RUTFEST- jojo + kathy's excellent adventure pt.2

YEP! you heard me right, RUTFEST. A one day tailgate show for bucks. Quite possibly in RUT. I'm totally serious. A buck in rut is a sight to see. Of course, this is not a requirement to show. and well, a buck in rut stinks. But as the name implied my buck took full advantage and was totally in rut!!! all the other bucks brought him in.

Ok! so what is RUT? you know, in the mood, horny as hell, that kind of thing. Many animals when "in rut" will give off an odor. a musky, smelly, aromatic, can't get the stink off your clothes,kind of smell. And well Noble did not disappoint!

Kathy and i went up together. I drove with Noble in the back seat of my truck. Once at Kathy's we transfered all my stuff to her truck. Loaded up her buck. and mine. and off we went to Gainesville.

More of the same from previous trips ensued click here for another of our trips. Lots of laughing. lots of pee breaks. lots of traffic. UGH! A five hour trip to Gainesville took us over 8 hours. but mostly lots of fun. And its not a fluke, we get along on long exhausting, stressful trips. :)

Once there we set up the goats in pens. Setup a gazebo that purports to open easily. And it does. and then just really do a lot of nothing till its time to sleep. We slept on the show grounds. In the flat bed. under the gazebo. quite fun, actually.

Saturday we awoke to trailers of bucks from all over the state coming in and setting up. My nerves started to bother me. My first time showing. Oh no! people are going to be looking at me! and my buck. In a ring. UGH!

The day finished in a blink of an eye. Really! And we did good. Overall, we got alot of kudos from many friends made over the past year. And i can't tell you how important a pat on the back is to a newbie. I must remember this when mentoring designers and artists... Because really that is all i remember of the day.

Since bucks are not the focus of most dairy goat owners. They try to do a year's worth of showing in one place. So this was a three ring buck show. Each ring is a different judge and each ring you can win a leg. A goat needs 3 "legs" to be "finished"... Permanent Grand Champion. A big deal in the goat world. We placed 3rd in one ring. 6th in another. We never made it to the 3rd ring. But right before lunch i got Noble LA appraised. And for a one year old not too shabby. His score was +vvv84. This I've heard is pretty good for a 1 year old buck. :)

Linear Appraisal is getting another judge trained in conformation to look at your goat and score him/her on the basis of the breed standard. Its a bit slower. and much more personal and one on one with the judge. Unlike a show where you are showing against others in the same class. LA appraisal is more accurate.

It was a fun day. An exhausting day! and a dam horse fly or deer fly bit my knee and i swelled up. So that was the only bummer of the weekend.

And overall just a great experience. Noble and I are better for it. I even think it's changed him in some ways. At first i thought oh NO! he's sick. But really he's just more serene right now. :)

The only thing i need to figure out is HOW i can show, AND take pictures. I only took three pictures the whole weekend. Bummer!