Showing an animal is no joke, but when it comes to showmanship it’s mainly about you and your knowledge of the species. 

Throughout the week of The Great Frederick Fair multiple shows took place allowing youth to show what they have been working on all year. When showing, your job is to make sure your animal looks the best. Highlighting certain features is important to show how they have grown and matured. When it comes to showmanship, youth take their best-behaved animal into the show ring and take a minute to focus on themselves. It doesn’t matter if their animal is at the top of the class and costs thousands of dollars or if it didn’t place well but can be handled properly throughout the ring. Through showmanship your knowledge of your species is tested whether that is a part on the body or off of a scorecard. Your main job is to have knowledge of your animal and what to show off.

Throughout showmanship as soon as you step into the ring weather you are showing a goat or a cow there are three main rules you must always pay attention to 

1. Always keep your eyes on the judge.

If you can show your control of the animal with your eyes locked on the judge, then that shows you know how to work and tame your species. Showing your fierce attitude like “I’m here to win this” will give that judge the knowledge, “okay, she is locking eyes and is ready for whatever I through at her.” 

2. Keep the animal in between you and the judge.

Like my friend told me to think of it as a ham sandwich. The judge and you are the bun, and the ham goes in the middle. The judge will never want to see our rear end. The judge is there to look at your animal from all angles. Getting in the way might distract his view from important spacings.

3. Always keep your cool.

Sometimes your animal might act out due to stress, heat, exhaustion or another animal. This might cause them to not want to walk/move or kick up on their hind quarters. But no matter what you always keep calm! When your animal is not walking you don’t want to drag it, you can tap its but or take it to show but you never give up and you never drag it. If your goat is kicking up on their hind quarters constantly you can take a second and walk it off or lightly put your hand on their upper back to stop them from rearing up. It is important to try your best to stay calm and not freak out in the situation. 

The Great Frederick Fair Overall Master Showman show will test your knowledge not only of the species you won Master of but of all 4 types of Livestock: Market Goats, Lambs, Hogs, and Beef.

This Year I was the Market Goat Master Showman. And when I tell you learning how to show these animals was not joke, it was truly no joke and tough work. Each animal has a certain style of showing and technique used throughout. Within less than 3 days I had to learn showmanship for 3 other species that I have never stepped inside a ring with.

Starting with Lambs, I felt I had more control of the animal than a hog because I have one hand on the animal at all times but controlling an animal by the muscle/face was tough. Trying to keep the animal walking at a slow pace for the judge was difficult. The lamb would want to stop dead in its tracks or speed up and your only control was with your hand on the mussel. Comparing showmanship of a goat to a lamb is similar in the stricture of setting up the animal. When it came to bracing the lamb, you hand to get down into more of a squatting position and keep the head in a certain angle.

When showing a hog your only control of the animal is with a show-whip. You must drive your pig by taping its neck/upper jaw area. This will move the pig left and right. To remind the pig to go forward you can tap their shoulder/ham and continue with tapping the jaw. Showing the judge, the 3 views of the pig are important: the front, side, and back. But when there are more than 3 people in the ring things can get rough. Another showman might try and block the judge from seeing your pig and overall distract from your control of your pig.

For beef, a trained animal is key. For an animal 5 times bigger than you, controlling its actions is sometimes hard. With your show stick you can move their feet to the correct position and calm them buy showing them a reward of a scratch once set up. When you want them, you stop them by bopping their nose with your hand or the stick and turn to set up. Overtime keeping their head held high gets tiring, but you always want to make sure their head is up.

Learning how to show 3 new species in less than 3 days was tough but rewarding overall. Having a chance to learn new knowledge and show these animals was unbelievable and made me realize that each specie is different in many ways. But they also have similarities when showing. If there is anything I would say I took away from this opportunity I could say a million different answers but the one that stood out to me the most, is that being a part of the Master Showman Show was great opportunity to learn and try something I was not totally confident in at the start—but it truly was a reward in the end. I also learned I really want to own a cow.