Posted by: thepinetree on 06/30/2010 10:39 PM
Updated by: thepinetree on 07/01/2010 09:51 AM
Expires: 01/01/2015 12:00 AM
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Bret Harte Sophmore Shannon Tower to Show her Heifer’s and Bull at State~by Charity Maness
Shannon Tower, a sophomore at Bret Harte High School will be proudly showing her two Heifer’s, Polly and Grace, and her own bull this July 19-22 at the State Fair Cal Expo. Her bull was born to one of the many heifers registered in her name in January and this will be his second show. Bulls are only allowed to be shown if they were bred by the exhibitor. Shannon got her feet wet with 4-H when she was only 8 years old showing hogs winning class a few times. Though she was always eager to show cattle and couldn’t wait to cut her teeth on them. By eleven she was able to show her first Angus heifer at the county fair and won Reserve Supreme. That was all it took for her to be completely and utterly hooked. Showmanship is her favorite part of showing cattle, “it’s ....
.not how good your animal is, it’s how good you show them.” Two months prior to a show, the heifer or bull she intends to show is tended to every night, no exceptions. With all the shows Shannon participates in, you can pretty much figure that she is at this every night of her young life and enjoys every second of it.
With the support of her Aunt and her father Shannon honed her cattleman skills breeding many champions and high place winners year after year. Though involved in FFA, she continues with 4-H in an attempt to make the highest rank within the club, that of three stars. She has already achieved two star rank and hopes to finish within a year her goal of three stars. Community service, demonstrations before judges, and more are required throughout the year to meet her goal; this is on top of her school work and her shows.
Shannon intends on competing in jackpot shows as long as she is allowed (until the age of 21). With this in mind she has mapped out her college plans including colleges close to home with good Ag programs, mainly MJC. She plans on staying in the Ag field for life, her goal…to raise cattle of her own and hopefully, if all goes well, be able to help the youth of the community get started in the cattle showing and cattle raising industry.
As she prepared to park the John Deere she had used to drive me out to see her beautiful bovines, this bright, cheerful and intelligent girl looked at me with a big grin and said, “I am so blessed to be able to do this.”
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