The West Prairie Press

Janell Heaton is a senior at West Prairie Junior/Senior High School. This is her first year in journalism. Janell is hoping to expand her writing skills through this class, although she is a little nervous. She enjoys spending time with her family, participating in FFA, showing sheep, and riding horses. Janell spends most of her time with her family at her sister’s house in Macomb, where she helps her sister with her kids, cooking, and cleaning.

Janell participates in many different FFA events, and one of her favorites is livestock judging. She shows sheep at several events with her nieces, including the National Suffolk Show, McDonough County Fair, FFA Section 11 Fair, and the Illinois State Fair. Janell showed 14 head at most shows this past summer. She shows Suffolks and Suffolk-Hamp crossbreds. She spends her summer preparing lambs for show by walking them and halter-breaking them, often with help from her family.

Janell and her sister have two horses: Chevy, an Appaloosa, and Sadie, a Quarter Horse. Sadie is new because Janell’s previous horse, Lolo, a half Gypsy, half Quarter Horse, had to be put down due to medical reasons. Janell enjoys riding the Weinberg Trails in Augusta, Illinois.