For the Simons, showing animals at the Hartford Fair is a family affair rooted in love

Signing up to show farm animals at the Hartford Fair leads to a predictable schedule of events: The condensed list is to feed and water the calves and pigs kept in two different barns, bathe them and try to keep them clean, groom them and hope that after months of training, they behave in the show ring.

And then there are the unpredictable events, such as downpours that turn the fairgrounds into a series of mud puddles.

Or finding the love of your life during the fair. And having children who grow up showing beef cattle, hogs and lambs at the fair.

That happened for Derek and Bethany Simon of McKean Township.

“I showed pigs, and he showed steers and pigs,” Bethany said. “He’s from Johnstown, and I’m from Utica. We grew up showing animals, but we had aged out of 4-H. We each came to the fair with mutual friends, and that’s how we met in August of 2004.”

By February of 2006, they were married. A few years later, they had a son, Weston, and then a daughter, Libby. He is now 17, and she is 15, and both of them were showing animals at the Hartford Fair this week.

“They’ve been showing since they were about 7 or 8,” Derek said, adding that the entire family pitches in to help each other with their projects – including everything from birthing the calves they showed at the fair this week to naming them. Weston’s 466-pound calf is named Jolene, for example, because Weston likes country music and his mom started rattling off song titles until she hit on the Dolly Parton song, Jolene.

And Libby’s 547-pound calf Murphy was so big at birth – about 120 pounds – that the family and a veterinarian all were involved in pulling him from her mother’s womb.

“There’s definitely a lot of family bonding time,” Derek said.

At fair time, that includes extended family – including grandparents, who live in the area – who are spending a lot of time at the fairgrounds in northwestern Licking County this week. A week earlier, they were showing at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus. And that’s all while caring for animals at home and holding jobs – Derek, 43, at Ohio CAT, the heavy equipment company, and Bethany, 45, as a nurse for CVS/Aetna.

“I have such great fair memories as a kid,” Bethany said, and she’s happy her children will have their own special memories while they’re learning discipline and a strong work ethic. “They work very hard for this week, and they take great pride in it.”

So do their grandparents. Marsha Conley, of Utica, is Bethany’s mother, and Kathy Simon of Mount Vernon, is Derek’s mom. The two didn’t know each other until after their kids fell in love, but they became fast friends.

“We’re in-laws who are best friends,” Conley said. “We do things together even without our kids or grandkids.”

But at fair time, they’re all one big, proud family.

“Their hard work has paid off,” Simon said after Weston and Libby won several awards.

“It’s very rewarding to see them being honored for their hard work,” Conley said.

On Monday morning, Weston and Libby each showed hogs, Sal and Nico, which is a sight to behold. And more than 1,000 people did – filling the bleachers on three sides of the swine barn show ring and cheering for their favorite exhibitors.

“Showing” a hog involves months of working with the animal to get it used to the idea of being bathed and groomed and herded around a show ring. And the competition itself looks a lot like bumper cars on hooves, with up to 10 hogs at a time pinging around a judge standing in the middle of the ring.

Occasionally, a hog would let out an ear-splitting series of squeals and bolt for a NASCAR-like race around the ring with a frustrated teen chasing after it. That didn’t happen to Libby or Weston.

Each hog is guided by a teenager using a whip-like stick to nudge the animal according to the judge’s directions – all while shooting an almost demonic stare at the judge. All of them did it, and the judge expected it, noting particularly good “eyes locked on me” stares as he called out the winners.

The Simons live north of Granville in the North Fork Local School District, where Weston and Libby attend high school in Utica. Both are involved in 4-H and Future Farmers of America, and Weston said he is interested in pursuing a degree in agronomy at the Ohio State University’s Agricultural Technical Institute in Wooster.

This week was especially challenging for Weston, who showed a pig and a calf, and then raced from the fairgrounds to football practice. At 6-foot-5, the lanky teen also plays basketball and baseball.

Libby is a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters, and she shows beef cattle year-round.

“That’s her sport,” said Bethany, who has served as an advisor for their Cream of the Crop 4-H Club for more than 15 years.

Libby also showed two “pool lambs” for the first time at the Hartford Fair this year – a competition unlike most others at the fair and one that she and her family appreciated because it is more centered on the youthful exhibitors than most other competitions.

“It’s very fair because there are few outside influences,” Bethany said. “There is a pool of lambs, and the kids pull numbers in a lottery, and then they pick their animals. The parents aren’t involved.”

Libby drew numbers two and 14 in the lottery, and she named her lambs Billy and Bob.

“Billy won his class and came in fifth overall, and Bob was second in his class,” Bethany said. “That was pretty exciting – to take on a new project and do so well. It was fun.”

She said she appreciates the opportunity to display farm animals at the fair during a time of diminishing farmland and decreasing numbers of farmers in Ohio – so that fairgoers who aren’t involved in farming understand where their food comes from and how much work it takes to produce it.

And when she ponders that too long, and considers the rapid development going on south of the fairgrounds around Johnstown, she worries about what the fair will look like in 20 years.

“Will all of this be here?” she wondered aloud, scanning the beehive of teenagers grooming their cattle for the next show.

Growing up in a farm community, the Simon teens often end up competing during the fair and at other shows with some of their best friends – the same teens they sit next to in school and whose cattle or hogs might be in stalls or pens next to theirs.

That happened this week, and perhaps counterintuitively, it does not lead to squabbles among friends, Bethany said. Just the opposite.

“They support each other,” she said. “They might be disappointed if they don’t place, but they’re happy for their friends who do.”

And even though they all have a good idea of what the judge will be looking for when the show begins, even the beef cattle judge on Wednesday noted that on another day in front of a different judge, the results could be different.

So even with months of hard work and preparation, the judge’s final decision is another one of those unpredictable events at the fair.

No one could have predicted that when Weston showed his beef calf, Jolene, and Libby showed her calf, Murphy, in different classes on Wednesday that they would each win blue ribbons.

And no one could have predicted what would happen when, after all of the classes had been judged, the winners of each were brought to the ring for the Best of Show competition. In the end, Weston and Libby stood next to each other, with Jolene coming in third overall and Murphy coming in fourth.

Yet another unexpected event in that moment was that Libby would burst into tears.

It wasn’t that she was unhappy about the results, but that she immediately recognized that it would be the last time she would show Murphy. He has been sold to a family in Florida, where he will be shown by a 4-H family there.

Entirely expected was what happened next: Libby’s cousins, who had been in the competition that day, raced to give her a consoling hug.

This story was originally published by The Reporting Project and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.