Sheep, goat, cattle, and swine showmanship aren’t about getting good and staying there. Showmanship is about getting good enough to win and still continuing to improve. To win you have to improve every year. This means working hard with your animals and collecting new information. It also takes being humble enough to listen to someone else’s advice. A lot of people are willing to share knowledge, but few will ask. The best showmen desire criticism, because they know the only way to improve is to correct their mistakes.

In each of my books, I have included three basic steps to winning any livestock show. These steps are training, knowledge, and practice. I put them in order of importance, but you won’t win a show at any level without mastering all three. In this article, we are going to look at the first one.

The Importance of Training

Training takes just a few minutes a day. All you need is enough time to pull your animal out of his pen and work on the show process.

It only takes a few minutes a day to build a relationship with your animals, wether they be sheep, goats, swine, or beef and to work on the basics of show ring execution. Training shouldn’t be too overwhelming. It just takes a few minutes a day to halter break and work on the basics of show ring execution. Those basics for sheep and market goats include setting the legs, walking, bracing, and building up endurance. For swine, dairy goats and cattle it doesn’t include bracing, but with swine and dairy goats it includes patterns, maneuvering and properly getting in front of the judge.

Most judges won’t consider placing you unless your animal is under control. He or she needs to be working with you. This is the reason why knowledge is not the first step. Judges look for kids with animals that are responding, regardless of the amount of knowledge or experience the showmen might have. The judges immediately separate their most likely winners from the rest of the showmen in their minds. The group of potential winners nearly always includes only the best-behaved livestock. My point is that no matter how much you read or ask questions to improve your ability to show, you won’t win unless you’re putting in time with your animals.

The lesson above is from my showmanship books each titled Show Your Way To The Top and each on a different species. If you would like a copy on any species (sheep, market goat, dairy goat, beef cattle, or swine) or want to learn more, go to mastershowmanship.com/shop