Picking a competitive show lamb has come naturally for Taylor Hites, who won grand champion market lamb for the second time during Wednesday’s junior fair sheep show.
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TAYLOR HITES
KAYLA CUMMINS |
The 16-year-old Benjamin Logan High School student can’t say specifically what draws her to a lamb. But she’s had the knack since she was little.
“You just see the one,” Taylor said, “and you just know it’s the one to show.”
This year’s champion proved easy to please as she spent long hours working with it over the past three months .
“He definitely likes getting his belly scratched,” she said. “He’ll do anything for that. It made it easy to train him.”
Taylor has shown a grand champion and a reserve grand champion during her six years of competition.
While having good stock to work with is important, it is the handling and training with the animal that pays off in the show ring, she said.
She spends time walking and running with her show lambs along with caring for their nutrition and health needs.
“I’ve learned a lot of responsibility over the years of showing,” she said. “They become your babies … your kids.”
Kayla Cummins, a 12-year-old Indian Lake student, repeated as reserve grand champion, and she also said it is a lot of work to develop a champion-caliber lamb.
“I would go out in our back yard and walk with him,” she said. “They need a lot of attention so you can get them to show correctly in the ring.”
For complete fair coverage and show results,
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