Our favorite Garfield County Family returned this year to purchase a goat.

The only difference was that this time it was Gia—rather than her brother, Santi—who wanted to show! Whereas Santi had shown our goats for two seasons before, now Gia thought it was her turn.

Gia has shown pigs and sheep in the past. But this would be her first time showing goats.

So we picked out a real sweet boy—Pat—for her. Here’s Gia holding Pat.

Gia picking out Pat

Gia went back home and Pat did some growing. Here he is with his Mom about three weeks before Gia returned to pick him up.

Pat and his Mom

Gia spent quite a bit of time with Pat teaching him how to lead and stand properly for the show. She took good care of him.

Gia practicing with Pat

When it came time for the fair, we were looking forward to going to Rifle. Then we learned that the show is no longer on Wednesday, but had been changed to Thursday.

Since we had a prior commitment on that day, we had to miss the goat show. We were sad about that! Fortunately, she sent us some pictures.

Here she is clipping and washing Pat.

Gia clipping and washing Pat

Then Gia went bravely into her first show. Great job, Gia!

Gia showing Pat

From what we heard, the Judge did not do a very good job with the 4-H kids. Usually, we do our best to respect the judges’ opinions at all the fairs. But we heard this individual said some very negative and unnecessary things to the students, which we feel is unacceptable.

It’s one thing to have an opinion. It’s another to forget that you’re there to help the kids.

Nevertheless, what matters is that Gia had the experience of raising and showing a goat. No matter the outcome at the show, no one can take that away from her!

We hope she won’t let what a judge said hold her back—and will try it again another year. We are certainly cheering her on!

Garfield County Fair was our last goat show this year.

That’s always sad as we really enjoy going to visit with the families that have purchased goats from us and seeing how they do in the shows.

We met up with our favorite Garfield County Family in Rifle on Thursday, July 27th. This family really loves their animals as you can tell by the great way they feed trim, and ready them for the shows.

Hondo, their wether this year, was 43 pounds when they picked him up in March. On fair day in July, he weighed 100 pounds!

Santi and his family selected him in January. They came back in March to pick him up—when he was old enough to leave his Mom. 

Here is Santi literally “picking up” Hondo to take home!

Santi works with his animals to get them ready for the show ring. Here he is at his home spending time teaching Hondo to stand for the judge.

When Santi came into the Showmanship Class with Hondo, Gerald and I were thrilled to see how much his showing skills had improved. He was positioning Hondo very well and Honda was responding to him, making it clear they had worked together a lot.

Santi is the tall one in the middle.

It was a shame that Santi’s work wasn’t rewarded with a ribbon in Showmanship cause we certainly thought he deserved one. Sometimes judges are wise in their decisions. Other times…well, let’s just say we reserve the right to disagree!

Look at how great Hondo looks under Santi’s direction!

Then came Hondo’s market goat class. He just looked beautiful walking along so nice with Santi.

The judge put Hondo third—a mystery to us since the goat she put in second place was down on her pasterns? (A definite no-no according to the American Boer Goat Association.)

No doubt another judge another day would have placed the animals differently. But that’s part of the learning experience in 4-H. The real value lies in building character. At least that’s what we say when these things happen!

We were so proud of Santi. We certainly noticed all the work he put into training Hondo and how much he had improved his own skills, as well. 

Next year will even be better yet!