Southwest Highways March 2013 | Page 25

March 2013 24

pace between the show barn and the stalls; in the show barn you watch others competing for awhile, but return to the stalls, concerned that your animals might need something. Then you get anxious that you might be missing something in the show, so you rush back again, never at peace until it is all done.

If you go to a livestock show and need to sit down for awhile, try taking in a judged show. If you don’t know what the judge is looking for it can be puzzling, especially because the animal you think looks best almost never wins. Color is rarely important, but straight lines, strong legs, smooth movements, and ample chest capacity can be the difference between a winner and a loser. The judge is looking for characteristics that make a cow a really good cow, or a goat a fine example of its breed, while we in the audience often look for one we’d like to look at out in a field, which is a completely different kind of choice.

Prize Winning Pig

Pennsylvania Farm Show

-IShadowed

Team Steer Roping

Tucson Rodeo, Arizona

-Ken Bosma

Livestock shows can have a great variety of animals, and although the most common are horse, cattle and goat shows, you can also find chicken, rabbit, sheep, pig, and my personal favorite, llama shows. While chickens and rabbits are judged in their cages and horses, cattle, sheep and goats are judged walking in a circle around the arena,

llama shows have performance

classes in addition to the

conformation halter classes. The

llama performance classes

include three different obstacle

courses for the handler to lead

the llama through, which can be

fun to watch not only to see what