Washing show calves..

Show cattle are a long term and time consuming project.  We usually get the calves started in September or October.  And show them on and off all year until the next November.  And that usually means we have the set from the previous show season when we start a new set.  There are so many things that you need to do when you have show calves.  They need everyday care, weighing their feed, walking, rinsing, washing, keeping them cool and keeping them going for the next show.  So many people don't understand that we try and keep as much hair as possible on these calves for the time that we are showing them.  And that means rinsing them once a day.  And sometimes more when we are getting close to a show.  Then they get a good bath once a week and then we have a special oil we spray on them to help with the natural oils they need for a good hair coat.  Then they are penned under high speed fans each day.  Here are a few pictures of the process.

Dream, Little Miss's heifer tied and ready to start.
Rinse them good.

This is the soap and container we use at show.

And this is what we use at home!

One of the scrubbers that is used to scrub them .
This gets any debris and dead hair off of the calves.

We spray the soap on them to get a good cover.

It was a little chilly the day that I took these.

Then you rinse again to get all the soap out of the hair and off the hide.

We use blowers on them to dry their hair and help make it go the way we want it.

One of many combs we use to slick out water after a rinse/wash.
And there are lots of scrubbers so that everyone can help.

It takes about an hour to do Little Mans heifer from start to finish.  Little Miss's heifer has different hair so she takes almost 2 hours sometimes.  And the steer takes over 2 hours.  So we try and not wash them all on the same day.  If you do, you feel like you have been run over by a truck.

Every time they get rinsed or washed, they have to be combed and blown out until they are completely dry.  Then they are tied standing up under fans for a few hours.  This teaches them endurance when we are at the shows.  There is lots of standing and walking.

If anyone every wants to try it.  Just give me a jingle, I welcome the help.  I hope that explains a little of what we do to keep these cattle looking so good for the shows.  It's not a simple one time thing.