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Preparing for the Purple: Blake Logan

Thursday, March 3, 2016

#bidbuyshowwin Showmanship

Blake Logan entered the show ring hoping to win his class. Two hours later, he was showing for Grand Champion Market Hog at the 2016 National Western Stock Show.

And, he won.

“I just wanted to win my class and be in a picture,” he says. “It was amazing to win the show. The people who came up to me and the interviews I did with the media were overwhelming. Someone handed me a banner, people were taking my picture; I was handed a belt buckle. It’s still hard to fathom.”

The 16-year-old high school student from Atlanta, Indiana, earned this memorable moment after years of experience and hours of work in the show barn. He has shown many hogs on the local, state and national arena and credits his family and friends as the reasons he’s been able to accomplish so much.

See, Logan not only won the National Western Stock Show junior show, but he left Denver, went home to load two barrows and drove to Perry, Georgia for the National Swine Registry’s Southeast Regional Jr. Swine Show.

 And, he won again.

Logan captured the Grand Champion Market Hog and Champion Yorkshire Barrow titles. His dad, R.J., says these two big wins were so incredible that it didn’t seem real until they actually left the shows. He says the family watched videos afterward to relive the moment.

“It was a great feeling,” R.J. says.

Logan has shown hogs since he was 8-years-old, but actually first entered the show ring with sheep. He says he continued to show sheep at jackpots, but eventually chose to dedicate his focus 100-perfecent on showing pigs. His aunt was showing at the time and his uncle, Adam Crouch, began helping the Logan family improve their daily feed and show prep at home. Blake’s recent wins at Denver and Perry were special because all of his closest friends and family were around him .

Logan lives in the show barn and sometimes it’s tough to tell his high school friends why he’s busy with pigs instead of people his own age. He knows showing livestock is special, a different kind of sport, he says, and the time he spends in the ring is well worth it.

“The show ring is a great place to be,” he says. “It lets you show what your knowledge and your work and the talents you put into your stock.”

Preparation for the National Western Stock Show is different than training for other national shows, Logan says. To be sure he and his sister’s pigs could handle the cold weather, they spent a lot of time walking them in the cold air and sometimes, in snow. The Logan family made the trek to Denver a week early in order to get their pigs acclimated to the elevation and the weather.

“We stayed at my aunt and uncles house in Colorado about 45 miles from Denver so we could walk pigs in the cold,” he says.

Once their pigs were on the grounds, the Logan family focused on getting ready for the big day. Blake’s crossbred pig was in the heavy division so the duo never really left the show ring. He showed in the last class of the day, won his class and was penned and returned to the ring to show for champion cross. Then his pig was selected as the Champion Crossbred, and Blake says the excitement kept building.

The grand drive was two hours later so the Logans took the pig to the wash rack to keep her cool, fed her and watered her. As much work as he had to accomplish in those two hours, Blake says he still had plenty of time to be nervous.

“I just had to stay focused on the next time I would be in the ring,” he says. “I felt like my work driving her and walking her all winter could pay off.”

Blake knows that sometimes no matter how much hard work he puts in, there can also be disappointment. Last year, he showed a Hampshire gilt at the Indiana State Fair that scratched just before the Grand Champion Drive.

Blake says he loves showing pigs and would tell a new, young showman to never give up, even when difficult moments happen.

 

“Trust the people helping you because if you don’t, the help they’re trying to give will never work,” he says. “Stay humble because everyone gets beat. Don’t get cocky because that makes you come off as not nice. You can have good luck and bad luck on the same day.”

Five Things You Didn’t Know about Blake Logan

  1. His least favorite color is red.
  2. He’s a little superstitious about his show barn. Blake likes to pick where his pigs are penned in the barn and he puts his favorites in certain pens. And Blake never moves them; they stay in that pen from day one.
  3. His second toe on both feet curve outward – toward his little toe. But his shoes fit fine.
  4. He is also superstitious about his show ring brush. He likes to carry a soft horsehair brush with dark bristles.
  5. He won his first belt buckle at Denver this year. Blake’s younger sister had already won a buckle, long before him.