Tears erupted when Michelle McCadden saw the carcass of her calf Koby stretched out near a tornado’s wreckage in June.
Any dream the 16-year-old from Arvada would compete in this weekend’s National Western Stock Show seemed dead, as well.
“I quit,” she bellowed at her mother, Janelle. “I don’t want to do it anymore.”
Heavy words from a teen who dreams of becoming a veterinarian and spoils a menagerie of pets.
For Michelle, the lesson was that life goes on. For her fellow 4-Hers and friends, it was that sportsmanship is more important than winning.
More than 1,500 young stock-show competitors from across the West show all manner of livestock they’ve raised each year.
They learn the craft of raising animals, but the lessons are often much larger, said Dinah Peebles, a Mesa County extension agent who oversees livestock competitions.
“So much about these programs are about building character,” Peebles said.
Janelle McCadden had known about the twister at Diamond Stables since early that June morning but put off telling Michelle. The 800-pound calf had tried to leap a fence, tangled his legs and had broken his neck in the mayhem.
Janelle McCadden called Michelle’s 4-H leader, Glenn Sanger, who met them at the stables.
A plain-spoken rancher from Morrison, Sanger climbed into the cab of the truck where Michelle wept into her hands.
“Stuff like this happens,” he told her. “That’s just part of it.”
Michelle grieved for days.
“I didn’t know if she would ever get back in it,” her mother said.
But she didn’t count on the kindness of kids — or the sportsmanship of competitors in Colorado 4-H.
They wouldn’t let her quit, Michelle recalled, as she brushed Koby Junior, her replacement calf, in the stock show barn Thursday.
Two friends at Ralston Valley High insisted Michelle not give up on raising animals.
“They just kept saying, ‘You can do it,’ ” she said. ” ‘You can’t just quit.’ ”
Michelle’s lifted spirits paid off big on Saturday evening, when she not only won her class, but judge Case Gable called her steer the best in the show.
Michelle had shown lambs for years, but she was new to calves. Her friends in 4-H offered endless advice and encouragement. On Friday, some came by Koby Junior’s stall to give Michelle tips on trimming the calf’s fur for competition.
Michelle was one of 35 competitors from four Western states who received a free calf to raise after catching one at last year’s stock show. She wasn’t the only competitor to lose one this year.
Just before Christmas, a heart attack claimed Taylor Whaley’s calf. Rules still required the 14-year-old from Bennett to walk into the show ring Saturday, to receive her scores for record-keeping and communication.
The 520 stock-show volunteers donated the $750 to buy the calf, as many sponsors do. Taylor had raised a winner, said volunteer Lori Hall.
“Taylor was apologizing to us, and we were apologizing to her,” she said. “She worked so hard, and we told her how proud we are of her.”
Volunteers planned to cheer Taylor on this weekend.
On Saturday, Taylor helped other competitors get their steers ready. She ran errands, and she shoveled manure and sawdust from the walkway. And, she said, she was there for moral support for the other competitors.
“The others are going to be losing their calves soon,” Taylor said. “I’ve been through that, and I wanted to be here for them.”
As the contest neared, Michelle felt like a winner just to have a calf in the show, she said.
For sure, Koby Junior is more ornery than his namesake. He grew slower and was slow to train. She spent at least four hours a day with him for months, prodded along by the encouragement of her friends.
By winter, she had him chasing a soccer ball around the stable’s arena.
“Yeah, he’s a good buddy,” she said Thursday, patting Koby Junior’s thick neck.
Calves go to the slaughterhouse after the competition, she said. She’s sure she will cry over his fate.
“But that’s just part of it,” Michelle said.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
