{"id":18356,"date":"2025-08-02T13:53:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T13:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/friday-at-the-montezuma-county-fair-family-fun-and-prizewinning-swine-and-sheep\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:03:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:03:30","slug":"friday-at-the-montezuma-county-fair-family-fun-and-prizewinning-swine-and-sheep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/friday-at-the-montezuma-county-fair-family-fun-and-prizewinning-swine-and-sheep\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday at the Montezuma County Fair: Family fun and prizewinning swine and sheep"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The Montezuma County Fair on Friday featured swine and sheep competitions. Lexi Simmons (front row, second from the left) and her sheep, Big, were named overall grand champions in the sheep showmanship division. (Bailey Duran\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Excitement filled the air all day Friday at the Montezuma County Fair, as children\u2019s events took place throughout the day, and hardworking 4-H youths put their skills and animals to the test in the swine and sheep shows.<\/p>\n

Children shrieked as one of their peers won the Oreo eating contest and eager toddlers chased after IFA employees dressed as chickens for their chance at a gift card. Outside the main barn, attendees strolled through the food trucks offering lemonade, gyros, coffee and snow cones, while others savored nachos from Lunch Lady Catering in the concessions area of the main barn.<\/p>\n

\"Children
Children chased IFA employees dressed as chickens for their shot at winning an IFA gift card. (Bailey Duran\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The swine barn, down a small hill and slightly away from the main barn, was bursting with activity right from the start of the day\u2019s events. Youths of all different ages competed with the swine they had lovingly and painstakingly raised for months, hoping for their shot at the fair\u2019s top honors.<\/p>\n

A mother named Monica watched a portion of the junior swine show next to me, pointing out her son, who was competing. Monica said that many of the 4-H kids had gotten their pig in December and had been working with the pig ever since to prepare for this moment. Despite the effort, many pigs didn\u2019t make the weight requirements, which disqualifies them from the sale on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Not only does the child have to raise their animal, but they have to practice teamwork with the animal and prepare to present it to the judge. In today\u2019s competitions for swine and sheep, two divisions were utilized. One was showmanship, where the handler and their animal were judged on their teamwork and the handler\u2019s skills with their animal in the arena, and the other was market, where the animal was judged on its body conformation.<\/p>\n

After champions and reserve grand champions were named in the senior, intermediate and junior divisions, the champion and reserve in each division were invited back into the ring for judge Madi Shults to choose the overall grand champion and reserve grand champion.<\/p>\n

\"Kaydence
Kaydence Spruell and her pig Ares were named overall grand champions in the swine showmanship division. (Bailey Duran\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Intermediate competitor Kaydence Spruell and her pig, Ares, were named overall grand champions. Daniel Philpott and his pig were overall reserve grand champions. Jasper Gilliland placed third, Tinley Philpott placed fourth, Abrie Spruell placed fifth and Silas Herman placed sixth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so happy,\u201d Spruell told The<\/em> Journal<\/em> after her win. \u201cIt\u2019s really stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spruell also spoke of the practicing and hard work it took all summer to prepare for this moment.<\/p>\n

In the barns adjacent to the swine barn, chickens, goats, rabbits and cows relaxed in their pens away from the heat, some boasting their grand champion and reserve grand champion posters hanging on their stalls. In one stall, a baby goat had an audience of adoring people oohing and ah-ing over the tiny animal.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Back at the main barn, the sheep showmanship competition commenced. The competition was stiff in the senior divisions, so much so that Shults asked the handlers to switch sheep to give her a better idea of who stood out in the showmanship division.<\/p>\n

\u201cA real showman can show anything,\u201d Shults said.<\/p>\n

After watching the students with a different sheep, Taylor Garner was named grand champion and Dannika Goodall reserve grand champion.<\/p>\n

In intermediate, Lexi Simmons was named grand champion, and reserve grand champion went to Kaydence Spruell. Corbin Traweek and Wyatt Nolan rounded out the grand champion and reserve grand champion for the junior division.<\/p>\n

After an intense round with all of the grand champion and reserve grand champion sheep in the overall round, Simmons and her sheep Big were named the overall grand champions. Garner was named overall reserve grand champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just really happy. It took a lot to get here,\u201d Simmons told The<\/em> Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Between shows, the competitors could be seen hugging their sheep, and giving them the occasional kiss on the nose, while receiving tips and encouragement from their family and friends before heading back into the ring.<\/p>\n

Next, Garner was named grand champion for her breeding ewe, and Zoey Cunningham, reserve.<\/p>\n

After seven heats of the marketing class, Spruell\u2019s sheep was declared overall grand champion, and Simmons\u2019 sheep was the reserve grand champion.<\/p>\n

The fair will round out its 2025 festivities with more events for the community on Saturday, concluding with the livestock sale, which starts at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

This article was updated Aug. 5 to correct the spelling of the name Zoey Cunningham. The Journal was provided inaccurate information at the fairgrounds.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

sheep close out the animal side of the county fair before Saturday\u2019s sale<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[947,21,28,1398,2105,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-18356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-4-h","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-livestock-farming","tag-montezuma-county-fair","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18356"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20826,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18356\/revisions\/20826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18356"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=18356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}