Tag Archives: goat show

Big E 2024

Thursday 9/26 through Sunday 9/29 was our annual pilgrimage to Springfield, MA with a herd of goats. On Thursday afternoon, Quinn and Amanda checked in at the Big E with 9 goats for the 4-H portion of the event which includes milk test, showmanship, fitting, breed competitions and more. Rob was a chaperone for CT young men and stayed in the dorms at the Big E with all the kids. This was Quinn’s final event in 4-H based on aging out.

Friday morning was the showmanship competition which focuses on things such as goat knowledge, correct handling of the goat, and understanding of the scorecards. After lunch, the kids went in the ring again for a fitting competition that focused exclusively on the preparation of the animal. There were a total of 53 youth present this year from the 5 of 6 New England States (none from VT) which is an increase from recent years. Quinn placed 3rd of 12 in showmanship and was in the bottom half for fitting. Amanda was 2nd of 14 in showmanship and also in the bottom half for fitting. Clearly our kids prefer the knowledge portion over the time required to do well in fitting.

On Saturday, the goats were shown in breed classes. Unfortunately, there was only 1 other junior Lamancha present (Carolina’s kid from last year) so there wasn’t much competition. That said, the goats looked great. Bitterblue’s LSD Phaylene took Champion Senior doe, CH (pending) Majenli LK Carolina took Best of Breed, and Sawfish AS Tesla took Champion Junior Doe. This trip to the Big E was Phaylene’s final show as she is being retired at the age of 9. The real win of the day was when CH (pending) Majenli LK Carolina was chosen as Best Senior Doe in Show out of the ~75 seniors.

At the awards ceremony, Quinn was presented with the Ruby Morris 4-H Scholarship for $2000 towards college.

Once awards wrapped up, some of the youth left while new herds came in for the Open Show on Sunday. We received Lucky 4-Leaf E Red Hot Chili’s awards for winning Recorded Grade Best of Breed twice at the Nutmeg show from May. Chili approved of the mugs.

The Open show was quick and fun. Luck 4-Leaf Red Hot Chili took second in her class of 2yo Recorded Grades. We are hoping she continues to mature as we expect and think she will be a competitive 3yo.
Fox’s Pride had some very nice 2yo does in milk that took Champion and Reserve, and Carolina was second to CH Argonne’s Khaos in Best of breed.

In in the Junior Show, Sawfish QS Mina swept the competition as the youngest junior doe to earn herself a restricted leg towards her championship as Junior Lamancha Champion.

At the final awards ceremony, Amanda received the Lamancha Premier Breeder plate based on the number of points her does acquired throughout the day!

A bit quiet

It’s been 2 months since we made a blog post. Not too much has been happening around here, but we thought we should share an update regardless. School started back in August.

Huey is officially retiring as a riding pony and we have a better harness on order for him. We are keeping an eye out for a nicer cart for him, probably a type of two wheeled road cart. The goal for Huey will be distance driving and pleasure driving with a possible CDE. The last weekend in August, we took Huey to a driving clinic with the Barre Riding and Driving Club in MA on Saturday.

On Sunday that weekend we showed goats at the Brooklyn fair. Rob won adult showmanship!

Labor Day weekend we took Huey to a get together with the Connecticut Valley Driving Club to work on cones and marathon style obstacles at a local farm.

Taking care of the farm has been on the back burner this summer and we have a few unfinished projects that need our attention before winter sets in. The first work weekend was mid-month. We tore down two rotten three board fence lines and replaced them with no climb and top boards and painted everything that was wood white. It looks great.

We spent the next weekend replacing two main posts holding up the back side of the barn and adding support skirts to keep the dirt inside the stalls. This included replacing most of the siding and taking off all the boards lining the stall walls, as well, since we had to strip the boards off to get to the framework.

Mojo is getting his own harness and learning to drive. Rob bought a project marathon cart that needs some work on the brakes, and the goal is to have Mojo driving next spring. He already ground drives and long lines, and we have skijoured off of him, so I think he is game.

The weekend of 9/24-25 Rob, Anna, and Amanda decided to take a staycation break. We camped out at Arcadia in RI. It was a joint event hosted by NEATO and West Greenwich Horsemen’s Association. We are members of both. Unfortunately, NEATO is folding due to lack of membership and no new leadership willing to step in, and this was a Farewell Ride for NEATO.

Quinn and Alex came over to ride Mojo and Amira Saturday morning, but had their own plans for the rest of the weekend. Rob drove Huey with Amanda on Saturday and drove Huey alongside our friend Melissa and her mini on Sunday, totaling 19 miles of driving in 2 days. Amanda rode Mojo with Anna on Amira on Sunday, giving Mojo and Amira about 25 miles over the 2 days. Amanda got some hammock time.

That week, on Thursday through Saturday, Quinn took Phaylene, Jasmine, and Pepper to the Eastern States Exposition (Big E) for the 4-H Youth Show. They had a nice time, earning second place in Fitting, and Phaylene won best senior lamancha, while Pepper won best junior lamancha. They learned a lot and plan to attend next year (Amanda will also be old enough to attend). Quinn was asked to join the advisory committee for the show for next year.

Amanda was chosen to be one of the two middle school representative to the board of education. She attends meetings about once a month to give an update on what is happening in Griswold Middle School. Luckily, she doesn’t have to stay for the whole meeting.

Earlier in the summer, Amanda attended the Green Mountain Conservation Camp in VT and completed her hunter safety courses. She has been practicing on the skeet field and is now carrying her own 20ga shotgun; she took her first pheasant last weekend.

Rob and Amanda took Huey to a pleasure drive in Litchfield CT at the White Memorial park last weekend. It was a gathering of 3 different driving clubs and they drove Huey 7.5 miles.

Last year, Amanda and Anna won the West Greenwich Horseman’s Association pumpkin/vegetable decorating contest at the annual Fall Fest potluck. This year, Amanda created an “Under the Sea” scene with a sea anemone, clown fish, and octopus and successfully defended her title. Anna also won best dessert.

Other than that, it’s been pretty quiet around here.

North Stonington Fair 2014

It was an exhausting weekend as we kicked off the 2014 fair season with the North Stonington Fair.

Thursday, 8 rabbits reported for show duty and spent the weekend looking pretty for the masses.

Friday, Anna and the kids spent the day washing goats, washing horses, and Anna was up past midnight braiding manes.  Saturday morning, we loaded the trailer and headed to the horse show.

Amanda rode on Huey in the lead line class.

 

Jack, one of Anna’s students, also rode lead line on Devil.  Vicki rode Devil in the walk-trot classes along with her best friend, Alexis, who was on Huey.  Alexis actually beat Vicki for the walk-trot championship (in her first show ever).  It does Vicki good to get taken down a peg every now and then.  Alex has no interest in the ride around the arena classes, however, he was keen to ride in the Gymkhana classes.  He did the mounted games at the 4-H show in May with Dakota, so we let him do it again, only this time, we let him canter Dakota.  He did come close to the fastest times, but he maintained control and had fun doing it.  He even decided to add-on a 1 walk-trot-canter class for the day.

 

After the horse show, the kids put on their new Barnyard Buddies 4-H shirts to walk around a few minutes, but needed a food and drink break.  Ruth is another one of Anna’s students who came along for the day to watch Amanda, but seemed to get bitten by the show bug and is talking about getting more serious in her plans with King.

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Sunday was the goat show.  We had 11 goats with 5 kids (Alex, Vicki, Amanda, Alexis, and Selena) our herd.  Amanda got to show Sprout in Pee-Wee showmanship and the Pet class.  Another long day, but everyone had a good time and Alex is actually starting to get more into the goats.  Sawyer Farm’s Onyx won Best Jr Lamancha and Sawyer Farm’s Sequoia won best Jr Recorded Grade.

 

Throughout the afternoon, WCTY was doing karaoke next to the goat show, and the kids were constantly on stage giving it a try.  Amanda and her friend Lily spent almost all afternoon on stage.

2 weeks until the next fair!

North Stonington fair weekend

This weekend was the North Stonington fair. We had rabbits that spent Thursday-Sunday at the fair. Vicki showed Devil and WON the walk trot division on Saturday. I showed King; we had fun and won a class, but didn’t do great overall. Unfortunately, King was lame after the show from a coronary band injury, likely sustained while evading Huey in the pasture.
Sunday was the goat show. This was only the second time the kids showed goats; the first was the same faerie last year. After a difficult showmanship class for each of them, things improved. They both had fun and resolved to learn more to be better prepared for showmanship at the 4H fair in 2 weeks.
Here are some pictures from the weekend.  027  Rob and Amanda on Devil for lead line029 Rob and King  042 Vicki and Devil 047 Vicki getting awards 051 Vicki and Amanda 062

Rob and King

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Vicki and Amanda with Devil

Alex and Onyx

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Vicki and Pocohontas

Alex and Diamond

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Alex and Vicki with Poco and Ruby in the Daughter and Dam class

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Alex and Diamond

A lot of Firsts!

Alex had his first horse show at the North Stonington Fair!  He rode Precious in 3 walk-trot classes and got 2-4ths and a 3rd.  His favorite part? Getting the ribbons.

Vicki had her first horse show at the North Stonington Fair! She rode King in a lead line class, with me as the lead holder.  She got third and can’t wait to show more.  She is actually ready to show in walk-trot, but Devil needs a little more reovery time first.

Anna had her first student enter a show!  Kenzie rode Precious in the lead line class with Vicki.  It was also her first show ever and she had a ton of fun!

Since King was already there, I rode him in 5 classes.  I managed to get 1st in 2 of the classes and won Grand Champion in the English division.

6 of our rabbits got 1st place in the rabbit show at the North Stonington Fair, and one also got Runner Up for Open Show Champion!

After about a year of owning goats, we finally sold our first goat.  That was followed about 30 minutes later with our second and third sales of goats to a different family.

Tomorrow we will have our first goat show!  The main focus for tomorrow is to learn about showing and make sure Vicki and Alex have fun doing it.