The start of the Wisconsin State Fair usually means lots of rides and food. But for some 4-Hers it’s their chance to show their animals at the highest level.
What looks like a lot of chaos in the pig barn is actually showmanship. The kids inside the ring have to get their pigs to follow them. It is something Shelby Veum, 19, has been doing since she was a little kid with all her pigs.
“They know I’m the one who walks and washes them,” said Veum.
She gets up every day and takes care of her pigs which means giving them baths and taking them for walks, twice a day.
“Especially when it’s cool out in the morning I will walk them quite a ways to get them trained,” said Veum from Stoughton.
Fellow 4-H member Kelsey Klitzman has been doing the same. She and Shelby have competed against each other since they were kids. It’s already been a long day for their final State Fair Competition.
“I got here at about 5:30 this morning so I left home about 2:30 this morning,” said Klitzman who drove in from the Village of Brooklyn.
As they circled the ring, the girls heard the judge call out their names. Veum for Supreme Champion and Klitzman for Reserve Supreme Champion.
“It’s nice to go out on a win but it’s also emotional. I mean I have been doing for so long,” said Veum wiping away tears.
And it meant even more to Veum that she and her best friend went first and second.
“We’ve grown up together and doing this and we all finished in the ring it was really nice and really emotional because we were all there together and it kind of exemplified like what we do,” said Veum.
