Show business

link Staff photo: Tony Bullocks

Kansas Huysman of Clovis, 17, washes her heifer Tuesday afternoon in preparation for today’s show at 9:00 a.m. Huysman has been showing heifers for 9 years.

Pigs were taking baths, lambs were being sheared and heifers were primping it up Tuesday afternoon as ranchers prepared their best livestock for the upcoming shows at the Curry County Fair.

Kansas Husyman, 17, was among those washing her heifer that a little boy named “Blackie.”

“I am preparing her for the show (today),” Huysman said.

It takes three hours to prepare one heifer from start to finish for a show, said Kim Huysman, Kansas Huysman’s mother, said.

“We body shave them and take everything off except for the tip of their tail right here, and we’ll put bluing shampoo on it to make it white and fluff it up so it looks kind of like a cotton ball,” Kim Huysman said.

“And then we leave this little strip of hair up here to make their top line as straight as possible. So I’ll have to go back in with a small set of clippers and blend this, kind of like a fade in a boy’s haircut. I’ve got to fade that in and make it narrow, then cut this straight across the top so it’s table-top straight as possible. It’s a lot of work.”

After the clipping is done, the heifer moo-ves over to the showering stall.

“You have to make sure they’re white and clean,” said Kansas Huysman, who was washing Blackie with OxiClean and the bluing shampoo (which makes the white spots brighter). “You don’t want any stains or anything on them.”

Kansas Huysman has been involved in showing livestock for almost 10 years. She began helping her older sister with her heifers, she said.

“I’ve been doing this my whole entire life,” she said. “I think it gives you more self-confidence to go out in a ring. I think it gives you better people skills, and it gives you a project to do so you aren’t just sitting around. It’s fun, and each heifer has her own personality.”

Case-in-point was the heifer her mother was clipping in the nearby barn.

This heifer had been dubbed “Craz,” Kim Huysman said, because she was so crazy.

“She was crazy earlier when we had her in the wash rack,” Kim Huysman said. “The vibration of the clippers and touching them calms them right down. It’s like a baby that cries and you put them in a car seat on top of the washing machine, the vibration just calms them down, or you put them in the car and take them for a ride, same thing.”

Demonstrating, Kim Huysman began petting Craz near the hind legs — where she is most skittish to touch and likely to kick — and moved her hands down, turned on the clippers, let Craz feel the vibration on her back, and smoothly began cutting the hair.

“See how she’s watching me?” Kim Huysman asked. “You can tell when they start swishing their tail and dancing around (they’re getting uncomfortable). You have to understand their behavior, and you back off when you need to and go back in and do it all over again. They get used to it.”

It’s taken the Huysmans 16 years to perfect their “well-oiled machine,” Kim Huysman said. Last year, the family showed 15 heifers, and the year before that, she said, they had 25.

“The show starts at 9 a.m., so you can imagine (how busy we are),” Kim Huysman said. “We had to get 15 heifers washed and clean and put through these chutes by 9 a.m. I’m telling you, when I say it’s a well-oiled machine (it is). If there’s one person that’s not doing their job, it doesn’t work.”

Kim Huysman said each of her kids has a specific job, and although they may have differences before show time, they all pull together for a successful show.

“It’s fun to watch my kids go at each other. When we get all the dairy heifers and they argue over who gets what one and who gets what pick and they banter back and forth. I just sit back … it’s fun,” Kim Huysman said. “But when it comes time for morning of the show, everyone gets after it. They have to be (on point). It’s like preparing for the Super Bowl.”

The best part, Kansas Huysman said, is winning.

“You put all the work into them, and then it finally happens that you did good and you knew what you were doing,” she said. “That’s probably the best part.”

Winning isn’t the only thing the Huysmans get out of the competition. Kim Huysman said showing livestock teaches her kids important life skills, like selflessness and being able to work with anyone they come across in life.

“(It) teaches you responsibility, dedication, nurturing,” Kim Huysman said. “The kids know they have to take care of a living, breathing thing, and it sets them up good for life, for being a good parent, for being a good spouse, for being a good friend. It really helps with your character as you get older, and teaches a lot of good lessons. It’s a lot of work but it’s a lot of fun.”

The Junior Replacement Dairy Heifer Show begins at 9 a.m. today at the Kevin Roberts Show Arena.

The Curry County Fair continues through Saturday.