North American International Livestock Exposition- NAILE

January 02, 2014

North American International Livestock Exposition- NAILE

Freedom Hall, the view form behind the announcers stand on the upper level

Freedom Hall, the view from the make up area on the upper level

Thursday November 14th, I started packing for our biggest cattle show. My Pop and I left for the show the next morning at 8 am! You see, my procrastination is at its best when I need to pack! We packed three trailers with equipment, feed, bedding, and tools on Tuesday. They cattle left on Wednesday. On Friday Pop and I left for Louisville, Kentucky where NAILE was held and where our cattle were. It was a long drive, so during the trip I slept and occasionally did homework! When we arrived, the work was waiting on me and I had to get busy! This year we brought eight head (seven heifers and a bull)and they needed to be rinsed so we headed to the wash rack. This year was the largest NAILE yet so the wash rack was full of cattle. After returning from the wash rack we got the cattle dry and on a fed them. Then we had to go fix the beds in the barn. The cattle are more or less on display while in the barn, so everything needs to look neat and put together. It is like a contest to who can have the nicest beds. Once we got the beds set up it was time to go exercise the cattle, water and put new bedding down. When that was all finished it was time to go to the hotel. It was really late each night when we got back from to hotel..

Claire, Batman, and Susie resting, between their show days, in tie outs

Claire, the major cutie around our barn

Claire has some attitude

Susie

I took this picture from the trailer because it was pouring and I had to wait for more hands to take them into the barn

We were at NAILE for a week and it was exhausting, but all of our heifers finished towards the top of their classes. My heifer, Batman, got second in both the junior and open show. Claire got fourth out of seventeen, and Jess got third.

Elli, my youngest sister, is almost old enough to start showing through 4-H and Claire is going to be her first heifer

Samantha Robets, owner of Terry a Shorthorn Plus, is waiting to go back in for the open show

Terry showing her stuff outside the ring

The entire time I was there I was either running around working, talking, eating, or sleeping! I also acquired the "Louisville Crud" , as it is fondly called while I was there. It's a sickness that everyone gets at NAILE! The triggers are dust, dirt, blowing fans, adhesives, and too many people in a confined space for ten days! I got hit by the crud on Sunday. I kept getting worse the whole time and ended up crashing between shows on Wednesday. I spent most of Wednesday cuddled up with Batman in the beds!