Summer. No school, warm weather and a lot of people’s favorite thing: fair.

For most teenagers, the best part about fair is all of the rides. For little kids, it’s the animals. However, does anyone really know the amount of time and effort kids from all over the county put into these animals in order to bring them to fair?

These are five things “show kids” have to do:

1. Make a goal. In every activity you do you have an end goal. In the show world that may include being grand champion or maybe even reserve grand champion. Whatever your goal may be, you need to be determined to get there.
2. You have to buy an animal. Buying an animal isn’t very cheap. Take for example the 307 Genetics sale. The average show pig sells for $400. I don’t know about you but that’s pretty expensive for a broke high school student.
3. You have to buy food to feed the animal. In Powell there are two main places kids buy their feed: Linton’s’ Big R and Skalsky’s Poor Boy Feeds. The fatter the animal, the more money you get.
4. Spending time with your animal is key, The last thing you want is to get to fair and your animal go completely berserk. You are supposed to show the animal; it’s not supposed to show you. Spending time with your animal also allows you to have a special bond where they trust you.
5. However, in the end after fair you have to be prepared to let go. You sell one animal in the sale (usually for slaughtering), so you have to be prepared for that day to come.

Now that you have a little more insight of what goes on behind the scenes before fair maybe you’ll look at the animals a little differently.

(ADVISER’S NOTE: Gracie McLain has been showing animals at the Park County Fair for five years. She was in 4-H for two years, and has been active in the Shoshone FFA chapter for three years.{)