Gearing Up For County Fairs

Summer has always been my favorite season, especially fair weeks. I exhibited animals and projects at Stoughton Fair and the Jefferson County Fair, which were always the first two weeks of July. It was a crazy busy time for my family, but so fun and rewarding. All of my favorite memories are from fair weeks and it’s where I met some of my best friends from all over the county. 

Preparing projects for the fair takes a lot of hard work, time, and money; especially for animal projects. Depending on the species, you begin training your animal anywhere from 3 months to 10 months before the fair. You have to train them how to properly walk and behave at the fair and in the show ring, and expose them to louder noises and groups of people beforehand so they get used to that. You’re constantly researching and making changes to their diet based on their nutritional needs, on top of their basic animal care needs.

The countless hours spent training the animals is so rewarding in the end. Being able to show off your animal in the ring and get the judges’ placings after putting in all of your hard work makes it worth it. Even in the years that I didn’t place as high as I’d like I still had a great time and valued the experience, and was able to take the knowledge gained into the next year. 

My senior year of showing in 2020 was canceled due to the pandemic. I was so upset, and it still makes me sad to think about it. Thankfully, I’m still able to help out the younger kids in our community with their animal projects. I get just as excited and nervous when they enter the ring as I did when I was showing. I love that I’m able to pass down some of my knowledge and get to be a part of the whole fair scene, even if it is from the sidelines.