COBDEN — A local 4-H participant returned home as the top showman from the All-Ontario Junior Sheep Expo, which was held in Ancaster this past weekend.
Kyla Ness received a large silver belt buckle, noting this is the first province-wide junior sheep show.
Since it wasn’t just club members from one local sheep club competing, Kyla said they went under the Renfrew County 4-H Sheep Club banner.
Besides herself, the other sheep club members were Brett Hamilton of Cobden, Samantha Austin of La Passe, Leigha Bennett of Foresters Falls, Autumn McIntyre of Shamrock (near Renfrew) and Jamie Callaghan.
Kyla said all but one member returned home with hardware.
Kyla was not only grand champion show person, but also champion senior show person and reserve champion Southdown.
Autumn was reserve champion Novice show person and was fourth in the team judging.
Brett was reserve senior judging; Samantha was champion intermediate judging and Leigha was Champion junior judging
When questioned what gave her the edge over the other participants, Kyla believes it’s because, “I never stop trying.”
Explaining, she noted the judge was taking a long time, which means you continuously had to set up your sheep.
The Renfrew County 4-H sheep clubs practice a lot, which helped them remain patient throughout the judging.
As for the judging component, that is also practiced.
“We even judged a cup one time,” she said with a laugh.
Kyla noted there were about 50 participants at the event, coming from Sarnia to Barrie to Cobden. She said since the expo is new, there were sheep events at other fairs, which other participants had already signed up for.
“This expo is like a pre-Royal Winter Fair event,” Kyla said. “It’s an opportunity to see our competition that could be at the fair.”
Kyla is hopeful the expo will grow, because it was another opportunity to meet new people and make new contacts in the sheep business.
The local 4-H clubs will be busy preparing for the upcoming fairs, including Cobden, Renfrew, Shawville, Russell, Richmond, Carp and Metcalf, before the grand finale –the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto in November.
