Recently Rosemary and Ginger (the lambs formerly known as Princess and Cinderella) made a trip to the county seat to participate in their first ‘Weigh-In’ and Livestock Show at the fairgrounds.
Here is our guest blogger, Lena, to share a little bit about this experience.
I had a lot of fun, but it is not all fun and games in the show ring. First I had to weigh my lambs. Rosemary was 71 lb and Ginger was 73 lb. I chose to show Rosemary because she had more muscle build up. They had two types of classes, the judging of the sheep and the judging of how well you show your lamb (showmanship).
This picture is during the first class which was judging of the sheep.
I am the one in the red shirt, right in the middle of the class
(which is a good place to be right now).
This is picture is during the judging of how well
you show your sheep (showmanship).
This is Rosemary and Ginger waiting outside the show ring.
In judging of the lamb you have to line them up with their side to each other and a little room between them so the judge can get through. He/she will examine them, then when he/she tells you to, you have to walk them in around the ring to the other side then stop and stay right where you are at. He/she will come around to look at them again . Then he/she will start place them in the order he wants them to be in. In judging of the lamb I got 4th place which is a good place to be right now because that means that my sheep doesn’t have too much fat and that she needs to build up more muscle by the show/sale in September.
When you do showmanship you have to do certain things so that you can be a good sheep shower. First you have to keep a tight hold on its head. If you are using a halter (those yellow things that are around my sheep’s heads) make sure they are not dragging on the ground. You have to pay attention to the judge because you are supposed to stay on the opposite side of sheep than the judge. That means that if the judge is on the right side of your sheep you need to be on the left side of your sheep looking at the judge smiling. You also need to make sure that your sheep’s feet are in a rectangle like shape. In showmanship I got 7th place and that means I need to do a better job at showing my sheep.
This was my first show so I still have a lot to learn about showing sheep.
