RANDOLPH, Ohio — The low hum of overhead fans, the distant spray of water in the wash bay, the constant whirring of blowers and the muted exchange of pleasantries as steers moved about filled the air.
Outside Hamilton Arena, showmen of all skill levels and backgrounds prepared for the junior fair market steer showmanship contest on Aug. 22 at the Portage County Randolph Fair.
First-year beef exhibitor Claire Coumos leaned under the side of her steer, Socks, to ensure every last piece of hair was in place. Brushing Socks was among Claire’s favorite ways to spend time with the 1,610-pound crossbreed.
Watching from just outside the stall, Claire’s mom, Julie Coumos, reminded her to be careful.
“I’m getting him fluffy,” Claire said and continued brushing.
As the start time of the showmanship competition neared, Claire’s calm and composed demeanor shifted. Preparing for the show demanded a sense of urgency. But more than anything else, excitement took hold.
Claire hadn’t just waited months for the opportunity to lead Socks around the show ring. She had dreamt of the opportunity for years and defied every obstacle in her path to make it happen.
A quiet delivery room
When Claire was born her parents, Julie and Dan Coumos, had never heard of Apert syndrome — a rare craniofacial condition that causes the fusion of bones in the skull, hands and feet.
“Honestly, when Claire was born we had no idea. It was kind of a surprise. It was kind of quiet in that delivery room and I think everybody was kind of afraid to say anything because nobody really knew,” Julie said.
Because Apert syndrome is so rare, the Coumoses waited three or four days after Claire was born for an official diagnosis. In the interim, they wrestled with other potential diagnoses and managed their fear of the looming uncertainties surrounding their daughter’s future.
“They told us that she would probably not walk and she would never be able to pick anything up or grasp anything,” Julie said.
Claire was born with fused bones in her skull, hands and feet that would require a myriad of surgeries to allow her to grow, develop and achieve the same milestones as her peers. At 12 years old, she’s had more than a dozen corrective surgeries and traveled as far as Dallas, Texas, and Boston, Massachusetts, to be treated by surgeons who specialize in Apert syndrome.
One of the first major hurdles Claire had to clear as an infant was a 20-hour craniosynostosis surgery — the first of two cranial surgeries Claire has undergone to expand her skull and give her brain room to grow.
“For a lot of the kids and a lot of the parents, it can be an emotional surgery because you’re basically constructing a new face,” Julie said.
Claire was also born with rosebud hands and fused toes. Her fingers were completely fused together, lacking joints, with her middle fingers twisted into the shape of an ‘s’ over her ring fingers.
She’s had five syndactyly releases to separate and lengthen her fingers and toes, which have been completely constructed from fused bone. Her first surgery when she was 13 months old involved both her hands and feet and resulted in casts on each hand and each foot.
Her surgeries have delayed milestones in areas like walking and speaking and, at times, forced setbacks. Claire has lived in a cycle of catching up, falling back from surgery and catching back up again.
Living her life in between surgeries, Claire defied the odds her doctors had given her and exceeded their expectations for the amount of dexterity she would develop. Her doctors believed she would only be able to pick up objects by bringing both hands together around them, applying pressure and lifting her arms. They didn’t think she would be able to do things like play with Legos or grasp a pencil.
When Claire was about 2 or 3, she pinched her brother and proved she was capable of more.
“There’s really nothing that the doctors said that really came to fruition,” Julie said. “I think that Claire’s personality is very much where there’s a will there’s a way, and she’s always found a way to make things work out.”
Claire has also undergone a lot of therapy, following surgeries, and many times was encouraged to learn to use adaptive devices to complete the tasks everyone else around her was doing without them. Staying true to herself, Claire refused the adaptive devices and worked to master the same fine motor skills her peers already possessed without them.
“She’s very determined. She doesn’t let anything get in the way of what she wants to do,” Dan said.
Claire was always proud following her surgeries, eager to show her family and friends her new fingers and toes. It didn’t occur to Claire that she was any different than anyone else until she was about 7 or 8. Tying her shoes, she realized the way she did it looked a little bit different than the rest of her family, and she asked her mom, “Why do my hands look like this?”
“It was kind of this beautiful moment,” Julie said. “She was like ‘Well, I get to learn how to do this’ and she kind of started pointing out the positives of how she can find new and interesting ways to do the things her brother could do. I feel like it was in that conversation I realized that she was going to be okay.”
Dreaming even bigger
Claire’s interest in animals started with horses. She spent hours grooming and brushing her ride-on pony and stuffed animals with a curry set her parents got her.
Getting a horse wasn’t in the cards for the family, so Claire started in 4-H two years ago showing chickens. She showed chickens and ducks last year.
But Claire never gave up on showing a bigger animal. She had been asking to show a steer for about three years before the perfect opportunity came up.
Last fall, Gary Smith ended up with more steers than he had originally planned. One of those steers was a docile black and white crossbred with white feet.
As the owner of United Earthworks LLC, Gary frequently worked on jobs with Claire’s dad, Dan, who owns Marlboro Concrete. Both with children in 4-H, Dan and Gary occasionally discussed their children’s projects and goals, and Claire’s desire to show a steer came up more than once.
Gary believed the Socks’ gentle temperament provided an ideal opportunity for Claire. He offered to sell his extra steers to Dan and to allow Claire and her older brother, Danny, to keep them on his farm, Three L Farm, in Deerfield, Ohio.
“When the opportunity came up for us to try one I was like ‘let’s absolutely go for it,’” Dan said.
The Coumoses and the Smiths jumped in head first. Gary and his wife Taylor finished building their barn last September to house the show steers for the Coumous kids and their family. All of the steers were tagged for the fair in November.
“It was like every day there was an army of kids running around here every morning,” Gary said.
Between the Smiths’ three children and the Coumoses’ six children, Three L Farms hosted quite the crew all summer.
“It’s been a whole family affair because even the little ones are spending every single morning at that barn for two and a half hours,” Julie said.
Doing the work
Claire is a doer. She’s up early in the morning, making a checklist and then working through it. Caring for Socks all summer at Three L Farm was no different.
“I had a lot of being woken up at 5:30 in the morning just to make sure I was ready to go feed at 7:30,” Dan said.
When her parents asked her to wait to wake them to go to the barn until closer to 6:30 or 7 a.m., she started waking Danny up.
“(The barn) is Claire’s absolute happy place. This is where she wants to be. If she can be in one place it’s this place,” Danny said.
All summer Claire, Danny and the Smiths’ son Luke Smith took turns walking, bathing and feeding their steers. They also held mock showmanship contests that a friend and neighboring farmer, Zach Morehead, judged. Friends and experienced showmen McKenzie and Taylar Whitted instructed the novice showmen and their steers. Claire learned how to use body language instead of verbal commands to communicate with Socks.
And her desire to be at the barn only grew. She pleaded to muck out “one more stall” before leaving. If her family had something fun planned after the barn, Claire wanted to stay. She even skipped summer camp so she could see Socks every day and care for him herself.
Making sacrifices
Summer camp wasn’t the only sacrifice Claire made for Socks.
During a routine craniofacial clinic just before Easter, Claire’s doctors discovered a mass at the top of her cervical spine. A follow-up, full-body MRI revealed a Chiari malformation — the bulging of her cerebellum into her spinal canal through the opening at the base of her skull where her spinal cord connects to her brain. The new diagnosis meant she would require surgery to relieve pressure and restore the normal flow of cerebrospinal fluid.
Her doctors initially wanted to schedule surgery for June or July; however, Claire wouldn’t have been able to show Socks at the Portage County Fair in August. Claire’s biggest question for her neurosurgeon was whether she could postpone the surgery until September to finish her 4-H project with Socks.
After consulting her doctors and giving the situation a lot of careful consideration, the Coumoses scheduled Claire’s Chiari decompression surgery for Sept. 16, so she could still take Socks to the fair.
“As parents, we kind of decided your kids still have to live, too,” Julie said.
The biggest steer at the fair
Leading up to the fair, Claire asked everyone she ran into to watch her and Socks at the Portage County Fair. She also claimed she’d have the biggest steer at the fair, and she was right. When Socks weighed in at 1,610 pounds, he claimed that title by 75 pounds.
Weighing around 87 pounds, Claire had her work cut out for her — not that she ever doubted herself.
“I always felt like I had it handled,” Claire said.
Claire proved to be quite the showman in the ring with Socks, smiling at onlookers and making sure everyone noticed her and Socks. She held on to his halter as best as she could and worked to get his feet set like she’d been taught.
“She was all smiles,” Taylor Smith said. “It made us feel good that we were able to see it happen before our eyes and everything went off without a hitch.”
Claire earned a fourth-place finish in the novice class 2 contest and a fifth-place finish in the junior class 5 contest during the junior fair market steer showmanship competition on Aug. 22. She sold Socks to Duma Meats for $5.25 per pound on Aug. 25 at the junior fair market steer auction.
“It didn’t matter what place she came in for the showmanship. She felt like she won grand champion just being out there,” Dan said.
By the end of the fair, Claire had earned more than ribbons and a good sale price. She had won the hearts of everyone who had spent time around her and Socks. There was no shortage of farmers sharing their knowledge, offering words of encouragement and giving her hugs.
In addition to the Smiths’ kindness in allowing Claire to keep her steer in their barn, a number of others helped make her dream a reality. Zach Morehead loaned the Coumoses shoots and a blower for drying their steers at the fair. Claire’s 4-H group, the Portage Porkers, gave her continuous support. Members of her church, Marlboro Christian Church, showed up to watch her show Socks. The entire farming community offered to help and ensured a safe environment for her to show Socks at the Portage County Fair.
“I could have never provided this opportunity for my kids. This felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Julie said.
Like everything else, trailering Socks at the end of the fair was something Claire was adamant about doing herself. When Gary offered to do it for her, she pushed through the pain so she could take one last walk with him.
“Because I loved Socks,” she said.
