By Pete Kendall/reporter@trcle.com
— Cleburne High senior Heather Gillaspie, representing Friendship 4-H, won her second grand championship in as many days Thursday with a top prize in breeding goats at the Johnson County Junior Livestock Show and Youth Fair.
She celebrated by giving her project, named I’m Sure Shannie, a big kiss on the lips.
When all is said and done, Shannie will probably be introduced to another prize, the goat-trimming stand with which Gillaspie won grand champion honors Wednesday night in ag mechanics metal works.
Heather said she has her father, Travis Gillaspie, to thank for the goat-stand idea.
They both have Brenda Warner to thank for introducing them to goats.
“We raise goats. We’ve been doing that about two years,” Heather said. “Brenda Warner and my dad met at a school reunion and started talking about me showing. I’ve been showing ever since then. I love it.”
Goats apparently love her, too. She talks their talk.
“It didn’t take me very long to get along with them, probably about a month,” she said. “They’re fun. They’re easy. If you raise them from when they’re little bitty, they’re easy to deal with.”
She also won reserve champion breeding goat. The grand champion is a year old. Its regimen is somewhat unlike a meat goat.
“Breeding goats, you just set up like a box. With wethers, you have to brace them and show their muscle,” Heather said. “You have to exercise the wethers. I have a table, and when you push them off, it makes them put their feet out.”
Her ag mechanics project was a natural.
“I made a trimming stand, which comes in pretty handy with goats,” Heather said. “I haven’t tried it out yet with them.”
She will eventually.
“We show all around,” Heather said.
For those with a bankroll, the goat stand is on the market.
“We’re going to sell it,” she said.
The Gillaspies don’t exactly have a goat herd, but they’ve got all they need at the moment.
“We have eight goats, two still at the barn and six at the show,” Travis Gillaspie said. “All we do with them is show them.”
They’re more serious about breeding goats than market goats.
“You can actually show more in the breeding side of it than the market side,” Travis said. “It depends on what kind of show you want to go to. You have two associations, international and American. You can show in either one, and we show in both.”
He likes the low maintenance aspect of goats.
“They’re easy to handle compared to a lot of animals,” Travis said. “I was in FFA when I was in high school at Cleburne. My son [Taylor]showed hogs. Heather also wanted to show, so we kept doing it.”
It’s been a fun ride for Heather.
“I’ve been doing this since seventh grade,” she said. “I also show pigs, rabbits and chickens. I’m pretty busy.”
Though his daughter graduates in several months, Travis isn’t tempted to ditch the goats.
“We’re going to keep them,” he said.
Unlike Heather, Brayden Hawkins has a few years left in the show ring.
The almost 14-year-old Smith Middle School student, also representing Friendship 4-H, claimed grand champion honors Thursday in market goats.
It was not his biggest award of the month.
At San Antonio last weekend, he was presented a $10,000 college scholarship for showing the champion Dorsett ewe.
“I want to go to either Texas or Texas Tech,” he said.
Goats are popular projects in the Hawkins family.
Brayden’s younger brother, Brigg, was a decorated exhibitor in last year’s county show.
Their secret to raising goats is no secret.
“We exercise the heck out of them,” Brayden said. “We exercise them every day. This is our third year to show goats. I’ve been showing sheep a lot longer.”
He thanked his dad, Doug Hawkins, “for everything he’s done.”
He also showed his appreciation to his younger brother.
“Thank you, Brigg,” he said with a grin. “Brigg kinda gives me somebody to let my anger out on if I get mad.”
