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Mountain States
Meat Goat Association
Mountain States Meat Goat Association
Show Tips By Erica Ashby
of Kicking A Ranch
Show Tips By Erica Ashby
of Kicking A Ranch
MSMGA
Quarterly
Newsletter
Quarterly
Newsletter
MSMGA
It is a tough competitive world out there in the the world of showing boer goats and make a living is a plus !! It takes a lot of money, time and dedication to reach the top .
I have been raising boer goats for 6 years and showing the last 4 .Only now am I going to big shows and winning .We have probably spent over $30,000 over the past years ...some were a good choice and others were NOT.
The competition is so tough at the "big" shows, here are a few little tricks that can help you enhance your goats and help them win .
We all know that a goat in the show ring with its tail down does not look as good as one with it tail up high, so just before you go in the ring spray some "cool blue" under its tail ,they use this on lambs ,any livestock magazine sells it .
If your goat looks a bit "Fluffy " I put a slinky on it the day before and take it off just before you show .If your goats are very fluffy with that "down" in their coat I would clip them maybe 1/2" all over a couple of months before I started to show ..if the weather is still cold there are really nice warm blankets you could use ,I find a foal blanket with a long wrap around front with lots of velcro on works great on the big bucks .On smaller does dog blankets work great !
To make a goat look slimmer clip short under the belly ,I clip from the front of top of the back leg and go straight over to the top behind the front leg ,that gives the illusion of it being slimmer !
If you have a large buck that won't stand still ( which mine didn't ) a judge told me after the show to stick one or two fingers under his chin ...where the V is and push up hard...it does actually work.
Some times you see these really nice older does in the show ring and wonder how they have such fine figures at that age .Sometimes they only let them have one lot of babies ,when they are only a couple of days old they will take the kids off them and bottle feed or latch them on to some other goat .After that they may just flush them which is becoming very popular.
Its the day before the show and you discover that your goats feet need trimming !! so you trim only to find it makes his pasterns low ,Take the hoof between your knees grab the hoofs make sure they are level and wrap duck tape around them to keep the toes tight together ,you will be amazed what a difference this makes .Don't forget to take the tape off before you go into the show ring !!!!!!. Some goats do this and after a few days go back to normal but that doesn't help you on the show day so this is just a quick fix!!.
If your goat does not like being touched around its hind quarters and makes a fuss when you go to set him up ,bring his hind end around to you close then with your knee push his butt suddenly away from you ,he will automatically spread his back legs apart .Its probably not a good idea to do this right in front of the judge !
Some breeders buff their goats horns with an electric buffer/grinder to shape them and smooth out all the lumps and bumps.Some will cut off the tip of the horns that start to turn out when they are young so they do not have that flared look when they get older .Horns are judged on the shape and how big they are when showing under ABGA and IBGA so its important to have the correct shape .Having said that I do not agree that you should change the horns so much that you are misrepresenting the shape that they would be normally .
There is a fine line between making your goat look better in the show ring and cheating, like cutting off fish teats !! you can get disqualified or banned from showing if you go too far !!
Hope this helps you out ,good luck .
I have been raising boer goats for 6 years and showing the last 4 .Only now am I going to big shows and winning .We have probably spent over $30,000 over the past years ...some were a good choice and others were NOT.
The competition is so tough at the "big" shows, here are a few little tricks that can help you enhance your goats and help them win .
We all know that a goat in the show ring with its tail down does not look as good as one with it tail up high, so just before you go in the ring spray some "cool blue" under its tail ,they use this on lambs ,any livestock magazine sells it .
If your goat looks a bit "Fluffy " I put a slinky on it the day before and take it off just before you show .If your goats are very fluffy with that "down" in their coat I would clip them maybe 1/2" all over a couple of months before I started to show ..if the weather is still cold there are really nice warm blankets you could use ,I find a foal blanket with a long wrap around front with lots of velcro on works great on the big bucks .On smaller does dog blankets work great !
To make a goat look slimmer clip short under the belly ,I clip from the front of top of the back leg and go straight over to the top behind the front leg ,that gives the illusion of it being slimmer !
If you have a large buck that won't stand still ( which mine didn't ) a judge told me after the show to stick one or two fingers under his chin ...where the V is and push up hard...it does actually work.
Some times you see these really nice older does in the show ring and wonder how they have such fine figures at that age .Sometimes they only let them have one lot of babies ,when they are only a couple of days old they will take the kids off them and bottle feed or latch them on to some other goat .After that they may just flush them which is becoming very popular.
Its the day before the show and you discover that your goats feet need trimming !! so you trim only to find it makes his pasterns low ,Take the hoof between your knees grab the hoofs make sure they are level and wrap duck tape around them to keep the toes tight together ,you will be amazed what a difference this makes .Don't forget to take the tape off before you go into the show ring !!!!!!. Some goats do this and after a few days go back to normal but that doesn't help you on the show day so this is just a quick fix!!.
If your goat does not like being touched around its hind quarters and makes a fuss when you go to set him up ,bring his hind end around to you close then with your knee push his butt suddenly away from you ,he will automatically spread his back legs apart .Its probably not a good idea to do this right in front of the judge !
Some breeders buff their goats horns with an electric buffer/grinder to shape them and smooth out all the lumps and bumps.Some will cut off the tip of the horns that start to turn out when they are young so they do not have that flared look when they get older .Horns are judged on the shape and how big they are when showing under ABGA and IBGA so its important to have the correct shape .Having said that I do not agree that you should change the horns so much that you are misrepresenting the shape that they would be normally .
There is a fine line between making your goat look better in the show ring and cheating, like cutting off fish teats !! you can get disqualified or banned from showing if you go too far !!
Hope this helps you out ,good luck .
Show Secrets & Tips