PUEBLO – While Fossil Ridge High School students were in classes, senior Marisa Campaign and sophomore Mallory Hale were driving down to Pueblo, Colo. to compete against the rest of the state with their livestock ― Campaign with her horse and Hale with her dairy heifer.
After two days of competition, Campaign and her horse Deuce did well in every division. The first day, Campaign won the high point (considered the highest accomplishment) for the western riding division and third in the written test. The second day, she won the high point for the English riding division, second in the written test, and won the all-around for English. “The first day I rode my horse he had a ton of energy; it was just like flying, it was incredible,” Campaign said of her accomplishments.
Campaign felt stressed during the trip to Pueblo, missing a cross-country time trial, a field trip, and classes, though doing well at the fair made everything easier. “It really justified having to work my butt off to get down there because it was a really good show and I got to spend time with my horse, which I totally miss because of school.”
The show was slightly difficult, with 25 to 30 horses in this competition compared to the typical five to six horses Campaign is used to competing against. Her season had been going well up to this point, but she had never done quite this well, so it wasn’t “a complete shock” when she received her placings.
Hale’s was a different story, however. It was Hale’s first year showing dairy cattle and exhibiting at Colorado State Fair. It
wasn’t her best show, as she placed sixth in intermediate showmanship (based off of Hale’s performance) and her Holstein heifer placed sixth in the breed show (based on the appearance of the animal).
“The competition was definitely difficult, but in my opinion there is no way to judge your competition… because every judge is different,” Hale said. “Every show it could go a different way.”
Even though Hale wanted to do better, she still had fun.
“My favorite part was getting to show little kids [passing by] the cows. It was cute how much they loved it.”
