MANSFIELD — Kelsey Snyder is ending her junior fair career on a high note.
The 18-year-old Shelby resident was declared this year’s Richland County Fair Showman of Showmen on Friday.
“I was super excited,” she said. “I was actually in this contest a couple of years ago. So being named champion was super cool.”
All eight contestants qualified by earning the Pro Showmanship title in a species they showed, except for the horse representative.
The horse representative qualified through a show-off among the draft horse, small equine and horse showmanship winners. This was the first year that alpacas were included in the contest.
During the Showman of Showmen event, each contestant showed eight species. Each entrant was judged by an independent expert.
In the end, Snyder came out on top with the highest total score.
She is a member of the Shelby High School FFA chapter and Rusty Riders 4-H Club. Snyder qualified by winning Pro Showmanship among lamb exhibitors, but also showed a hog and goat at this year’s fair.
After winning the lamb showmanship on Thursday, she rushed to get in some practice showing chickens, steers and rabbits.
“I had some awesome people back in the barns that helped me,” she said. “It was tricky going around to get everybody, but it was well worth it.”
Snyder is a graduate of Shelby High School, where she played soccer and softball. Next week, she’ll head to Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield, Illinois to study Ag Business. She’ll also be part of the school’s livestock judging team.
“Other junior colleges will have teams and we’ll compete against each other,” she said. “It’s a point system.”
Snyder says confidence was key in her win
Snyder has been showing animals at the Richland County Fair since she was 9 years old. She said she enjoys the challenge.
“I’m super competitive,” she said. “I played sports all through high school.”
Snyder said the most challenging animal to show was Clyde, a black Jersey Giant chicken.
“I couldn’t even hang on to it,” she said.
Poultry judge Mindy Rowlands said she sees a lot of large animal exhibitors struggle to handle chickens.
“I think they have a lot of sharp parts and that intimidates them,” she said. “They get to hold their animals on halters and leads and show them around in a controlled manner.
“This is just you and the animal and you have to hold it. That’s a completely different scenario.”
Rowlands said showmanship is about more than just control of an animal — it’s also about an exhibitor’s knowledge of the species.
“I feel that showmanship is one of the more important parts of showing, because it actually shows that the child has gained knowledge in that area,” she said. “If you show that you have knowledge, that means you’ve taken the time to understand what you’re looking at, to make sure you’re breeding the best breed and raising the best, most healthy bird available.
“If they can name the breed that they’re handling, handle it safely and be able to name the parts of it, that’s the first basis of showmanship and chickens.”
Competitors weren’t allowed to work with their own animals during showmanship contests, so proper animal handling technique was crucial. Snyder’s advice to younger exhibitors is to be calm and confident.
“Obviously the work starts at home, get those animals broke,” she advised. “Be smooth in your movements. You want to be super calm, but you want to be confident.
“You want to go in there like you know what you’re doing, even if you don’t.”
Showmanship roster included eight girls
All eight contestants in this year’s Showman of Showmen contest were girls.
Carole Kirkpatrick, president of the Richland County 4H Committee, said she can’t remember the last time that happened.
“I think it was awesome to see, but I would really like to see our boys step it up and give the girls some challenges,” Kirkpatrick said.
Kennedy Studer, also a Shelby FFA member, qualified showing hogs and took second place. Jordan Tedrow of the Lucas FFA qualified showing horses and came in third.
Other competitors included Bergan Leonhardt (4th place, beef), Cailey Fairchild (5th place, poultry), Maddie Boyer (6th place, goat), Kaley Bowman (7th place, alpaca) and Lilly Heydinger (8th place, rabbit.)
