Showmanship is in their blood

It takes a lot of work, skill and knowledge to be a great showman.

It doesn’t hurt if it’s also in your blood.

Chloe Campbell and Rachel Heitkamp both followed in family footsteps this week as they won the supreme showmanship titles at the Jay County Fair.

Campbell, the winner of Thursday evening’s large animal competition, will add her name to the traveling trophy her sister Alli brought home in 2017.

“It feels really good,” Campbell said. “I’ve always followed in (Alli’s) footsteps and I’m really proud that I can do it here.”

Heitkamp, who won the small animal championship Tuesday, joins her sister Sarah, who won the competition in 2008. (Her mom and aunt — Linda and Janet Davidson — also won back-to-back in 1989 and 1990.)

“I’m making my family proud –– that’s something I’ve always wanted,” said Heitkamp. …

“It feels good. Especially with all the people that I was competing with. Everyone was so, super nice, and so, super supportive of everybody.”

In supreme showmanship, the advanced showmanship winners from each species compete against each other. The five competitors in small animal and seven in large — there are typically eight in large, but horses were not represented this year as their show was postponed because of a virus outbreak — must show each of the species with the exception of the one from which they advanced. The animals to be shown are distributed via blind draw.

That format can cause some nerves and challenges, as the showmen have to handle animals and species with which they are unfamiliar.

For Heitkamp, the chickens were the challenge.

“I don’t like birds,” she said. “I’ve always had a fear of chickens …

“They’re scary. They flap their wings a lot. …

“I never really feel like I have control over them.”

Campbell, a first-time competitor at the supreme level, had an unruly meat goat. But the rest of her evening went fairly smoothly. Having previous experience only with swine and sheep, she was most nervous about the cows — beef, dairy and dairy beef.

“That’s what I was the most scared of because I show smaller animals,” said Campbell, crediting friends with helping her prepare. “And so I was just scared they were going to overpower me. It actually went a lot calmer and a lot smoother than I thought it was going to be.”

The key, whether animals are cooperating like her cows were or being obstinate like her meat goat, is to stay calm, said Campbell, who won the competition against Lindy Mercer (dairy), Ava Stockton (beef), Bretton Basford (meat goat), Erika Heitkamp (dairy goat), Colton Walker (sheep) and Victoria Kunk (dairy beef). Rather than specifics about animals, that was the key piece of advice she got from Alli — stay composed and be confident.

“I think that’s what helped me a lot, just not freaking out when my animals freaked out,” she said. “The first thing that comes to mind is, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m making a fool of myself.’ But I just remember to keep myself calm, because if I’m not calm my animal’s not going to be calm. Just do the best that I can.”

Heitkamp — her win came against Makinsey Murphy (rabbit), Melana Zimmerman (pygmy goat), Katie Haffner (dog) and Ty Paxson (poultry) — has made it to both the large animal and small animal supreme showmanship competitions in previous years, representing dairy goats in 2017 and ’19 and cats in 2018. (There was no supreme showmanship competition last year because of the “show-and-go” format that was used because of the coronavirus pandemic.) As a middle-schooler competing against older teens, she felt like she didn’t have a chance.

Also, this year, “Things seem a lot easier. I understand it a lot more. I took it more seriously.”

“Now it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s the real deal, so I actually hunkered down, studied, and it paid off.’”