Scholarship Winner

My name is Amy Davenport. I am seventeen years old and have had Tunis sheep for three years. I started out with only two bred ewes. They both gave me twins, so my flock began to expand. I now have eight Tunis. I have other breeds along with the Tunis, such as Columbia and Oxford.

I have been a member of the Wonderful Woolies 4-H club for six years. Through these six years I have learned showmanship, sportsmanship, teamwork. and leadership. I am always willing to help others people show their animals even when I am done showing mine. I take being at the end of a class as an educational study to do better the next time in the show ring. 4-H and in general showing sheep has shown me teamwork is the key to success.

I have been a member of the Vermont sheep 4-H delegates to Eastern Exposition (Big E) for 6 years showing my sheep, as well as being a member of the Vermont Quiz Bowl, which won this past year. Plus competing in the Blocking & Fitting competitions with my fellow 4-H club members and we won for two years, as it is a team effort. In 2008 I was awarded the Shepherd Award while at the Big E; this award is voted on by all the participants from the 6 states attending and a participant from each state is chosen for their “outstanding teamwork and
dedication to their 4-H project” to win a sheep crook.

I live on a dairy farm with my family. My dad milks 40 cows and has a hundred head of cattle that he and I feed. My mother and sister help also. I have three horses that I ride. One of the horses does gymkhana with me. Another helps me get the cows from the cow pasture when it is time for milking. And I am teaching the other horse dressage so we compete during the summer in between getting hay in the barn and going to sheep shows. My 4-H club puts on educational workshops such as, lambing, feed idea, blocking and fitting, and parasite control workshops. Wonderful Woolies has been a great stepping stone into the working world; where we earn money to go places to broaden our horizons of sheep knowledge. For example, we had the vet come to ultrasound our 35 sheep and the 4-H club members came and learned how to tell if a ewe was pregnant or not.

My future plan is to become a large animal veterinarian. I plan to keep showing my Tunis throughout my college years and help other people become involved in becoming Tunis breeders and owners themselves. I love the Tunis that I have because they have great personalities, are able to take care of their lambs with little assistance from me, are able to handle a situation without getting extremely flighty, and are easy keeper when it comes to passing out the grain.

Reprinted from Tunis Spirit.