07/09/2026
I never posted these, but looking through these I still get tight in the chest.
So many never want to talk about this side of the show stock world, or maybe too many people do talk about it but this part sucks.
The part where us as a parents get to walk away with an empty halter, the part you need to be strong as a parent and tell them its going to be okay but in reality you want to cry with them.
Payton put so much time into Boomer that he was her life, her best friend her everything. She slept with him, cried with him, laughed with him, grew up with him for 11 months.
We talked about it happening, we tried our hardest to protect her from the pain but in the end she had to learn the lesson, she had to walk him into the trailer and take the halter off 1 last time.
Does she still to this day almost a year later say we should have kept him? YES! Does she wish we would have denied the auction? YES! Will she probably show steer again? She says NO!
But the lessons Payton has learned in life so far have not slowed her down, they have molded the future for her.
We make sure she doesn't give up and keeps smiling and we all keep looking towards the future because it is bright!
