DENVER, Colo. — Cattle may be the love of Jade Schneider’s life.
She and her husband, Mark Kelley, run Rainbow Cattle Service out of Gorman, Texas, and travel to 30 to 40 major cattle events a year preparing animals for the show ring.
Originally from Ardrossan, Alta., Schneider is the daughter of Howard and Wendy Schneider, who own Northline Angus.
She has been working with cattle all her life and met her husband at Canadian Western Agribition in Regina, where he was working as a fitter.
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They dated for six years, and in 2013 Mark won the supreme champion award at Agribition with a Charolais female.
“The deal was if we ever won the supreme at Agribition, we would get engaged,” she said while preparing cattle at the National Western Stock Show, which was held in Denver Jan. 7-22.
Mark’s father started the company, and Mark took it over when he died. Schneider is now his partner, and they work with clients across Canada and the United States. Some clients are hobbyists who like to show cattle, some are breeders and others are youngsters keen to learn what happens behind the scenes at a cattle show.
“A lot of our clients are breeders who have other jobs and they don’t have the time,” she said.
“They would rather pay us and know it will get done right.”
At Denver they prepared about 30 head of mostly Hereford cattle, and their helpers were junior members from the United States, Canada, Scotland and Switzerland, who wanted to learn how to professionally fit their animals.
The company can take cattle as young calves and halter break them and then prepare them for shows. Whenever possible, junior members are encouraged to work with them.
That means washing, clipping, combing and doing everything they can to enhance an animal’s best attributes.
Working with juniors is an enjoyable part of the job, and the couple emphasizes hands-on learning.
Some people do not want children touching the cattle, but young people often don’t know what they are doing when it comes time for them to enter the ring. Jade and Mark want them to bond with their animals.
“If you are not allowed to do anything, then your heart isn’t in it,” Schneider said.
As soon as they were finished with the Denver show, the couple planned to load up their trailer and head to the Jan. 13-Feb. 4 Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo in Texas.
Canadian shows include Agribition, Farmfair International, the Lloydminster Stock Show and the Olds Fall Classic. American shows include the major stock shows in Denver, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Houston, San Angelo, Austin, Reno and Louisville, Kentucky.
A business of this type might be less successful if they worked exclusively in Canada, but the U.S. has more large shows, bigger payouts, scholarships and more interested exhibitors.
Advertising consists of word of mouth recommendations.
“We don’t really promote it. Our name is well known enough,” Schneider said. “We don’t have a website, we don’t do Facebook. We have so many clients already we have to turn people down.”
Schneider said moving to Texas was a big decision for a young woman from central Alberta.
“I like both places equally,” she said.“In winter I love Texas, and I love summer in Canada.”
She has permanent residence status, but when she left Canada after her wedding she could not return home for two years.
Her family came to visit during that period, and social media helped her keep in touch. Her family showed cattle in the U.S., so they could meet and work together.
Her experiences with immigration officials in downtown Dallas may have been unique. Beside interviews about their married life, the officials wanted to see wedding invitations and photos. Every wedding picture included cattle in the background.
“They had never seen that,” she said. “They had never seen cows.”
