In the many days I spent breaking show heifers to lead, I learned a lot about cows: what makes them tick, what will spook them, preferences of scratching posts or eating locations, what makes them go and what makes them sit on their haunches. I’ve bonded with my fair share of animals over the years, but none have come close to one cow in particular: Sunday, herd number 707.
I don’t remember too much about breaking her as a March calf. I think that’s because March calves never put up too much of a fight – they’re still learning how to be a cow. We showed her all over the West Coast and she held her own. My little brothers showed her then because I was busy showing the bigger heifers.
When her yearling campaign rolled around, that’s when Sunday and I became well acquainted with one another. This was because she had put on a tad too much weight, and being a white heifer, showed every bit of it. We spent hours walking the loop around our farm, her and I, and it definitely wasn’t pretty. She’d developed a bit of an attitude at this point and my little frame could not control her as well as I’d hoped. I actually didn’t show her this year either, pawning her off on a friend to lead in class. Again, she held her own and aided us in winning a Junior Best Three nomination – our first ever.
She calved in with a pretty great udder. At this point, I’d moved away from home and was removed from the day-to-day chores. Weekends were spent washing and working the show string, and Sunday and I continued our power struggle – both of us too stubborn to let the other get the better of us. At some point, we reached an understanding and began a unique friendship. I don’t have a sister, but I think that’s what a relationship with a sister is like: annoying each other but at the end of the day appreciative of one another.
Her 2-year-old campaign followed suit of her previous show record: standing in the top two of each class she walked into. At this point, I was the only one who could show her: She’d taken a dislike to my dad, and none of my brothers had an interest in taming the beast. We had a lot of fun over the next few years, being in the hunt for Intermediate Champion at a few good shows and eventually making our debut on the coloured shavings. We came home without any banners or medals, but she made a dream of ours come true: exhibiting a homebred animal on the world’s biggest stage.
As a 4-year-old, she started to make us nervous. The good kind of nervous, though – the hopeful kind. As we approached our spring show, I drove out to the farm a few times a week to work with her, each time trying not to get my hopes up of what might happen. The week came, and she settled in and did her thing. We walked into that 4-year-old class with our heads held high and a prayer. That’s the only class I’ve ever been nervous to show a cow in. I nearly screamed when we were pulled first.
Sunday helped me accomplish another dream that day, and that was watching the Grand Champion drive from the center of the ring. I sobbed when we got the Champion slap.
As we pictured her that afternoon, my dad looked at me and said, “That’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of cow.” That she was. She would return to the same show and defend her Grand Champion title the next year, making another dream come true.
Every time I came home, I could count on her running up to me when I walked out to the barn. She’d stand there and let me scratch her poll for a second, then return to one of her two favourite activities: eating or sleeping. Like any good cow, she had her quirks and she certainly had her fair share, but that’s what made her who she was.
No matter how many times it happens, you’re never really prepared for the death of a cow. I certainly wasn’t. It was fitting that she would pass on a Sunday, though, kind of like someone meant for it to happen that way.
I like to think that cows go to heaven, too. There’s a big green pasture and they all graze under a blue sky. There are a few cows I’m excited to see again one day, but Sunday sits at the top of the list.
Rest easy, 707. Thanks for making our dreams come true.
