BARLOW, Ohio — A senior-year homeschool student with a ranching family history in Florida, Francesca Sanders said this year’s Barlow Independent Fair in Washington County, Ohio, was her first experience participating in a livestock project and Junior Fair show competition.
“It’s very fun, and it’s definitely a lot of work,” Sanders, 17, said on Sept. 26, as she prepared in the horse barn for the weekend’s horse shows. “I have been preparing for the Barlow Independent Fair for about a month and a half.”
The fair is an opportunity for youth who are in 4-H, FFA and those who are unaffiliated with 4-H, to showcase and encourage their agriculture skills. At the invitation of a riding instructor with a horse, Sanders and her mother, Jessica Sanders, traveled to Barlow from their off-grid homestead in Parkersburg, West Virginia, to participate in the Barlow Independent Fair.
“We’re Florida crackers,” Jessica Sanders said. “Our family used to ride the Florida Cracker Trail to drive the cattle across the state, and then we moved to West Virginia.”
The Sanders said they heard about Barlow through their friends, who also offered to loan them their horses.
“The Barlow Independent Fair is welcoming, and you can see there’s a community of people who come together and support each other,” Jessica said. “We feel a lot of support during this fair.”
Oldtimers return to the show ring
The community support continues long after the teens grow up in Barlow.
Barlow Fair Board Member Jenny Seaman said the fair has been around for 154 years and is known for its strong support for 4-H, FFA and tractor pulls. There is always a free ride night on the first night of the fair that brings “everybody out to support the fair,” she said.
“The Barlow Independent Fair is the oldest independent fair in Ohio,” Seaman said. “It’s a great community event. Everybody comes together in the community.”
Seaman grew up showing dairy cattle in 4-H and this year returned with her children and their cattle. It wasn’t long until Seaman found herself in the show ring, where she earned first place when she showed a feeder steer during the Oldtimer Showmanship competition out of a handful of adults.
“Barlow is a small town, but the county is big and it’s a real hometown feel,” she said.
Youth development scholars who compiled research on youth programs found that agricultural activities help children build lifelong skills and become engaged in making positive contributions to their communities. It also gives youth a slight advantage in college and career readiness. The National 4-H Council’s National 4-H Index Study said that out of about 4,000 students surveyed nationwide in 2023, over half said 4-H helped them to identify things they are good at, while 80% said 4-H helped them to explore future career options.
The outpouring of community support for the youth at the Barlow Independent Fair brought back Althea Thompson and her 15-year-old daughter Lytayshia for a third year with 4-H in 2025.
“My daughter is very shy, but she has a good horse trainer,” Althea Thompson said. “Her 4-H advisor is awesome. This fair, and 4-H, has helped my daughter to open up and talk to people more.”
Althea Thompson said that Lytayshia “never talks to anybody,” but when she’s in her network at the fair, she looks for opportunities to help other youth with their projects.
Jessica Sanders and Althea Thompson agreed that bringing their daughters to the Barlow Independent Fair this year was a positive and safe experience, where they chaperoned their kids’ activities in a safe area while adults socialized, too.
“The people at Barlow are awesome, and they’re sweet, too,” Althea Thompson said.
Over 200 animals were brought to the Barlow Independent Fair, held the last full week of September, to be showcased at one of the year’s final county fairs on the schedule in Ohio. The fair’s livestock sale brought in $393,175, with market ducks, dairy goats and feeder calf heifers and steers. In Junior Fair showmanship, over 50 market ducks were entered, but only three sheep.
Bailey Yoho, 14, said she was participating in the fair with the Washington County Frontier FFA. While she and her grandmother tended to her goat named Black Hole, Yoho explained that she keeps returning to the Barlow Independent Fair every year because she loves the animals that she gets to work with, including hogs. Her favorite animals at the fair are the goats.
“I like goats. I’ve shown them for my whole life, since I was in third grade,” Yoho said. This year, a pair of Yoho’s goats earned $1,150 at the livestock sale.
