Basford, Muhlenkamp win showmanship titles

One competitor was making her third run at the supreme showmanship title.

Another was trying for the first time.

In both cases, practice made the difference.

Eden Basford and Dillon Muhlenkamp won the 4-H large animal and small animal supreme showmanship titles, respectively, Thursday at the Jay County Fair.

“It feels really great, honestly,” said Basford, an eight-year member who had advanced to the supreme showmanship competition twice before. “I’ve done this a few times and last year I wasn’t in it. So this year I really wanted to get in it …

“And I just studied hard for the test. I practiced day and night with these animals. I just really tried my hardest this year.”

The studying for the written test especially paid off.

Two competitors were deadlocked for the large animal crown based on the judge’s scorecards from showing each of the species. The test was the tiebreaker, giving Basford the title.

Muhlenkamp expressed excitement at being able to put his name on the list of winners and especially to join his cousin, Audrey, who won the small animal title in 2000.

“It’s a huge honor, knowing all the past achievers of the award,” said Muhlenkamp, who also complimented fellow competitors Harley Rittenhouse (dog), Justice Murphy (rabbit) and Rachel Heitkamp (cat). “It’s cool to have my name added to the list with (Audrey).”

He became the first male to win the small animal title since Isaac Collins in 2007. In doing so, he sought help from a pair of recent winners — 2015 champion Sara Schwieterman and 2016 champion Klarisa Hemmelgarn.

Muhlenkamp, representing the poultry barn, sought advice on showing cats and rabbits from the former, working with animals on site.

And with no dogs staying at the fairgrounds, he used a wheelbarrow to practice during his training with Schwieterman.

His biggest challenge came while showing dogs as his animal had a tendency to want to sit.

“It was a struggle trying to get it to stay up and stay set the way it’s supposed to be set. That was definitely my hardest class of animals,” said Muhlenkamp. “I just kept smiling, kept going with it. Because you’re not going to always have that perfect situation in life, so you just kind of take it as it is and go with it.”

A nine-year 4-H member, he shows goats and turkeys and has had projects in collections, hay, model buildings, crops and electric. He’s also a member of the junior livestock committee.

He currently serves as president of Jay County’s FFA chapter and was elected last month as president of Indiana’s District VI. He is also involved in junior fair board and student council, and competes for the Jay County High School academic team.

Basford, who also shows meat goats and is involved in golf and FFA at JCHS, earned the large animal title representing the sheep barn. The rest of the field of eight was made up of her brother Bretton Basford (meat goat), Tucker Pearson (beef), Carissa Mercer (dairy), Sara Hemmelgarn (dairy beef), Erika Heitkamp (dairy goat), Brady Vore (swine) and Riata Rouch (horse).

She drew a difficult animal in the beef portion of the competition as her cow escaped her grasp twice. Her strategy, rather than battling the animal, was to keep her cool.

“That isn’t the first time that had happened to me,” said Basford, who used to show beef cattle. “Once I saw the cow run away I just had to let go and I had to realize that I’m doing something wrong to this animal and I had to quickly solve in my head what I was doing wrong. I just calmly came up to it and got it. I stayed calm the whole time because I knew if I was going to get worked up this cow was going to get worked up even more and make a bigger mess for not only me but everybody else.”