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Girl’s first show at county fair earns purple

By Shawn Linenberger - | Aug 16, 2011

Shawn Linenberger

Abby Wood, 8, with her trophies at the Leavenworth County Fair. Abby won reserve champion in market steer in her first year.

Abby Wood just turned 8 on Aug. 5.

Less than a week later, she received birthday presents, complete with purple ribbons.

The gifts: Reserve grand champion in market steer and reserve supreme champion in breeding heifer.

Of course, the rewards were far from a given. It took plenty of work preparing the animals for the fair.

“She spent her summer divided between the show barn and the swimming pool,” said her father, Luke Wood, who estimated she spent four to five hours daily working with the animals.

Not a bad performance in her first year showing the animals, her father said. “I guess it would be a pretty big deal” having such success in her initial year, he said, before adding the caveat that that opinion also was coming from her proud father.

Abby, a member of the Happy Hollow 4-H Club, will be a third-grader at St. Paul Lutheran School later this month in Leavenworth.

Asked about her reaction to earning the reserve grand and reserve supreme championships, she said she “was pretty happy.”

“We were just shootin’ for a blue,” Abby said about the ribbon color.

She also won grand champion in clothing construction and buymanship.

Getting the animals ready for the fair was a yearlong effort and tending to them at the fair also was a full-time job.

But Abby did have time to enjoy other aspects of the fair.

Her favorite ride?

“The ring of fire,” she said.