A long time ago, Tod and I made a goal/dream of
bringing our own cattle with our own prefix on them to Denver. We didn't
know when the time would be right or if it would ever be right but it was
definitely a stage we had hoped to walk on some day. The possibility
became a little more realistic for us after our 2014 calf crop began to arrive
and take shape and we discussed all spring and summer that this MIGHT be the
year we give it a go.
What lie ahead of us from there on out was
unknown. A lot of unknown. What we did know was how little we
knew! As we began to discuss the trip, we questioned our sanity more
often than not. Everything we THOUGHT or PLANNED on turned out different
than we had expected. From the heifers we would take to how the
sale went on Friday night; not a single, solitary detailed went as
planned. Now I'm the first to admit, I'm as hard headed as they come but
I'm not a fool. I can learn. And boy did we ever. We asked for help
and probably alienated every connection we had that had been an exhibitor in
the yards before us. And you know what, every single one of them was as
helpful as we hoped. The tips. The tricks of getting in and out of
there. How to set up our pen. What to bring and what to just buy
there instead of hauling 1000 miles...I cannot even begin to count the number
of questions we asked and the pieces of information that trickled in over a 4
or 5 month period that when all put together, made us not feel (or look, in my
humble opinion) like the first timers we were. Are there things we would
change now after having been through it once ourselves?? I think there
are some notes we have made that might make things a little less chaotic but
overall; the time leading up to and while in Denver has been grand champion
caliber in our books to say the least.
So the Readers Digest version of the trip goes
something like this: We spent 10 nights away from our children, farm and
jobs to try and make a dream come true. We took 7 head (2 pens of 3
heifers and one Charlie the bull). I will be frank; this was a ridiculous
undertaking. We have kind of always realized this but what made this
doable was our crew. Tod and I, a NWSS veteran who wields clippers like
few others and 4 young women who make me proud. The days before and of
the show and sale were wild but some first class friends from home (who
happened to bring their clippers on the airplane) and some new friends from the
Midwest made the whole deal come together in an unexpected way. That crew
afforded Tod and I the opportunity to try and meet and talk to everyone who
took the time to come and see us. Before this year, I don't think we
fully realized how much time that would take us and how much we would rely on
the rest of our crew to keep our ship afloat. We also had consigned the
choice of our 6 heifers to our national Hereford sale with hopes that the sale
would pay for our trip and what we would gain would be experience (and courage)
to try it again another year.
For me, the journey has been an emotional
one. For Tod too although he doesn't wear it on his sleeve like I
do. The kind man who bought our heifer asked me why I was crying (yeah, I
cried), "are you happy or are you sad?" I told him both.
I was sad because he picked the favorite. The favorite because when all
things were considered (with heavy emphasis on her personality) she was the one
that was hardest to part with. She was great for our kids. She gave
our daughter self-confidence with the cattle she had yet to discover and
reinforced our son's. She was the one you could always rely on for the
novice. When the heifers had to be worked and you were short of hands,
she was the one that the kids could take without worry. Explaining that
their favorite had a new home left me sad. I was happy though because
everything that Tod and I had dreamed had come true. And just when you
thought it couldn't get any better/bigger, it did. I was in disbelief
that this was all happening. That people I had literally looked up to my
ENTIRE life in this business; whose names I would probably recognize before any
professional athlete or pop star were standing in the same group of people as
us. That those people who we look up to (still) were looking seriously at
our cattle and that some of them were even helping us throughout the
week. I couldn't believe we had accomplished this dream. And when I
reflected on all of it, what I realized was sad too because our dream of
showing in Denver seemed so small then.
Happy to have done it all but sad it was all
coming to an end. At least for NWSS 2015 anyway. We are well aware
of the fact that what happened to us in Denver this year may never happen
again. At least not at the magnitude that we felt it. But the
number one question I get now is, will you do it again next year? After
all the work and time and efforts and even the headaches (and
heartaches)...will you try it again? And without hesitation, the answer
is yes.
