If you have never been to a dairy goat show or ADGA sanctioned show, it can be hard to know exactly what to expect. Below is an outline that we hope will have our new exhibitors and make attending our show a better experience for them.
Sanctioned Show
Sanctioned show means that the show requested official sanction from American Dairy Goat Association and paid the appropriate sanction fees. This means the show now has a potential to be officially recognized by ADGA in each breed sanctioned, to win legs toward the animal's championship and for these wins to be recorded.
The show, however, even though specific breeds were requested to be sanctioned, still needs to meet the sanction requirements. Usually, 10 does or more are needed to sanction a breed with 2 or more exhibitors present. So if a show was officially sanctioned for Alpines, but only 3 Alpines are entered , the Alpine breed will not be official. Here is when attendance does not only help the exhibitor to show their doe, but also the breed to be made official and promoted.
Who Can Show?
Any member of ADGA can enter a doe in our show as long as she is registered with ADGA.
There is a difference between owner and handler. Owner is a person entering the goat in the show. Handler is a person who handles the goat in the ring, and it may or may not be the actual owner. We get asked this question a lot, so want to clarify that ANYONE (member or not) can handle an animal in the ring. But only ADGA members with ADGA registered animals can ENTER the animal in the show. This includes Purebred, American. Experimental, NOA and Recorded animals.
Youth and Open Show
Open show is open to all exhibitors and ADGA members, youth or adults.
Youth show is limited to only youth exhibitors.
Each show committee makes their own rules about the requirements for their youth show. For our show, the animal entered in the youth show MUST be registered in a name of a youth, whether the membership is YOUTH membership or ADULT membership. But the owner MUST be a youth 18 years or younger and the goat entered MUST be registered in their name. Not a family name that also includes the child, but solely in the child's name.
Here is again where the "owner" versus "handler" terms come to play. Considering the youth member can only present one animal in a class to the judge, any other youth can handle goats in the youth show, including family, friends, other youth exhibitors.
If your child is seriously interested in showing their goats, we suggest a youth membership with ADGA. It comes with a discount price of $10 per year and application can be submitted online. The goats the child wants to show can then be transferred to their name under that membership.
A youth can also acquire an adult membership, that is priced higher but offers a few more perks. Any youth can also enter goats in the open show.
Example of who can show in our youth show:
A. Anne Smith, 10, wants to enter "Daisy". Anne has youth membership and on Daisy's registration papers it lists Anne Smith as the owner.
Anne can participate in showmanship and show in both the youth show and the open show.
B. John Smith, 15, wants to enter "Molly". John has adult membership and on Molly's registration papers it lists John Smith as the owner.
John can participate in showmanship and show in both the youth show and the open show.
C. Mary Smith, 12, wants to enter "Sasha". Mary is part of a family membership with her parents, and on Sasha's registration papers, Smith Charles, Tania, Mary and Edward are listed as owner.
Mary can participate in showmanship and enter Sasha in the open show, but not youth show.
D. Paul Smith, 7, wants to show "Princess". Paul doesn't have an ADGA membership but his parents and siblings do and Princess is registered to one of them.
Paul can participate in showmanship with Princess . He can also handle Princess in the youth show if she is owned and entered by one of his siblings (Anne or John), or in the open show if owned and entered by his parents or siblings.
How can one enter?
All we need is an entry form filled out and submitted.
Youth exhibitor can enter into 1 or all 3 of the rings (1 youth and 2 open)
Open exhibitor can enter 1 or 2 rings in the open show.
Animal needs to be entered by age in their specific class. Classes are listed online and on the entry form.
Instructions are included with the entry form.
Our website and FB page (Heart of Oklahoma Show) have entry forms, show rules and class information.
Feel free to contact the show secretary or chairman with any questions.
What is Showmanship?
Showmanship is a class for the youth exhibitors where they display their showmanship skills in handling their animal and knowledge of the dairy goat, as well as present themselves and their goat in the best manner possible. It is also a place where one can learn more about showing, what they can do better and how to present the goat to the judge. It is free and an excellent opportunity to either discover the world of dairy goat showing or improve one's skills.
We schedule our showmanship class to run before the actual show classes, to give encouragement to new exhibitors, for the children to become more familiar with their judges and more at ease in the ring before the competition starts. We also feel that this allows both the showman and their animal to be fresh and presentable.
Showmanship classes are divided by age.
The child will need a white shirt and preferably white pants. Black or dark pants are acceptable but full show whites give the showman a better advantage in appearance.
While every judge will have their own showmanship style and technique of judging, common questions include body parts of the goat, seeing how familiar the child is with their goat and her care, knowledge of score card on the more advanced levels. Appearance of the showman is judged as well as appearance of the goat, and how well the goat handles in the ring for her handler or others.
Attire and appearance of a goat
While showmanship is the ultimate tool to teach youth about appearance of both animal and handler, this carries into the actual show ring as well.
White shirt/t-shirt/blouse is standard show dress for dairy goats, some exhibitors choose white pants, while others show in jeans or more comfortable bottoms. Since in the actual show, it is the goat that is judged, less focus is placed on the exhibitor, but we still ask that exhibitors dress appropriately but we do not have a dress code. We believe professional appearance and casual style can go hand in hand :)
How does the show work?
You will notice that the show is divided into Senior Does and Junior Does when these are separately sanctioned like they are in our show.
Senior does are does older than 12 months who have freshened. Junior does are young does who have not yet freshened and under 24 months.
Goats are judged by breed and by age. Breeds are often shown alphabetically but each show can decide the order of breeds in each ring to help smoothly execute the show process. Each ring has a different judge. Show staff assisting the judges are ring secretary (recording the results of the show) and ring steward (make sure entered animals are present and noting their placing).
Our show starts on Friday with the youth show. 9 am begins with Showmanship, followed by the senior does in alphabetical order of breeds.
In the open show, the show will start at 9 am with alpines in Ring A, once finished the alpines will move to Ring B and Lamanchas will start in Ring A. This pattern will follow most of the day, unless show committee decides to make changes, which will be announced. There are often many animals to be shown so if Ring A has a very large class of Nubians, it often makes more sense to quickly run Recorded Grades and AOP in Ring B.
It is the responsibility of the exhibitor to be present for the class, so be alert and stay close by in case there are changes announced.
Most shows start with Senior does first. This is to allow for them to be relieved and milked out sooner, instead of waiting for juniors to show first.
Show will go from youngest to oldest per the age classes listed. If you have a yearling milker, she will be in the very first class shown, so please be ready ring side to go in once ring steward starts checking does in for that class. If you have a 5 year old doe, she will not be in the first class, but some of the younger classes in some breeds may only have few entries and your doe may be due in the ring sooner than you think. So please go get your animals ready, once you see the 4 year old class entering and wait ringside for your class. If you have more than one doe per class and no handlers available, there are always people willing to help and you can also ask the show staff to provide you a handler.
Once you and your doe enter the ring, proceed clockwise making a circle around the judge. The exhibitor is expected to stand on the opposite side of the doe than the judge changing sides depending on the movements of the judge around the ring. We show animals, who often need to heed nature's call even in the ring, so please be patient with your animal and other exhibitors, it is okay to wait for a doe to finish peeing, etc.
The judge will want to see the animals on the move as well as standing still and will take his/her time to judge the animals properly. At the end the animals will be lined up in order of placing from first to last and judge will give reasons for his/her placement. The ring steward will note the placings of the goats and excuse you from the ring.
Animals that placed first in their class will be returning back to the ring for championship line up for that breed once all age classes are completed. Please keep first place animals close or stall them in the holding pens near the ring to easily retrieve them. If you have several animals to be presented in the line up, feel free to ask the staff for help. Championship line up consists of first place doe from each of the age classes standing from oldest down to the youngest. From these the judge will select his grand champion in that breed, who will then be asked to walk forward. In the space of the first place doe will step up the 2nd place doe for that specific class. Some judges have line up in double line, first row being the 1st place animals, and behind them the second place does who then just step forward. Other judges prefer to save time to just have 1st places lined up but the 2nd place readily available when needed. Once the 2nd place doe is in the place of the selected champion in the line up, judge will pick his reserve grand champion from these animals. The reserve champion will then also step forward and both Grand champion and Reserve Champion animals stay in the ring to have tattoos verified against their registration certificates . Please present your herd book following a win or have it ready on the secretary table prior to the show.
If the show has champion challenge class, the grand champion of the day will then show against any entered challengers. The doe who wins this class carries the title Best of Breed. If no challengers are entered, the Grand Champion doe is automatically also Best of Breed.
Best of Breed at the end of the senior doe show proceeds to a line up for Best in Show, consisting of Best of Breed doe of each breed.
The process is repeated in the second part of the day with the junior does, competing for the title of Grand Champion and Reserve Champion. Junior does do not have a champion challenge class. the Grand Champion automatically goes into the line up for Best Junior Doe in Show at the end of the Junior doe show.
What is the S0 class - What is a combined show?
For a breed to make sanction in a youth show there must be 20 does of the breed for both Sr and Jr's. This means that the champion will earn an unrestricted leg. For open show there must be 10 does of the breed for both Sr and Jr's to earn a leg. A combined show allows Jr does to be shown with the Sr doe (the S0 class) so that we can make sure there are 10 in the Sr show. This will allow the champion to earn a restricted leg. The S0 class is an excellent place to put Jr does that have already earned a restricted leg. If a Jr doe is shown in the S0 class she may also be shown in the Jr show.