Show Ring Etiquette – How You Respond Is Up To You
Many years ago, I learned a lesson about show ring etiquette. I was working for a friend who had about 20 head in his string. It was a long, hot summer week and we were all working hard to make sure the cattle looked the part.
Show day rolled around and he had a heifer calf he was pretty high on, and she ended up getting beat in class. He came back to the stalls in a rage and said something to the effect of “I just quit showing, stood on my show stick and stared him down…he knew I was mad.”
Do you know what I thought at that point? “Great you idiot, we have like 15 more that you need to show today. Wonder how that’s going to go?”
Listen, we’ve all been there. We’re showing one that we are pretty proud of and we get beat. Maybe we should have and maybe we shouldn’t have but either way, we should all take a lesson from Jackie Davis, Hereford Hall of Fame member.
“If you show cattle long enough, you’re going to lose some you shouldn’t and your going to win some you shouldn’t and in the end it will all work out.”
Jackie Davis
Don’t Let Competition Get the Best of You
I’d love to tell you that example was an isolated incident, but it wasn’t. Over the years, I’ve witnessed all sorts of behaviors from showmen. Competition sometimes gets the best of us but you don’t want to be the guy who gets a reputation for throwing his show stick on the way back to the stall. Your competitors will view you with much more respect if you handle yourself with class. You’ll see that word, class, several times in this post because I think it’s absolutely critical.
1. Be Respectful
Many years ago there was a deodorant commercial whose slogan was “Never Let Them See You Sweat.” For whatever reason, that has stuck with me. Not only that, in my mind, it also ties into show ring etiquette. Handle success as well as defeat with class.
No judge I’ve ever seen has judged a junior show, been stared down by a kid and reversed his decision. In fact, it’s highly likely that the rest of the day will go poorly for that kid.
Over the years, we’ve worked with many young showmen and always train them to not only be respectful but try to get the judge to like them. It’s so easy to answer the judge’s question with a one-word answer, but we want them to engage the judge in an authentic way.
When Will was 7, he could tell a judge exactly what his heifer was fed including all supplements. This was as a result of two things, he was mixing the feed himself and he was trained to explain in detail when asked. I’m not suggesting you get into a full-length conversation that feels unnatural, but set yourself apart in a pleasant way.
2. Be Authentic
You can derail yourself with the whole pleasant thing too though. I don’t know who came up with the “smile while you are out there concept.” You hear moms telling their kids that as they enter the show ring. Maybe because in some cases, that’s all they know to tell them.
Absolutely, you want to look nice and approachable but I saw a girl at our county fair who literally grinned the entire class. I thought, holy smokes, her face is going to get sore! You can’t focus on showing when you are focused on grinning like someone suggested you pose for the camera.
3. Help Out- Within reason
Consider the way you maneuver around the ring. Think about the flow of the show and everything from the judge’s perspective. If someone’s calf ahead of you stalls, help them out. It will show your show ring etiquette and the respect you have for your competitors. Additionally, it will help the ring people and help to keep the show moving along.
This next statement may be controversial, and that’s okay:
Don’t intentionally bury your competition in the ring.
Chances are good that if you are capable and/or trained to bury them, they are capable of doing the same thing to you. Pretty soon you are both on top of the judge and he can’t see anything.
Frank loves judging shows and says,
“As an evaluator, I like to see everything at the same distance. I like the line to be neat. In fact, if you keep pulling closer to me, you can possibly get too close and be at a disadvantage. If you are too close, I can’t see the whole picture. This to me is not a good showman, it’s rude.”
Frank Ward
This fall in his reasons to a peewee showmanship class, Tyler Norvell was explaining to the little guys that evaluators are trained to get off of the livestock. While he was teaching them to use the whole ring, I think that supports the idea that your judge can see you better if you are in line.
Don’t allow yourself to be buried.
So what are you supposed to do? Good question and it doesn’t have a specific answer. Your job is to present the best views of your calf to the judge. One thing you can do is give yourself plenty of room. There may be times that you are forced out of line and that’s okay.
In that scenario, you need to get your calf shown, so get back to your place in line as best as you can. We teach our boys that a truly great showman is respectful, helpful and courteous to his or her competitors. Do we all get it right 100% of the time? Absolutely not, but we sure try to…
4. Things will go wrong, handle it right
Sometimes your cattle are not going to cooperate with you or their environment and they will bump into cattle near them. That is going to happen, but the way you handle it is critical. Recently, Will’s steer was acting up in a class and he crashed into a young lady near him. That caused her to lose her steer.
While it was certainly not intentional, it was also not fair to the young lady. We told Will he’d better apologize to her. After everyone got home we were discussing it again. When he claimed he never saw her again at the show, we were very clear that he was to find her at the next show and make it a point to apologize.
When you walk in the show ring, your confidence and body language need to say that you’re leading the best one the judge is going to see all day. Once the cattle are placed, your body language does not need to say, “This is the best one and you couldn’t find him.” As our judging team coach used to tell us, you will likely cross paths with that guy again. If you left a bad taste in his mouth, he may remember.
You aren’t always going to agree with the placings and that’s fine. These are probably your current or future friends you are showing against. Don’t hijack that potential by acting inappropriately. Some of our fiercest competitors both growing up and even today are our best friends. The bottom line is that as a showman, you need to always handle yourself with class. It is a critical component of show ring etiquette
