March 18, 2024

Grand Finale: Supreme Showmanship tops off exhibiting at 2016 JC Fair

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COLFAX — Jenna Smith has been showing swine and beef cattle since joining the Sherman Sunbeams 4-H Club in elementary school.

She’s been successful, but the Berg Middle School eighth grader did not expect to close out this year’s Jasper County Fair on Thursday with a reserve champion ribbon in the Supreme Showmanship Contest — a spot usually locked up by senior 4-H and FFA exhibitors.

“I feel really good about myself that they actually chose me as reserve,” Smith said as she prepared to load her hogs at the Jasper County Fairgrounds in Colfax. “I know I wasn’t champion, but I only lost by one point. I’m honored because Brice Leonard always wanted to get this program started.”

Supreme Showmanship is in its third year as a Jasper County Fair event and tops off the week’s agricultural contests.

Supreme Showmanship is in memory of Brice Leonard, a 33-year-old Baxter resident and graduate of Colfax-Mingo High School who died in 2010. Leonard was heavily involved in the ag industry including serving as vice president of the Jasper County Fair Board, was on the All Breeds Sheep Council and a member of the Iowa Sheep Industry Association — among many other agricultural related endeavors.

The county fair’s showmanship grand champion in each species class gets the opportunity compete for the title of Supreme Showman. Each contestant has to show seven animal species. The exhibitors usually have a specialty — Smith’s primary animals are swine and beef cow.

Smith said to prepare she enlisted the advice of her cousin, who is a regular horse exhibitor, to give her a crash course on an animal that is bigger than her hogs and taller than her beef cow.

“They told me always look at the judge and smile — these little things you do in horse showmanship, such as put your toes this way or move around the horse when the judge walks that way,” she said. “They taught me how to set (the horse) up when you stop, like the clicking and trotting.”

Iowa State University senior and Diamond Trail FFA member Whitney Figland of Monroe, won grand champion in the contest. At 20, she is the oldest of Thursday’s Supreme Showmanship contestants, but Figland said she was still surprised that she came away with the top trophy.

“I was going up against some really good showmen in that group,” she said.

She, too, had to research showmanship techniques for other species. She won grand champion in sheep showmanship on Monday and had three days to brush up on skills. Figland said she researched techniques online and picked the brains of her friends.

Figland is completing her degree in ag education from ISU and Thursday was her last exhibition at the Jasper County Fair as a member of FFA. Figland said she’s ready to move on to the future, but that doesn’t mean the sheep showman won’t miss exhibiting in Colfax.

“I’m sad to see it end and that I won’t be able to show,” she said. “Going to the fair is something I did my entire life. My brother was there showing and I was always there to support him. I started showing and it became a family thing.”

On the pavilion’s show ring sideline Thursday, Supreme Showmanship volunteer Larry Opfer said Leonard’s family, who own and operates Tri-Leonard Farms in Colfax, came up with the idea for the contest.

Opfer is the vice president/ag and commercial loan officer at State Savings Bank in Baxter, which is a co-sponsor of the event. Opfer grew up on a farm around Leon. He said the challenge for Supreme Showmanship contestants is to quickly research and train to show animals outside their specialty.

“Someone who’s grown up with hogs or sheep knows how to show those animals, but the Supreme Showmanship Contest makes them step outside of their comfort zones,” he said. “They have to talk with other people to get this points of showing another animal class. It’s a completely different deal.”

Contact Mike Mendenhall at mmendenhall@newtondailynews.com