2010 FAIR SEASON BEGINS...

Madasan's 2010 Fair Season started this week. For the first time she will not be starting the show season in our county. Because of a conflict with the 4-States Livestock Show she decided to show in another county so she could participate in the 4-States Fair.

There is so much work that goes into getting ready for the BIG SHOW. The girls got their cattle in the show barn on Monday afternoon. They had to put shavings out for the cattle and do a little decorating. Madasan stays at the barn all day. She exercises her cattle, bathes them and sees that they have feed and water. All day spent in a cattle barn is so much fun (in my opinion...you can tell by my picture that I was already hot and with the sun coming in it makes me look like I am bald).

Madasan is showing an older heifer and a young bull. One of her friends, Shonda, is showing one of her heifers. She is hoping she has some winners this year.

She misses a week of school so she collects her assignments and does her homework during the down time at the barn.

She participates in the county, 4-States, district and state competition. This means she misses quite a bit of school but so far she has been able to keep up with her studies and her grades don't seem to suffer.

She shows her cattle on Wednesday night starting at 6:00 p.m. After the show she is required to keep her animals in the barn until Saturday night. That makes for a long week.

Sheyanne is attending college in DeQueen so she takes Madasan and a friend to the barn, she goes to class and then returns to the barn for the remainder of the day. Their mom goes over during the day and then both parents go over until bed time and bring the girls home.

Sheyanne no longer gets to show but is around to do some bossing and helping out.

**Madasan won Reserve Champion on her bull and heifer and Shonda won Reserve Champion at the Sevier County Fair. Madasan was disqualified in Showmanship because she decided to show the young heifer that she had raised that Shonda showed. One of the fair officials disqualified her because she was not showing one of the animals she showed in the show earlier. No one told her that this was not allowed. It seemed a little strange to me that she was disqualified for having the wrong animal since Showmanship is judging the child on their showmanship skills and has nothing to do with the animal.