Jan 17, 2011

Inside of Josh's World

I think I've been around my mom and Blair too much... when I typed Josh's World... I sang in my head "Elmo's wooorld".


Most of you know that Josh raises and shows Pigs, but some of you don't know that. Well, today I am going to take you through a day in the life of showing a pig!

After the pigs are transported to the fairgrounds, fed, watered and bedded down they are left there to rest. They will have a very busy tomorrow ahead of them!

Josh loves going to pig shows. He could spend all day, 8am-12am, out there. Yes, I said 12am. Which reminds me... that's how long we were there one night for his Showmanship class! Actually longer.

Meet Blanche. 

We have just arrived at the show barn and Blanche has been munching on her feed and drinking a little water. She is no where near show ready. Look at all those shavings!!! She has got to have a bath. Show pigs are all about pretty. Believe it or not. I always talk about how nasty and smelly they are (which is still true), but it takes a lot of prepping to get these puppies nice looking. The big key factor is FEED! Josh knows how to feed a pig to keep him/her looking their best.

Josh takes her to the wash racks and breaks out the Mane n' Tail. Yeah, you thought that stuff was for horses huh! Well, you'll see that Joshy here uses a lot of horse products. Maybe that's because he's got a horsey girlfriend :)

After the soap.... the scrubbing

and the rinsing

After Blanche finished her bath, Josh used a scrap to take all the water off of her. Another horsey item! He had to buy a wooden one because he broke my black one that I let him borrow. So really, the cool new wooden sweat scrap is mine! Mwahaha


Now, Blanch needs some shine.

You spray that white stuff on her and brush it and... and wahbam! Shiny and pretty pig!

Lola came too!!

"How dare that human not pet me when she walked by"

After Blanche is all pretty and shiny, she's ready to go to the show ring!
Josh walks her down the aisle a few times before heading to the ring.

Waiting to go into the ring.

Josh is the first one out! Look at that smirk on the judges face...
He knows Josh because Josh has been showing for what seems like forever!
These were the judge's words, "You still showin'!?"


Notice: More pigs coming out... Judge you're supposed to be looking at the pigs not chit chatting with Joshua!

The point of a pig show is to get your pig to walk in front of the judge.
See all those other pigs.... they get in the way! You have to beat them... you have to get your pig if front of the judge and get that judge a lot of different views of your pig. Front, back, side, other side... you get it.

See! Other side!

The backside

They like to look at the back side. See how wide the pig is and she how they walk. 

Josh ended up being pinned in the second spot!
That's a good sign! 

I thought he would let them back out and Josh would get a chance to get 1st place... but he placed them as he pinned them in this class. The only class he did that way!
So, Blanche ended up being 2nd in her class!
She was in class 2 of 2 in the Duroc division.

So, here's the sort of confusing part. Since Blanche got 2nd, it was a possibility for Blanche to get reserve. They call for the 2 first place Durocs to come into the ring. So the winner of Class 1 and the winner of Class 2 go in. Whichever pig the judge picks wins Grand Champion Duroc. For Reserve Champion Duroc, the 2nd place pig of the Grand Champion Duroc's class gets to go into the ring and compete against the pig that is left (the 1st place from the other class).

So, the winners went in..... 

 here are Josh and Blanche (getting fueled up) waiting to see if the winner of Class 2 gets picked.

the judge picked the winner of class 2! That means that Josh gets to go back into the ring to try and get Reserve Grand Champion Duroc!


Do good Blanche!! 

Josh and Blanche on the left, going up against the 1st place Duroc. of Class 1

You can just guess who the Judge picked! :)

Josh and Blanche!!
Congrats Blanche! You did good!

Lola got a picture with the winner too!!
haha!


Now we all go back to the barn and get ready to go home!

I'll make it really difficult for you. Since Josh and Blanche won Reserve Grand Champion Duroc they had to wait around all day for the final show to see who won the Supreme Champion. All the Grand Champions of each breed (Duroc, York, Hampshire, Crossbred) went into the ring and the judge picked the Supreme Champion. If the Supreme Champion was the Duroc... then Josh and Blanche would go into the ring and try to get Reserve Supreme Champion against the other breed Grand Champions. The Judge ended up picking the Hampshire, so Josh and Blanche didn't get a chance to go for the Reserve Supreme.

But that was a.o.k with us! Blanche did good getting Reserve Grand Champion Duroc!!

So you may be thinking, what is the point?
Well, Josh does it mostly for fun. The same reason I like showing horses. I loved showing horses and I wouldn't mind getting back into. Ever since I started helping Josh at the shows when his dad would be out of town... I realized just why he stayed around those stinky pigs! It is so much fun getting those pigs ready for a show! 
And there always is a reward!
Feed money!



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This post was utterly confusing. Lovely pictures, though :P

jmluckie said...

When does the cooking part take place?

CHERI said...

You gotta quit taking pics of that pig's rear end! We ladies do not usually think that's our best side!