Making the effort to travel to a show and having a calf in good enough condition to bring to a show is a huge deal. So, it’s important to present your calf to the best of your ability to give them the best chance at winning.

Washing: washing your animal on the morning of a show is very important to make sure that they are clean and fresh for the show ring. For white or light-coloured, purple shampoo is a good way to remove dung stains from the coat and to brighten up and shine the hair.

Grooming: before adding soaps or adhesives to the hair, make sure the hair is fully dry.

Dry hair will give the soaps the best chance at working and holding the hair. In general, fitters (people grooming the cattle) will lather the soap downwards on the hair and then comb it upwards to get the hair to stand and curl.

These soaps can be used all over the animal’s body. They are harmless on the hair and just make your animal that little bit more catchy.

Fitters will also back-comb an animal’s tail to fill any spaces at the second thigh. This ball of fluffy hair can be sprayed with hairspray or hair glue to hold it in place.

Clipping: if you are entering the show ring you may get caught up in the clipping phenomenon.

Clipping is important to help highlight an animals strong points and possibly to hide areas where they are lacking, and it is also used to give a tidy look in general.

It might be best to have a practice run and clip an animal at home that isn’t going to a show, so you can get used to the feel of a clippers and gauge how it works.

Anna and Ellen Neenen are combing up the hair on Fearna Molly as they prepare her for the show ring.

The handler

Dress to impress! If you are going to make all this effort with an animal, why not do the same with yourself? A clean shirt, a tie, a clean white coat, clean boots and jeans will surely help you on your way to showing a winner.

The show ring

Now that you have taken all the necessary steps to get yourself and your animal ready, it’s time to enter the show ring. It’s important to show off the animal to the best of your ability, walking them correctly around the ring so the judge has a proper opportunity to inspect your animal.

You will have an opportunity to stand your animal for inspection where the judge will focus solely on your animal.

This may only last a couple of seconds to make sure to have your animal standing four square (like a table!) to give a balanced appearance.

Be careful not to stand them too long to avoid creating a dip in their back and avoid standing them too short to avoid a hump in their back when they stand.

Some other tips may include holding a show stick across the animal’s nose if they are inclined to run forward. This will act as a barrier and hopefully deter them from doing so.

Another small tip that can have a lot of value is to keep an animal’s head up while walking around the ring.

Clipping can be used to highlight the best points or to hide the weaker points on an animal.

Nobody likes to see an animal move their head down on the ground, plus, if the calf gets their head down on the ground it gives them a better chance to break loose.

Etiquette in the show ring when showing cattle

Always be polite to a judge and to the ring stewards. It’s a small thing that can go a long way.

Remember that they are there on a voluntary basis and if it were not for those men and women there wouldn’t be a show ring for you to enter.

It’s also nice to congratulate or commiserate with others in the show ring. You might be at the top today but you never know when you could be on the other end of the line.