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Training Tips: Building Show Ring Stamina

Friday, November 13, 2015

Breeder Central Showmanship

By, Rhonda McCurry

Walking, walking and walking – that’s the name of the game for a young woman who has mastered the art of showing pigs. Lea Kimley is an experienced showman who exhibits her love of the show ring and her ability to calmly train a pig to all who watch. She says the key to success is the work done at home. And no matter what time of day or how much she wants to hang out with friends, Kimley works on her pigs to build and maintain the stamina they need to do well in the show ring.

Experience Matters

Lea Kimley is a high school senior in South Charleston, Ohio. She manages up to 20 pigs at a time for shows like the National Western Stock Show, the NJSA Southeast Regional, World Pork Expo, Summer Spectacular, her county and state fair, the North American International Livestock Exposition (NAILE) and Oh-Pigs Summer Circuit shows throughout Ohio. After 12 years of showing hogs, Kimley has developed a system for training them to walk and perform in the show ring.

 After Kimley brings a new pig home, she keeps it in the pen for a while, brushing it until it gets used to her. She has a secret to make pigs her friend quickly – enticing them with Nilla wafers. When the first show is a couple of months away, Kimley starts to let them out of their pen and allows them to roam in her backyard. She wants the pig to grow accustomed to its outside surroundings before she begins using a whip to walk them.

In the beginning, the new pig might be scared to walk by itself so she does let an older pig walk with it for ten minutes at a time. Walking alongside one that is trained is helpful in the beginning, but Kimley says she only does this for a few days because the ultimate goal is to walk each pig individually.

 As the big show gets closer she hones in on her training schedule, which includes washing to cool the pig down then walking it in a big pasture. Kimley works to build stamina with her hogs, building up from the original 10 minutes to 45 minutes.

“The most important part is walking them like they’re in the show ring each time I get them out,” she says. “I’ll use the trees in our pasture or have my mom pretend to be the judge and get them used to all situations. Anything that can be a foreign object I want them to be used to that when we get away from home.”

Kimley’s pigs have reached their show-ready stage when she can put them in any situation, for 40 minutes and they don’t try to run back to the barn.

“That’s when you know you’ll survive in the show ring,” she says.

When Kimley showed hogs her first year at the Ohio State Fair, she won pee wee showmanship. She says the next year she showed a pig that walked perfectly for her at home, but when it entered the State Fair show ring it ran to one end then came back to the other side and wouldn’t leave the edge. That year she lost her class but she learned why it’s important to put her pigs in various situations at home.

“We used to just walk out to the pasture then walk back but now we put them in every situation,” she says. “You can’t just walk five minutes and be done. You have to actually put them in every situation the ring would present.”