GRACE — There is much to be said about youth who take the time and effort to prepare to show animals in the 4-H program this time of year statewide at county and state fairs.
Working and training animals teaches kids patience, compassion, respect as well as motivation to perform their best come fair time.
For Jason and Jessie Kimball, getting their kids involved with 4-H livestock was all new to them.
Their oldest son Braden was the first to get involved, showing pigs by the time he was 8 years old. But after a move to a new home with no land, 4-H had to take a backseat for a few years.
Following a move back to Grace and buying property with plenty of land, the rest of the Kimball kids followed in their big brother's footsteps and began the journey of training animals all summer as a family.
The Kimball kids' hard work paid off last week as they showed their goats at the Caribou County Fair in Grace.
Jessie said she loves the responsibility 4-H teaches young kids as it’s their job to feed, water, walk and train their animals daily. This also involves some budgeting of money and learning to campaign for themselves as they go about asking for boosters and/or buyers.
Animals are unpredictable and have a silent mind of their own, so learning patience is a major attribute when things don’t go as planned.
This kind of patience and showmanship simply leads to a love for animals as the children earn their trust.
This year as the Kimball family raised goats, they found one of the biggest hurdles was that trust factor.
Some may say size doesn’t matter but the Kimballs will be the first to share that training goats really is easier when they receive them a little bigger and are able to put on some weight so the kids are able to run and train with them more.
This year the family set up a treadmill that was used by each child-goat team.
“Some goats were walked backwards and forwards as well as some implementing an incline to build muscle or to tone," Jessie said. "They have an amazing (4-H) leader that has spent hours helping them practice and has taken them to several jackpots or shows for extra practice before showing at the Caribou County Fair.”
The commitment to train the goats is time consuming and has created quite the partnership with the Kimball siblings.
This included filling in for each other if one of the Kimball kids wasn't available to participate in that day's training.
Who knew a family could bond so strongly over training goats.
The 4-H program is a great way to learn new things, show sportsmanship and reap the benefits of hard work.
Next summer can't come too soon as the Kimballs look forward to continuing their participation.
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