00:05 - This is the area FFA contests their kids career development event.

00:10 - So the students are participating in a variety of different contests

00:14 - that they chose to participate in. We have livestock evaluation over here.

00:19 - Behind me is dairy evaluation. Agronomy. And over here is equine evaluation.

00:26 - And then in some of the other buildings we have demonstrations, floriculture,

00:31 - land judging and horticulture. For this one, because they're not our animals,

00:36 - they're not allowed to touch anything.

00:38 - They're allowed to look at them from all angles. But it's all hands off.

00:42 - They're not allowed to go up and actually physically touch the animals.

00:45 - The sheets of paper that they have are the test and then their judging card.

00:49 - So how they're actually going to place the animals

00:51 - and when they're judging the animals, they're looking at the confirmation.

00:54 - Do they have straight legs.

00:56 - Are they meeting in areas where you'd expect the market

00:58 - animal to be meaty with the dairy cows? They're looking at the other and the

01:02 - the veins leading to the udder.

01:04 - Here in the large arena, it looks like we have Holstein heifers and Holstein cows.

01:10 - The horses are actually for each horses.

01:12 - And then over in the large arena there, it looked like

01:14 - there were borgo, which are meat goats. And then,

01:18 - a variety of different cattle that they're looking at. It is competitive.

01:21 - The kids do have the opportunity to win some money through the fair.

01:26 - It's also just a great experience

01:27 - to kind of show off what they've been learning about in school.

01:31 - We have some students here today that are competing

01:34 - in horse judging, and they have a knowledge test. And then we'll take a look

01:39 - at some horses which are right behind me,

01:42 - and they will have to evaluate them and place them

01:45 - in order from best all the way down

01:48 - and their scores on that horse and will get evaluated. In comparison to my scores.

01:54 - We'll look at how well behaved the horses are, how well they move,

01:58 - how responsive they are to the rider. And then we'll also have confirmation classes

02:02 - where they look at how the horses are built and how they're put together.

02:06 - And so each class kind of has its own criteria that we look for.

02:09 - There are some industry standards that kind of depending on the breed and type.

02:13 - There are specific things that we're looking for

02:17 - that are ideal and then some things that are not quite ideal.

02:22 - So I'm ranking them based on which one is the most ideal all the way down.

02:27 - And so I'm the official and the students will get their scores compared to my scores

02:32 - at the end of each class has its own criteria.

02:35 - So knowing a variety of classes and the rules,

02:38 - nearly every association now has their rulebook online and easily accessible.

02:43 - So taking a look at that and reading that, we'll kind of give them all of the insider

02:47 - tips of what the judges are really looking for.

02:49 - It's a really great way for me to give back.

02:51 - I grew up as a kid in FFA and competed in this contest

02:55 - for four years when I was one of the students,

02:58 - and now I get to come back and give back

03:00 - and make the contest happen for today's youth. I think it's a pretty fun day.

03:04 - It's a really, really neat day that they come and get to experience the fair

03:08 - and also get to showcase the skills that they've learned in their FFA classes.

03:11 - You know, knowing how to evaluate the horses

03:14 - and then getting a chance to walk around there

03:16 - and experience everything else but the fair has to offer.

03:19 - There's no really way to prepare unless you have somebody that has animals

03:23 - that you can go to and, and like, observe them.

03:28 - I've always wanted to do something with animals,

03:30 - and FFA is giving me a lot of opportunities to do that. And it's just me.

03:36 - Make so many great memories, meet so many amazing people.

03:39 - It's just it's it's always, always a great time.