Season begins for summer fairs - Youngsters get tips on how to wow the judges at this year's 4-H fairs

NORTH CANAAN — Perhaps the best way to sum it up is to say it’s all a lot more complicated than it looks.

Local 4-H groups converged at the Clayton Road home in North Canaan of Shannon and Rick Allyn recently, for a series of training classes focused on one thing: preparing to show a cow in this summer’s 4-H and county fair events.

Washing, clipping and handling may seem easy to the uninitiated, but who knew that standing a certain way, trimming a cow’s coat to accentuate — or not — different features and even where you can or should avoid using conditioner can mean the difference between winning a blue ribbon or going home empty-handed.

Members of the Busy Farmers 4-H Club, based in North Canaan, and the Ashley Falls-based River Valley Club, came to hone old skills and learn new ones.

They can start as young as age 7, and compete up to age 18. This workshop attracted primarily a younger crowd.

Rick Allyn showed how to lead a cow in the ring, and let it know who’s boss. He suggested aids such as a rope halter, instead of a chain that can jingle and frighten the animal.

Success, he said, is in realizing the faults of a particular animal and adjusting to compensate, in the way the animal is groomed (cow sculpting) and posed.

Washing a Holstein calf named Cinderella, Shannon Allyn offered a running commentary on every step, demonstrating that nothing is taken for granted.

Use a brush instead of a sponge, she suggested, so the groomer can see by the brush marks where the animal has been washed.

And keep the conditioner off the top line (that ridge of coat that gets sparingly clipped), she advised, so it will stand up along the cow’s back.

She divulged that it is legal, under 4-H rules, to attach a fake switch to the end of a cow’s tail, when the real thing simply can’t be made white enough.

Through it all, the 4-H’er has to keep a large, strong animal calm and manageable.

One has to wonder how these youngsters can manage all this, and keep their white duds required for showmanship snowy clean.

“That’s all a part of it,� said Katie Segalla, a former Busy Farmers member, and now a club mom who appreciates what her own mom, Wendy Kennedy, who was there as a 4-H leader, went through. She said interest in 4-H here has not waned over the 20 years she has been involved.

Kennedy said the club attracts a lot of farm kids, but that  about two-thirds of the members do not live on farms or have their own animals. The club gets members from as far away as Winsted.

“A lot of them come just to be with other kids. It’s a great way to find friends and do something interesting,â€� she said. “They  also get to show other animals, such as goats, or get involved with clubs that just show dogs.

“Not every club member has to work with an animal. There are other ways they can participate, and we are planning some events this year such as camping in Vermont and a visit to Cabot cheese.�

Locally, the competition season kicks off with the Jack Brown 4-H Fair in East Canaan on the first Sunday in August. Then it’s off the following weekend to the Goshen 4-H Fair at the Goshen Fairground. Club members will also compete at the Goshen Fair on Labor Day weekend and at the Big E.