In this blog, I’m going to cover somebig mistakes that showmen make that prevent them from practicing every day. In order to become a professional or to compete at the high levels, you need to be practicing with your animals. Most of the time, the kids who end up winning are the ones who have put in the most time at home. They understand their animals, they can switch sides effortlessly and create a picture that comes together smoothly and completely. Market goats are no exception!
Although this blog is geared towards market goat showmanship and the mistakes showmen make when they are practicing with their animals – it applies to every species you want to succeed with.
One of the biggest mistakes showmen make is where they build the shelters for their animals. Build your goat pen somewhere that is easy to access. Don’t put your goat out in the pasture in a little hut that you can only get to by climbing over a broken fence into the mud. I’ve seen a large number of showmen keep their animals in places they can’t, or don’t want to get to. The pen should be close by the house, kept clean and the gate should be easy to open. This is not only for the sake of convenience, but for the sake of the true humane treatment that every animal should receive. You can make a huge impact on how much you work with your animals by making it easier to begin. Parents who want your children to love the sport of showing market goats should help in this aspect and think about simplifying things.
This goes right along with number one. You don’t want the process of catching your goat and haltering them take more than a moment. The goat should be easy to catch. If your goat is difficult to catch, then get a panel and build some sort of catch pen. You should never be catching a goat in an open area. You should be moving them into a corner and closing it off so that it is safe and simple. If you have a catch pen, you can easily chase him into it and shut the gate behind him. Catch pens are easy to make and take relatively little time to put together.
Imagine how much more likely you would be to go practice when you know, you will have your goat within seconds of deciding to do so. You could be entering a clean pen, gently chasing the goat into the corner, closing a panel around them and haltering them all without trouble. You can have them on a halter or a collar in a matter of minutes and spend your time on practice and productive show improving rather then getting frustrated before you begin.
You also need to have a nice place to go to train and practice with your animal. After you have them, you want a flat and clean area to work. It is no fun to work in the mud or on a hillside. A couple of really good places to work are driveways or lawns. If you have a mirror set up, dry ground and a relatively flat area that is all you need.
No one wants to get their hands all muddy setting legs. If you find yourself avoiding practice because your goat is dirty, you need to fix the problem. Give him a bath, put some shavings or straw down, or fix whatever is making him dirty. A goats feet and legs need to stay clean and dry. If they are getting dirty to a point that you don’t want to work with your animal, they are already out of hand. In this day and age, you want all the shag and best cared for legs you can get. So you might even go the extra mile, even if you only show at the county level, condition and learn to wrap your goat’s legs to master the show ring look. The side effect to caring for your animal is that they also look nicer, they are more fun to work with and you are not working with a gross or dirty animal at any time.
I hope these four mistakes can help you to master your practice and build a routine that you can master. These tips come from my book Show Your Way to the Top: How to master market goat showmanship and impress the judges. The book is on market goat showmanship and you can find it at mastershowmanship.com/shop or on Amazon.
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