Aspen Brazelton stays busy. 

Thursday morning, the 18-year-old Powell High School grad was taking care of the four chickens she showed during the fair. She treats them well, provides each with a stick for a roosting bar and feeds them mealworms. 

They respond in kind — she won Grand Champion Showman for FFA poultry with her white frizzle rooster, feathers well fluffed and cleaned.

Of course, she can’t spend all her time with her chickens — sitting in cages hung with a string of small disco balls — as she also brought three pigs to the fair. Her choice of pigs was strategic — her first year showing in 2018 she chose goats, then adopted a business mindset and realized pigs both cost less to raise and fetch a higher price in the livestock sale. 

But it’s not all about the money — she shows horses and chickens, which aren’t for profit, simply because she enjoys it. Horses are her favorite. 

“Usually I show the chickens just because I like showing,” she said. “I just like showing, like with horses.”

Showing is only part of the work. The poultry and rabbit barn was busy early Thursday morning as kids and their parents worked to get animals ready to show. 

Zenaena Tryon and Brianna Sessions were cleaning the feet of Sessions’ son’s chicken Big Red. Her son was busy with peewee showing. 

Janelle and Tanzlei Petersen, of Powell, checked Tanzlei’s English lop rabbit Daisy prior to her showing. It was Tanzlei’s second year at the fair.

It wasn’t all work inside the barn. Lauren Clifford and Ryleigh White took a break in foldout chairs holding their rabbits, awaiting their turns to show. 

Brazelton, who on the days she’s not showing still takes care of her animals at least twice a day, also had time to wait between showings, and prepare for Thursday night, when she switched her focus to her three pigs, likely her last time showing the animals. 

But she likes showing too much to give it up. While she can’t sell anymore as age 18 is the cutoff, she can  show until she’s 21. 

“I probably won’t show pigs because I can’t sell them, but I’ll still show chickens and horses,” she said.