Game face
During the 81st Eddy County Fair, Artesia junior Swayzee Folmar had her game face on. It showed from the first night, when she showed goats, through pigs and into the sheep ring, where the week finally ended.
“That is usually how it is,” Folmar said of her intensity while showing. “When we are in the ring, it is game time. It is just like football players getting ready for a game. I enjoy myself outside of the ring, and I like to have a good time, but there is a time when I must be serious and focused. I have put in all this work.”
The work came in a brutal week, with temperatures climbing above 100 degrees for the animals and the exhibitors. Folmar still pushed through it.
Close but not enough
Folmar won the heavyweight division with one of her goats. She brought two goats, both in class 8. One won the class, then the division, and went on to earn outstanding honors in the overall grand drive.
But it was not the finish Folmar wanted. She thought she had the animal to win, and the disappointment was real. Still, she did not let that turn into bitterness.
“Sometimes that just happens,” Folmar said. “It was not the judge’s type that day, and it happens. Jaylee Joy did incredible this week. She won the wether show, the goat show and the sheep show.”
Folmar said losing is easier to take when she knows the people ahead of her work hard, too. That did not make it painless, but it did make it understandable.
She finished second with the one pig she showed. On the third day, she won the ewe show with her sheep. She also had a middleweight lamb, a wether, finish fifth. Her two heavyweight lambs placed second and third.
Respect for the ring
“It is always hard not being as high up as we wanted,” Folmar said. “We work really hard all year, but Jaylee Joy was really deserving.”
Folmar also respected the goat judge, Miles Gibbs, a Texas A&M graduate with a degree in animal science who has judged multiple fairs throughout his career.
“Miles did an incredible job,” Folmar said. “There was not any time that I thought he had done something wrong. He was good at explaining himself. Everything he did, he was able to back up, and it made it easier to understand.”
Down the road
Folmar said this was the toughest year she has had. The quality of animals was better, the competition was deeper and the margins were smaller.
She will take both goats to the state fair and keep looking for the results she wanted in Eddy County.
“Our county fair is the most competitive one,” Folmar said. “Eddy County is so competitive. It makes it easier knowing that the animals here are so, so good.”