it was Jillian’s character that caught everyone’s attention.
I have been thinking about Jillian since I left the show on Monday and how she literally dropped what she was doing to help someone else. I am not sure if Jillian knew the other girl or not, but I would venture to guess that she did not and that makes this story even more impressive.
Often, I find myself having a hard time dropping what I am doing when my own children need help with something, let-a-lone dropping what I’m doing to help a perfect stranger. I am a person that is driven by visual progress. I love making lists and checking things off, painting walls, washing cars, mowing the yard, organizing…anything where I can SEE progress. The problem is, I have trouble stopping in the middle of something before it’s finished. . . that’s just the way I’m wired. It’s going to take some work on my part, but I’ll be purposefully watching for opportunities to ‘drop the halter’ and be more like Jillian.
Thank you, Jillian, for reminding me that it is not just okay to drop what you are doing, it’s healthy, it’s rewarding, it’s meaningful and it’s a sign of true character. Speaking of lists, I will add ‘dropping things’ to the list of things that I continue to learn from the showring.
