• GAZLO
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Showing off

I had a ton of fun writing a story about showmanship for today’s paper. (The story is not online at the moment, but will be Saturday afternoon.)

I would highly recommend grabbing a paper and checking out the pictures. Rock County 4-H’ers are very photogenic! I interviewed eight kids who show five species of animals between them.

This year, for the first time, kids will get to participate in a Master Showmanship class at the Rock County 4-H Fair. Contestants will have to show one of each large species: sheep, pigs, goats, dairy and beef.

The Rock County 4-H Fair was a highlight of my summer as a kid. And showmanship was the highlight of my fair.

My all-time favorite fair memory???

It was the summer of 1994, my last year in 4-H. It was beastly hot on Saturday morning, and we were having dairy showmanship on the blacktop in front of the stock pavilion.

It was my last shot to win senior showmanship, and it wasn’t looking good. The judge pulled in half the class, and I was left out with my cow, Jessie, drooling down my arm.

But the judge was trying to trick us. He had pulled the bottom half of the class in first to see how patient the rest of us were. He sent those kids back to the barn and put the remaining 20 kids back through the paces.

He started from the bottom up again until he was left with my best friend, Dawn Kyle, and me.

Dawn and I had been joined at the hip every summer since I started in 4-H. We were in the same club and were on the dairy judging team together. We went on to judge together at UW-Platteville.

Our coach liked that we judged and gave reasons almost identically.

It took a long time for the showmanship judge to pick between us. He asked a barrage of questions and made us switch cows. That was good for me—Dawn’s Barbie was much more manageable than my Jessie.

Finally, he pointed one finger at Dawn and two at me. I screamed, dropped Jesse’s halter and attacked Dawn in a giant hug. I don’t think I would have been so happy if I had won myself.

We milked our cows, then followed the tradition we’d had every year after showmanship. The winner bought the loser a vanilla shake, and the loser bought the winner a chocolate.

Best vanilla shake I ever had.