The Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Some sheep just couldn’t be controlled. While being led around the competition ring Wednesday at the Routt County Fairgrounds in Hayden, one lamb didn’t take a single step, instead bounding along with its senior showmanship competitor.

Another escaped entirely, running past bug-eyed competitors who clung tightly to their own animals.

In the end, those who best controlled and presented their sheep walked away with the widest smiles.

Catharine Koroulis, of Clark, was named the senior showmanship champion, with Jace Wirth, of Steamboat Springs, coming in as reserve champion.

Jaelyn Whaley was the intermediate champion and Billie Bratton was the reserve, while Warren Hayes was the junior champion and Millie Delaney was the reserve.

Warren, a 10-year-old from Phippsburg competing in showmanship for the first time, was applauded for his steely-eyed approach to the competition.

“I like the way he kept his eyes on me, staring at me. That told me he wanted to win,” judge Cash Brincefield said.

Warren’s smile seemed welded to his face afterward.

A long summer of waking up early to walk and care for his lamb, Jerky, paid off, he said.

He left the small arena, handed his giant purple ribbon off to his dad and gave his mom a big, long hug before proudly leading his prize-winning lamb out into the open air of the Routt County Fairgrounds.

“It feels great,” Warren said. “My favorite part was that you go to have a great time with your animals — and the purple ribbon.”

The emotions were a little more subdued for Jaelyn, for whom winning a showmanship championship almost has become as regular a part of summer as swimming and mowing the lawn.

“This was my fourth year, and I’ve won almost every year,” she said. “It takes a lot of time. You have to exercise with the lambs to keep them in shape and work them so they cooperate in the ring.”

Four years in, she knows full well what makes a winner, she said. When asked by the judge what she’d change on her animal, Henry, she pointed out that Henry wasn’t quite long enough in the loin, where the best meat is, and that the animal looked more like a pop can than the pop-bottle silhouette of a great lamb.

“He still shows like every other lamb, though,” Jaelyn said.

Henry came by his name thanks to a theme, which is how Jaelyn names all her lambs. This summer, it was guns, with Henry standing out as the best for competition above his siblings, Winchester and Luger.

“He was really one of the best lambs I’ve had,” she said.