I had lots of cool, new stuff to write about today.  But, this post is not cool.  I hauled projects to the State Fair of Oklahoma on Wednesday.  On this Thursday morning, I left Shattuck early with a couple suburbans full of 8th & 10th grade livestock judgers.  While driving back to OKC, I started getting texts.  I didn’t read them till I stopped.  I did not like what I was seeing.  Jordan Fledderjohan had been killed in a car wreck.  DANG!!!  Not the kind of news that I like.

I don’t have a bunch of buddy stories.  I just always looked forward to talking to Jordan and his dad, Clark.  Jordan was always brash, loud, very confident, wanting to win a goat show, pissed when he didn’t win, passionate about raising and showing good stock, always willing to help a kid improve their showmanship and feeding programs.   On a side note, he was always looking for the next cold one.  Kind of reminds me of someone else.  Probably why we always got along.

I enjoyed talking genetics and judges with him.  Of course, you probably didn’t want children in our presence when the two of us were cussing and discussing.  The American Royal of 2015 found Jordan’s crew and my crew stalled next to each other.  There was a complete dead day of NO activities.  So, we talked goats and cussed goats and one thing led to another.  Some of you will remember that somebody dared me to ride my little dolly cart down the ramp from the upper level to the bottom.  I didn’t want to do it, but the challenge had been put forth.  I rode that damn thing and held up my end.  I held on to the cart with both hands.  People were cheering and laughing.  I drug that thing back to the top and rolled it at him.  He held up his end.  He didn’t ride it.  He OWNED it!  He rode it one handed while the other hand held an open cold bottle of beverage.  We all cheered and laughed.  The next day, one of his girls showed the grand overall wether and one of our girls showed the reserve grand overall wether.  We both agreed that we would gladly ride a cart down a ramp in order to gather a banner or two.

Prayers to his parents, family and friends.  The industry lost a truly passionate goater that could raise em, feed em and show em.  I was looking forward to the possibility of Jordan judging major shows in upcoming years.  I think that would have been interesting.  Oh well.  His legacy in the goat industry will continue for years to come.  Cheers!!