Personal Narrative Essay At The Calf Scramble

I couldn’t wait to show Prince (my steer) his nickname is “Boom Cow” because he’s awesome. We were fitting him and I was in charge of the clippers, this is going to be a disaster when I picked up the buzzing, shaky clippers. I was starting to get rushed and people were surrounding me everywhere. It was so crowded it was like Black Friday in November. I finally finished and it wasn’t so bad. We put on the slick, fancy, shiny black show halter. I could hear the announcer “final call for class 2 of CrossBred steers.” I have to admit I was getting pretty nervous because there was really good quality steers in my class. I lined up stroking Prince with my show stick very gently because if you scratch him to hard he gets CRANKY. Then finally it's time to go into the

My mom and dad taught me to never give up and to work hard and be dedicated to the things I have passion for and success will come in one form or another. Working summers on an orchard, participating in 4H and FFA, and being a three sport athlete taught that valuable life lesson. A red ribbon at the fair in fourth grade prompted me to start JKO Clubs Lambs the following year. I breed and raise lambs for my 4H and FFA projects and sell to local 4H kids. I can’t keep up with the purchase demand and I earned grand champion in market class with my lambs at ten of the last twelve fairs that I competed. This did not come without hard work, trial and error, and lots of tears along the way. Being very small in build, I was told by many when I

He was walking just fine, the confidence and swagger, then a jolt flew me forward. Why, he was doing so good on his third walk outside the barn. He suddenly stopped and started backing up, he wouldn’t stop. Why is he doing this? He swung his head forcing my 105 pound body skyward. There was nothing I could do but hold on and hope for the best. I hit the ground with a THUD, the rope sliding away from my hands, the calf running wild and free. Owning and training a 4-H calf is a very difficult task. You have to have many materials including; a pen, shelter, and proper nutrition. You go through times where it is hard to carry on. Feelings are something you have to overcome. It takes a lot of hard work and if someone is not willing to give it then it’s probably not for them.

The second day we managed to get a halter on him bucking, tossing and jerking around like a small boat on a stormy sea. It was also, on the second day that I decided on a name for the powerful stormy gray steer, I named him Blue. By day three, I managed to tie him up, stroke him with the show stick, and brush his coat. On day four, I had a mentor help me walk him to the wash rack to give him a bath. The steer tried to break free on the way to the wash rack but I managed to control him. An hour was spent on grooming him and when I was finished he walked willingly back to his pin. By the end of the first week with Blue he was eating apple slices out of my hand and standing still while I groomed him. I still have much work to do and I’m looking forward to the

In continuation, I raised a young heifer from the time she was three weeks old. She got immensely dehydrated and ill the day after birth and when she returned home from the vet her mother didn’t recognize her and abandoned the calf. I happily took this calf, Summer Rae, and raised her for show. Although I didn’t receive any grand awards it was still a stunning experience for both Summer and I. Not only did I receive a prepossessing young heifer to raise, but I gained a best friend.

“Cross Country? What do you do, run from South Carolina to California?” I remember asking my brother this when he told me what sport he participated in. I was in seventh grade, but it was past the time I could sign up for it that year; however, the next year I decided to give it a shot. This one decision in middle school shaped the next five years of my life.

By the fourth time my horse, Ruby, bucked me off, I had hit the ground enough times to finally get some sense nocked into me. Ruby was my most recent training project. It was late spring and I had gotten her the previous fall as an unstarted two-year-old. She has always been an especially sensitive mare, which at the time, made her an extra flighty filly. Out of the six horses I have started, Ruby was the only one to ever buck me off, and not just once, but four times.

Life handed me lemons, but I could not make lemonade. May of 2016 I decided to go with a Black Angus heifer who was not people friendly. This heifer was beyond ready to kill me or one of my siblings. Once we realized she was too crazy we took her back and went the complete opposite direction. I was so excited to bring home eight hundred pound Princess Belle the Charolais heifer. Within a few short days Belle was walking on a halter, cleaning up eight pounds twice a day, and got to memorizing her new routine. We had many goals to meet for our first show and we weren’t letting anything stop us. August rolled around and that meant school was starting, cheering on the sidelines, and our first show was only a few weeks away. Pushing harder and

“How? I… We thought you had…” he trails off, his smile fading, and his hand finds the back of his neck.

Ever since I was 10 one topic has always fascinated me, hunting. Even though I grew up in the city and have only gone hunting 3 times, I've always loved doing it. I’ve only ever got one deer, it was a doe. I got it the opening day for 2017 (Nov. 15).

Five years ago at the age of 9, I had just started showing sheep at the Union fair. I named my first lamb Cupcake, I did not know a lot about how to show a lamb, but I tried. For my first show, I received fourth place out of eight lambs, most of these 4-Her’s had showed before. My uncle was very proud of me, when I received fourth place in my class. A week later, I was off to the New Haven Fair and I achieved third place out of ten lambs. About a month later, I was headed to Washington Town and Country Fair. On Thursday, I received ninth place out of ten lambs in my class. A couple of days later on a Saturday, we had to sell our animals. I sold her to a company named Ck Cranes. Once, he had bought my lamb, we took pictures. My

“Go take a shower, you smell like a horse,” has been said to me numerous times by my family in the 13 years I have been surrounded by the horse industry. Competing in hunter and jumper shows throughout Virginia and Florida has held weight outside of merely riding and taught me the idea of banishing any shreds of arrogance, thinking before acting, and accepting and learning from small failures. These lessons may be applied to every aspect of life but they did not outweigh how much I would discover about future.

Spending the frosty morning in the deer stand where you are on the hunt for the big one. Sends a medley of the sights and sounds. The birds talking like humans carrying on a conversation , the quail scatter for cover as they hear the footsteps on the crisp frozen grass. As you play the waiting game when you see a mom and her baby prancing around the field like two dancers on a stage, as the day goes on you see the big one walking out with his head held high and his chest puffed out knowing he is the biggest one out there. I play the quiet game knowing if I make a sound he would be gone like he was never there, raising my rifle slowly and steady looking through the scope, putting the crosshairs behind his shoulder, squeezed the trigger as your

I woke up early to go hunting, but my brother had to go with me. So, JJ and I went hunting. I saw a deer and shot it with my bow that I made out of a tree branch. I got the fur from the deer and made boots, gloves, and a coat.

The first day I tried to put them on a holter and they were kicking and fight so I let them get calmed down them I would try. The next day I wake up to the roar of two hungry steers so I get up and go out and smelled the sweet smell of the feed when I’m pouring it into the bucket. I got in the pen with the steers and they walked up to me.