Shawville 4-H members who have been working on raising an animal over the summer brought them to the arena at the Shawville fairgrounds on Saturday to show off their projects and test their showmanship and conformation skills before they take them public at the Shawville Fair in just under two weeks.
This year-end gathering is an annual event for the club, known formally as its Achievement Day. From the wee hours of the morning, members of all ages were leading their way around the arena, with their animal in tow, in front of an audience of judges. Rabbits, goats, lambs, horses, beef, dairy cows, and market steers were on display, as were their handlers’ abilities to control them.
Once all animals had been shown, the champion and reserve champion showpersons in each class, as decided by the judges, prepared for a next-level challenge – showing every kind of animal, even those they had no experience with, in a competition for the titles of supreme and reserve champion showpersons for the entire day.
Those competing for these titles were Grace Pasch, Rosie McCann, Eloise Thompson, Lyric McIntyre, Tyson Childs, Brynn Currie, Payton St-Pierre, Morgan Tracy, Amy Sheppard, and Molly Dowe.
While formally a competition, in true 4-H fashion, this last round of showing saw more collaboration between 4-H members than anything else, as many sought advice from each other for how to show some of the animals with which they had less experience.
Morgan Tracy and Payton St-Pierre were among those learning the ropes of handling a new animal – one a fair bit smaller than the dairy heifers they are used to showing.
Bent over a table in the arena, with Clarendon farmer Ron Hodgins as a judge, both girls tried their best to get two rabbits to cooperate. Both had picked up tips and tricks from friends and family members, but still struggled to maneuver the animals according to the judge’s wishes. Between giggles, they tried to flip the rabbits over to identify their sex, which Hodgins offered some help with. And they weren’t he only ones learning on the fly in this final round of skill testing.
In the end, Lyric McIntyre won Supreme Champion Showperson, and Tyson Childs won Reserve Champion Showperson, but all were rewarded with ice cream sundaes for their long day of hard work.
“Rabbits I didn’t think were my thing, but they actually kind of went my way and I actually kind of learned some things,” McIntyre said after winning the champion title.
She joined the Shawville club this year after eight years with Renfrew’s club because she found it to offer more members more insight into its financials, which she was looking for. She said she shows horses and sheep in about 14 fairs every year, and enjoys sharing what she’s learned with the club’s younger members.
“Today a lot of kids came and asked me how to show a horse and they went out there and did a phenomenal job,” she said.
“Winning this means I’ve actually gained some skill and value in my life. Being out there to try different things has been a passion of mine.”
