Winter Classic Prospect Show

On Saturday the kids participated in a 4-H Winter Classic Prospect Show with Dakota and William's pigs. Drake got in the show ring for the first time ever with a hog and he did a great job. He showed Boss Hog in a showmanship class - and for his first time showing, I think he did great! He was really excited to show - and received a $5 McDonald's gift card for his time. He was excited about that, too.

Dakota showed Mister Piggy in her age division showmanship class. She did very well, too - and for the first time looked a little more relaxed in the show ring.

The goal of the weekend was to just get the pigs in the show ring around other pigs and see how they would do - sort of a practice run before their respective fairs.

We had our cousin William's pig there, too. William has had a pretty bad case of pneumonia and didn't feel much like showing - so in the weight class divisions (for the hogs, not Dakota) she played triple duty. All three pigs ended up in separate weight classes, so Dakota showed them all. Boss Hog was in the first class and Houdini (William's pig) and Mister Piggy were in classes 7 and 8.

She showed Boss and had a little break to watch the other classes. Then while she was in the ring with Houdini, we brought Mister to the staging area for her and penned him. When she was finished showing, I took Houdini off her hands and she jumped the fence and jumped in the pen with Mister Piggy while Aunt yanked her first show number off to reveal the next show number. She was pretty out of breath when she got done with the quick change, but she had fun and a lot of show ring exposure time - which, again, was the goal of the weekend. And as a bonus, Houdini won 3rd place in this class!

On Sunday, our cousin Nathan showed his steer at the same prospect show. He did a super job in the ring - especially for his first time showing a steer - in both showmanship and his weight class (again, the steer, not Nathan). We were all a little nervous as Ike has been pretty stubborn lately and not wanting to lead. But I think we were all sending Ike telepathic messages to stay calm and behave and it worked! He acted like a jewel in the show ring. Keep your fingers crossed he does as well at the fair!

P.S. - I don't know what happened to cause some of my pictures to come out so dark. Please excuse. I'm still trying to figure this new camera out!