Inside the fair: Showing success requires preparation

MOSES LAKE — Showing a fair animal is something of a partnership between animal and owner.

Fitting and showing competition for sheep, goats, steers, dairy cattle and swine is scheduled for today at the 2021 Grant County Fair, and this is when kids learn whether the work they’ve put in over the summer will pay off.

In some cases, it’s not just during the summer. Carter Schultz, of Ephrata, is showing a steer, which he’s raised for 18 months.

“It takes a lot of time working with him,” Schultz said. “You have to work with him every day.”

Animals need feed and water every day, of course, but a fair animal needs more attention than that. Exhibitors have to work with their fair animals even when they don’t want to — after school, on weekends, when it’s hot, when it’s really hot, and when it’s cold.

“You can’t put it off (without training),” Schultz said. “You can, but your steer is not going to perform like you want it.”

Makenna Stuart, of Moses Lake, said the exhibitor has to be committed.

“It’s not just the steer that’s got to do the work,” she said.

Chelann Noyes, of Ephrata, said a lot of success in the show ring is preparation, and it starts early.

“When they’re really young, you’ve got to spend a lot of time with them,” she said.

Noyes started giving her pig a regular bath when it was young, so it wasn’t annoyed when the fair rolled around and it had to go through the pig washing station. (Or the hogwash, according to the sign at the washing station in the fairgrounds swine barn.)

“A big part of it is spending a lot of time with your pig,” said Vivian Jenks, of Moses Lake.

If the pig does not know what’s expected of it, it can’t do what she wants, she said.

Pigs are not led with a halter, so the only means of control is a cane or a whip resembling a riding crop. Noyes said she trained her pig with both methods, starting early.

Kass Kimble, of Moses Lake, said competitors have to use techniques that fit the animal.

Kimble shows pigs, and a big, fat pig is going to be slow when walking around the arena, he said. It will resent being hurried, so Kimble uses the crop sparingly.

“A nice and easy tap,” he said. “You don’t want to stress him.”

A skinnier pig has more energy.

“He wants to outrun you,” Kimble said.

So the exhibitor has to keep that energy under control, he said. And even in situations where the pig is ignoring its owner, exhibitors have to make it look like they’re the ones in control.

“You make everything he did look like you did it,” Kimble said.

Stuart said raising an animal is easier with the support of family and friends. She got help with everyday care, she said, as well as when training her animal.

“You have a whole team who helps you,” she said.