Hi I’m Pecos Worrell, a fourth-generation showman from Harper, TX. I show Hereford and Angus heifers and am a member of the Texas Junior Hereford and Polled Hereford Associations as well as the Texas Junior Angus Association. I also show steers at our county show and the Texas major shows.
Some of my best friends are my stock show friends, so traveling to shows in Texas is fun for me to hang out with them, see new places and show my stock. Some of my show friends live 7 or 8 hours away from me so stock shows are usually the only time we get together. I also enjoy playing baseball, raising cattle and learning about livestock. Fort Worth is my favorite Texas major show because there are several cattle barns to spread things out a bit, they have tie-outs and it is a full fit show. Most of the Texas major shows are blow and go for heifers and slick shear for steers and some of them don’t have tie-outs available. My favorite Fort Worth show memory is getting pulled with my steer on my way out the gate and showing my way up into a sale spot.
This Thing is Legendary
“This Thing is Legendary” is the slogan they use for the Fort Worth show. It must be true the way everyone talks about this show. My dad used to work for the American Angus Association and had to go to all the shows and he says Fort Worth was his favorite show in Texas to go to because the people were so nice and so many cattle people came to see the open shows and sales they have there. It is really a big show and some of the cattle barns are very old and historic. For Fort Worth heifer show they pre-assign stalls by county so arrival is not as crazy as some of the other Texas majors, even though the wait in line is still really long, like maybe 4 or 5 hours. At the other shows they assign stalls as you arrive so if you want to stall with someone you have to arrive at the same time as them and that just gets crazy. I hope we get in one of the old barns, but my parents think the electricity is better in the new remodeled barns so they hope we are in one of those.
We’ve been packing our trailer this week. My dad has been out of town working so it is pretty much my mom and I doing the packing. My little brother isn’t old enough to show at the majors and doesn’t help so he just kind of gets in the way. For some kids Fort Worth is their first big show of the year. I have already been to Sandhills in Odessa, my county show and a district or regional show near where I live so packing the trailer has really been just replacing things we’ve run out of like shampoo and feed. We also had to get more shavings, hay and straw for tie-outs. We also had to make sure our show box has everything we need for a full fit show like adhesive and touch up paint. My mom keeps a list of everything we need to pack and that makes it easy too. We had a low tire on our trailer so we had to get that fixed before we go.
My dad took my heifer on Thursday, but I had to stay home for school. It is hard to make up work when I am gone for so many shows so my mom says I need to go to school as many days as possible. I will go up to Fort Worth with my mom and brother on Friday. It takes us 5 hours to get there so I will probably catch up on homework in the car or take a nap. Juniors can only take one heifer for the junior show and this year I decided to take my Angus heifer. This is the first year I have shown an Angus so I’m excited to meet some new friends that show Angus. I still like to show Herefords and see those friends but my Angus heifer is older and works better in the show ring for me so that’s why I chose to bring her. Another thing at Fort Worth is some of the junior breed associations have a meeting to elect officers and make plans for state shows in the summer. The Angus show is not until Sunday so I will get to watch my Hereford friends show on Saturday afternoon.
WE ARE HERE
Tie-outs are really fun until you find yourself spending too much time putting out too much straw. That's what happened today while making tie-outs at Fort Worth. My mom told me to put out 4 bales of straw for one heifer! I didn’t argue and did it anyway. Next thing you know you have all your friends walking by sarcastically saying, “Do you think you put out enough straw?” Then you step back and see that it’s almost the same height as the panel. My heifer will sure sleep well tonight.
