Cerebral Palsy hasn’t stopped New Washington twins Amanda and Ashley Stockmaster from taking part in the Crawford County Junior Fair.
Amanda and Ashley, 18, were diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy when they were eight months old and walk with the assistance of a walker.
“This is our fifth year entering the fair.” Ashley said on Wednesday, “We will be doing cattle this afternoon, we can’t do the showmanship for the cattle because they’re too big. We had a lot of people telling us couldn’t do it. We keep pushing through. Nobody believed we could do it.”
A Honorable Mention award was given to Ashley and Amanda for showing their goats.
When Judge Mick Culp announced the award, he said they really inspire him.
“This is the first year this has ever happened to us.” Ashley said.
“We are very excited this year, we are going to be showing our cattle by ourselves.” Amanda added, “Last year, the committee didn’t want us to show because of our disability. But we could if we had help.”
She said someone on the other side had control of the animal as well.
“This made my cow very confused on who was leading,” Amanda said. “The girl that was helping me didn’t understand I was to be in control. That’s how I got stepped on. So I told her to drop the chain and my cow was fine. This year I demanded no help. I didn’t want to go through that again. It takes a lot more work then anyone else to show them.”
Amanda is in Percision Machining Technologies at Pioneer Vocational School. Ashley goes to Buckeye Central High School and is applying for college at Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute, Wooster Campus.
