Well, I am not getting much older, but the body I live in certainly is starting to show some major wear and tear. This thread brought back many memories. A friend of mine passed away from cancer a year ago, and we were reminiscing about the so called " good old times" just before he died. One year we had 62 head at Agribition and we had at least 1 show day every day of the show. I honestly have no idea how we lived. I remember going into the wash rack early in the morning, and finishing after dark in the evening. Some of the crew brought us a sandwich to keep us going a couple times during the day. We used to work a few sales and we wore out several sets of sheep heads over the years. It was hard work but a lot of fun and we got to meet a bunch of great people. Like many of you, I have lots of great memories of my times on the show road.
My dad and I started showing cattle together when I was about 10 years old. In those days we would start in early July and go to several two and three day fairs throughout Saskatchewan ending up at a week long Provincial fair in early August. We baled our hay on the few days between shows and after the last show in August. Those were great times, and I feel very fortunate to have had these experiences. In those days all the exhibitors, from all breeds, got to be almost family and we would spend as much spare time as possible together during the shows. My first year out of college, we decided to head 1550 miles east to the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto in November. I remember that we came directly back to Agribition and when I got home from the two shows, I had been away from home for 32 days. My dad asked me to wear a name tag for the first few days I was back. For the next 8 years, I made that trip, and since then, I have been back a few more times with cattle, and many more times as a visitor.
One year, we decided to send our show herd to Ontario after the Provincial show was over in August. We hired a young fellow in Ontario to look after the cattle there and they were sent to the CNE in Toronto. This young fellow rented a barn and some corrals to keep the show herd, and purchased all the feed for them. He did not have any way to transport the cattle, so he had to hire a local trucker to haul the show herd from show to show. He showed the show herd at 17 shows in August, September and early October and I went down to help him show at the Royal Winter Fair in November. The cattle were then shipped back to Agribition and shown there. I flew down to the CNE and flew back for the Royal, and also flew my young fitter out to Agribition and then back home after it was over. After Agribition was over, we sat down and did an accounting. After all the trucking, 3 return air fares to Toronto from Sasktachewan, feed, rent and his wages, he gave me a check for over $1700 ... which was the surplus of the prize money over the expenses. Oh.. those were the " good old days!" This year at Agribition, my costs were in excess of $10,000 with no feed calculated into these costs ( as well as nothing for my time and labor)
I learned several years ago, that if I am going to hire help for a show, I might as well try to hire the best fitters I can, as they all seem to charge the same amount whether they are very good or just starting out. In my case, their personality is as important as their skill levels. If they can't get along with other people, or they think they are better than someone else on the crew, they can work for someone else. I won't bother with them. I have a pretty low acceptance level for fitters who think their achievements make them better than someone else. That said, I would have to say that there are some wonderful young men and women working with cattle that are good at what they do, and fun to be around and work with. I have always maintained that work is much easier if you can have some fun doing it, so we do try to combine some fun with the work.
Showing cattle is a very expensive game so I try to present our cattle as good as we can. How times have changed!! My hotel bill for one show is more than the total costs were for an entire summer of showing were when I was growing up. Showing cattle was a major money maker for my family, and we oftentimes left a two or three day show with $700 - $1000 in prize money , and that was a fair pile of money in those days. Now we don't even get prize money at the shows we attend.
