The Steamboat Pilot & Today

Eddie Brenner cut a calf off from the pack about a year ago in Denver, slipping a halter on it and winning the right to raise a steer.

Eddie, 15, grabbed his prize in the Catch-A-Calf Contest at the National Western Stock Show, Rodeo and Horse Show in January 2008. The 4-H member sold his Black Angus steer, Tex, last weekend. The 1-year-old weighed in at 1,593 pounds.

Eddie, a sophomore at Steamboat Springs High School, had to beat a lot of odds to grab a chance at catching a calf.

He submitted an application to the Catch-A-Calf group in November 2007, said his mother, Ann Brenner. The organization approved his form and then put his name into a drawing. His name was pulled, and Eddie was assigned to make his attempt at the Jan. 20 rodeo. He was the only Routt County contestant and was one of 40 who saw victory.

Eddie was dead-set on success, his mother said.

“All the kids went straight after the calves, but his strategy was to go to the right because the calves were going to scatter,” Ann Brenner said.

He was the first teen to catch a calf, she said, but competitors don’t just throw that calf into a trailer and head home. The Brenners returned in May to pick up a calf bought by the Catch-A-Calf group. Each calf is sponsored, and Eddie’s sponsors were the Summit County Elks Club and Bob’s Excavating in Silverthorne.

Eddie was required to give those sponsors updates all year.

“He had to write letters every month to his sponsor in Silverthorne and send pictures,” Ann Bre­nner said.

That communication garnered Eddie first place in letter writing/corresponding with the sponsor at the stock show during the weekend. The 15-year-old also won third place in sponsor relations, third place in record keeping, seventh place in showmanship and 13th place in production.

Eddie and Tex competed with 39 other 4-H contestants from Colorado, Wyoming, Ne­­­b­­­­­­­­raska and Kansas.

“He­­’ll get slaughtered right after the show,” Eddie said. “It’s a bummer, but I have to accept it because he is a market animal.”

Eddie, who raised the steer on his family’s Steamboat ranch, said Tex sometimes was a challenge.

It was toughest “just desensitizing him to all the different situations, because he spooked real easy to stuff and would kick,” Eddie said. “You had to get him used to that so he wouldn’t kick people at the stock show.”

He ty­­pically doesn’t raise steers but was pleased with the experience.

“I like doing 4-H projects like that,” Eddie said. “Anything with agriculture really was a pretty good experience.”

— To reach Blythe Terrell, call 871-4234

or e-mail bterrell@steamboatpilot.com