◆ Adjusting to life’s challenges is 4H-101.

Clanci Osmond and her sister Cassidi each raise a steer and show a horse at the annual Lincoln County Fair.

It takes a lot of work to get steers and horses ready for showing. Steers weigh as much as 1,000 pounds by fair time, and it’s a challenge for an 80 pound young lady to manage an animal that large. The girls walk and wash or rinse their steers each day until the animals respond easily to the girls’ commands.
The sisters spend hours training and riding their horses and moving irrigation line to keep the pasture green.

“Usually this kind of dedication pays off,” said Maggon Osmond, mother to the two girls. “The girls work all summer and then when they sell their steer at the fair, the money gets placed in a bank account for college and the girls are pretty proud of how the bank account grows every year.”

Last year, however, Clanci’s hard work got harder and she had to make some tough calls.

Mid-summer, Clanci’s horse, Jack, developed ring-bone, which is an incurable condition. Clanci was faced with the choice to either withdraw from the horse show or use the family’s older horse, Peaches, for the show.

Using Peaches meant hours of extra work for Clanci since the mare had not been riden for a while. Clanci chose to push through the challenge and show Peaches.

“Three weeks before fair, Clanci walked out one morning to feed her steer and found him dead,” said Maggon. “For some unexplained reason, the steer she’d been spending hours getting ready, died.  She cried for hours.

Once again, she had a decision to make.  We had a floater steer that we had registered for the fair and had been graining along with the other two steers just in case, but never thought we’d ever have to use him.  Clanci could choose to sit-out or get the second steer ready in three weeks.  She chose to take on this daunting task of halter-breaking and getting a steer show-ready in three weeks. This was accomplished with our friend Tyson Hepworth’s help. Clanci watched Tyson as he patiently showed her how to do the impossible.”

Clanci chose to go the distance and showed both a horse and steer at the 2019 fair. She did not win any ribbons or medals, “but her grit and perseverance paid off when she saw her bank account grow a bit bigger because of her unwavering effort,” said Maggon. The girls did work together and took second place in the team penning competition.

“Thanks to Tyson Hepworth, the Fair Board, and all of the people who work so hard to make it possible for kids to feel success at the fair, after putting in so many hours of hard work,” said Maggon.