Freshman shows goats

Freshman+shows+goats

Claire Cohick, a Big Spring freshman has been showing goats for 6 years. Cohick chose to do this because her older sister use to do it and she has always been around goats. Cohick has won so many awards in the last 6 years of showing goats, she has lost track of how many she has won.

Goats are shown by putting a collar on the goat and then they are walked around in a show ring. When showing a goat, the goat always has to be in the middle of the person and the judge. The judge has to be able to see the goat at all times. The person can not stand between them. Cohick doesn’t go to big shows but it still cost money to enter.

There are steps to do before a goat can be shown.  First the goats food has to be adjusted. The goat has to go into the show at a good weight and the owner might have to change the amount of food depending on what weight class the is goat in. Cut the goat’s hair and trim his/her goat’s hooves, make it look as nice as possible. There can not be horns on the goat so before a show the owner needs to de-horn the goat. Lastly, before the owner takes the goat out for a show they review all the rules and make sure everything is checked.

The judges can ask them questions. The questions can range from the goats parts to how old is the goat. It depends how long the person has been showing goats. They don’t ask to many questions to people who just started but since Cohick has been doing this for 6 years she gets asked all the questions. Cohick said, “They judge on breeding and the structure of the goat and the under garments. For market they usually judge on the hindquarters an the straight back.” The showmanship is based on the person walking the goat around the show ring.

All of the goats Cohick shows are her’s and her families. Cohick has been doing this for awhile and the person she looks up to is her 20 year old sister. She said, “She didn’t win a whole lot but she got me into this, and she always told me to try my best and that is all you ever need to win.” Cohick only does this 2 to 3 times a year and she could be competing against 24 others. If the person is in a market class ,they are put into groups based on the weight of the goat, but if  in a breeding class, it is based on the age. The last categorize they could be in is the showmanship class, that is based on the persons age group.

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Since Cohick only gets to do this 2 times  a year, she makes sure that every time she steps in that ring she is doing her best. “I love doing this and I wouldn’t give it up for the world.”