Occasionally throughout my children’s cattle showing careers, I’ve had moments of clarity. Like, for instance, when my daughter Caroline and I weighed in her heifer at the recent Illinois Beef Expo. Sweetheart the heifer weighed 762 pounds, and right there next to the scales, it occurred to me: That’s exactly 700 more pounds than Caroline.

We laughed. Hahaha! How about that?

And then a gulp.

700. That’s a lot.

Caroline and Sweetheart worked together endlessly in the weeks leading up to the show (thanks, 70 degrees in February). True to her name and the heart on her face, Sweetheart is a puppy dog in disguise. Eight-year-old Caroline is quiet and makes up for her lack of bulk in her ability to radiate calm and steady her heifer. That’s a useful skill.  

TOGETHER: Caroline and Sweetheart have been a good pair from the start.

Still, this trip into the ring would be a first for both of them. Caroline told anyone who would listen that she was nervous. I joined her by the minute — starting with that weigh-in math I never should’ve done. Because no matter how much you work with a heifer, when it leaves the farm and walks into a large open ring, that heifer is still an unpredictable animal … that happens to outweigh your small child by 700 actual pounds.

Caroline may have been shaking in her boots. I’m not sure. I know I was. But they called her name, she took a deep breath, and off she went. She set up her heifer. She watched the judge. She led her heifer. She showed Sweetheart like a champ. She got called into place. She led her heifer out.

And her smile on the way out of the ring? Better than any I’ve ever seen. Total triumph. A little relief. But definitely victory.

We tell our kids to do hard things because it’s good for them. And it is. Turns out, it’s good for mamas, too.