|
Only have a minute? Listen instead
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
MERCEDES — We champion the blue ribbons and the animals who win them, and the students are all smiles and eyes bright.
But the color of the ribbon does not always tell the whole story, and Trace Vaughan’s performance Tuesday at the 85th annual Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show and Rodeo highlights very well that most pristine truth.
Trace, 16, lead his goat toward the exit of the arena with a broad smile and a face beaming with accomplishment, the pink third place ribbon riding on the animal’s back.
Trace could be proud of his third place ribbon for his steadfastness and loyalty to the cause of his goat, for that loyalty was worth the prestige of a blue ribbon.
“He broke his kneecap in November,” said Trace.
“He’s a comeback kid,” added his father, Scott Vaughan.
A crowd lively and eager filled the bleachers of the arena where students led their goats before the judges. Applause rushed from the bleachers as students received their blue ribbons and their red ribbons and their pink ribbons for their goats.
Not far away judges announced the young winners for their New Zealand rabbits and their California rabbits. The horticulture division showed the hard work of students who’d raised tomatoes and herbs and terrariums and succulents.
While Monday’s scene was relatively calm, that calm seemed to be the quiet time before the full measure of a party. That party was in full swing as students throughout the grounds tended to their steers and their lambs and their Brahman cattle and their hogs.
While Trace met with an especially different challenge with his goat and its broken leg, Matthew Loya also ran into a disaster right before the show.
“My bluebonnets died before the show,” said Matthew, 13, a seventh grader at IDEA Weslaco.
“My bulldog pulled them up,” Matthew said with a sort of sad irony.
But…
“I got fourth place for my market rabbits and breading rabbits,” Matthew said. “I am going to show a steer later.”
It is perhaps the confronting of the disaster and the surprise and the innovation that comes from the disaster that shows the true talent of a student.
When Trace’s goat broke its leg, it was an excruciating situation. It was a very good goat with lots of potential. There was some initial discussion about not showing the goat at all, but he and his father determined to persevere to the conclusion.
“I couldn’t work him until a couple of weeks ago,” said Trace, a Harlingen resident who is home-schooled but attends Grace Christian Academy twice a week.
“I worked with him the last two weeks and by the grace of God it was able to pull through,” he said.
Often, success at the livestock show is the result of persevering year after year, with each year serving as a learning experience. Ashley Cantu, 11, walked away with her goat and a third place ribbon, after taking fourth place last year.
“The judge said that he was good but the legs were uneven,” she said, smiling brightly as she looked toward the next chapter in her adventure as a participant in livestock show.
The livestock show continues Wednesday with the judging of market lambs, junior Simbrah heifers, Jr. Red Brangus heifers and Jr. Brahman heifers, and of market poultry.
To see more, view staff photographer Miguel Roberts’ full photo gallery here:
