Sheep baaa-ttle kicks off fair
To most, the newly shorn sheep circling the arena in the showmanship event at this week’s Northwest Montana Fair and Rodeo all look more or less the same. But to the well-trained eyes of the young competitors in the senior division, the sheep are differentiated by subtle differences in size, muscle tone and character.
Most of the 11 girls and two boys competing in the senior division of the event got their companions around February, and have spent the last six months nurturing them from small lambs into mostly obedient sheep. When it is all said and done, the most graceful pairing will take home the grand champion ribbon.
“They are judging just how well the students know the sheep industry,” said Brian Bay, a teacher at the H.E. Robinson Vocational Agricultural Center in southeast Kalispell who leads seminars on showing sheep for his students.
All the competitors dress to win. Flowers adorn the girls’ hair, shirts are ironed and tucked in and the sheep, shorn within five days, boast unblemished, pristine white coats.
The competitors lead the sheep they’ve trained for most of the event, but swap sheep for a brief period to show off their skills with an unfamiliar animal.
When they swap back, they lead the animals in one long line in circles around the judge, guiding the sheep with one hand near its throat and the other on the back of its neck.
Bay said the event is often more popular with girls, particularly in the older age groups, because height makes it more difficult to stoop over and guide the sheep.
“It’s probably 70 percent girls and 30 percent boys,” Bay said, “The boys get so tall and it gets hard for them to get down, so they’ll show hogs or steers.”
The judge paced back and forth with his hand on his jawline, pondering which pair impressed the most. From time to time a sheep would get loose and go for a jaunt around the pen, but competitors quickly regained control.
Knowing the challenges of your animal is just as important as knowing its strengths, said Josh Stroh, the event’s judge and a native of Roy, a small town in central Montana, east of Great Falls.
“The thing about showmanship is you need to know what’s good about your animal and you need to know what is bad about your animal,” Stroh said.
The grand champion of this year’s event was Bailey Lake, and the reserve champion was Kaylee Fritz.
Fritz’s sheep, Cosmo, is a Suffolk Hampshire cross. This was Fritz’s eighth year showing, and she anticipated she’d do it for at least another couple years.
Following the showmanship event, the sheep also win awards individually. They are judged on physical qualities, such as musculature, cleanliness and size.
After all judging, the sheep are sold at auction. They will be on display in the agricultural building through Friday.