By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS - Better late than never.
Cassopolis Valedictorian Margaret Foltz, 18, has been in 4-H for eight years, but exhibiting the reserve grand champion single market lamb and becoming champion showman at Monday's Cass County Fair sheep show came on her first try.
Margaret, 18, is bound for Purdue University to study animal science with the ultimate goal of becoming a veterinarian.
Sheep showmanship champion, of course, entitles her entry into Saturday's prestigious Showmanship Sweepstakes.
The Sleepy Hollow 4-H club member said showing sheep proved "a lot harder than I thought it would be, but it came together in the end. It's completely different" than showing horses. "I can't even describe it."
Looking ahead to Saturday, she expects showing beef steers to be her biggest hurdle because it will be entirely brand-new.
Kathy Lindt, 15, of Dowagiac, belongs to M-40 Hustlers 4-H club. She brought the grand champion non-dairy doe to Monday's Cass County Fair goat show.
Kathy won champion senior doe with Millie, a pygmy.
Kathy finished fourth in intermediate goat showmanship.
She has exhibited goats for five years and also shows rabbits.
She will be a sophomore at Union High School, where she plays basketball, volleyball and softball.
Her still exhibit was a blanket.
Kathy began showing goats "because my best friend started doing it and it looked like fun."
Goats compared to rabbits "are a lot harder because you have to train them to walk and do things with you. With a rabbit, all you have to do is set it on a table and point out the body parts. You have to work more with a goat. I think it takes more concentration."
Stefany Swartz, 16, of Three Rivers, belongs to 4-W 4-H club. She exhibited the grand champion single market lamb in Monday's Cass County Fair sheep show.
Besides showing sheep for seven years, Stefany shows pigs.
Seth Carlson, 17, of Marcellus, qualified for Saturday's Showmanship Sweepstakes by becoming goat showmanship champion Monday with Annabelle, a Nubian.
The Kids-n-Kids 4-H member likes variety, as he also exhibits swine, beef and dairy feeder steers.
He's president of the Marcellus Class of 2006, National Honor Society president and captain of the Wildcats football team.
Seth remains undecided about career plans or a particular college, though he's giving some thought to Hope in Holland.
Vaulting up behind Seth in goat showing from the junior class is reserve champion Samantha Stutzman, 11, of Cassopolis. The second-year exhibitor, a Busy Friends 4-H club member, will be starting sixth grade at Sam Adams.
Samantha's still projects include sewing, gift wrapping and baking. In past years she showed dogs and horses. "I like their ears," she said of her Nubian goat, Paprika.
Samantha must be partial to spices because she has a dog, Pepper, and a hamster, Cinnamon.
Tiffany Rogers, granddaughter of fair Grand Marshals Irving and Dorothy Frost, her neighbors in Howard Township, is 14 and will be moving from Ring Lardner to Niles High School for ninth grade.
Tiffany belongs to Country Trailblazers 4-H club and Drafted, a draft horse club.
In addition to draft horses, she exhibits pigs, chickens and ducks. Despite her love of animals, she imagines herself becoming a lawyer. Perhaps an agricultural attorney, suggests her mother, Cheryl, a former Michigan State University Extension 4-H youth agent.
In Monday's sheep show Tiffany showed the reserve champion lightweight lamb and finished fourth in intermediate sheep showmanship.
Tiffany's still projects include a draft horse notebook, a chicken notebook, a sketch, cooking and canning.
At school in Niles Tiffany participates in Student Council, soccer, FFA, choir and led the Junior National Honor Society.
Joshua Wooden, 16, of Cassopolis, is the fair's top swine showman for 2005 with a purebred Yorkshire barrow.
The Penn 4-H member will be a sophomore at Ross Beatty High School.
Besides playing football and baseball for the Rangers, Joshua enjoys snowboarding and guitar. He began showing at 9. He completed still exhibits in painting and cooking.
A career in automotive engineering interests Joshua.