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Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 10:31 am
by carole
Hi my 10 year old daughter is showing a great interest in our dexters, always helping out etc I was wondering if anyone had any information/advice about junior handling. I have done a search on the site but can't find any info, so any thoughts would be appreciated.
Many thanks
Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 9:20 am
by Duncan MacIntyre
We all worry more than we should about junior handling. Juniors often benefit from a bit of halter and lead work between comingout of the push chair and going to primary school. At primary school they usually benefit from moving and working in groups and are quite easily handled by the time they leave primary school. However in the teenage years they may well become more difficult and boistrous, but do not worry as they tend to settle down again in the early to mid 20's and turn out better than you expected.
A bit like young cattle really.
Duncan
Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 11:07 am
by Duncan MacIntyre
Carole,
sorry about the first reply, couldn't resist. Our children did handle our Dexters quite a bit when they were young, but not a lot of formal showing, so I can't give much advice on that. We did have one try at Catriona exhibiting a calf in the children's section at the local show. It was a disaster, the judge turned his back on the Dexter and would not look at it. Catriona came out of the ring crying, saying "Dad, I wasn't even judged". But a class of Dexters with young handlers would be a totally different experience where the judge would know what they were and appreciate them.
I would start children handling adult Dexters which are well used to being led, get them involved in all the preparation as well. When you are going to enter them in a show choose the Dexter very carefully, some may never be suitable for a young person to lead, whereas others will respond very well, especially if the handler is confident - the confidence will come if they have been doing lots of preparation, washing, brushing, and the general hanlding that comes with that. When I used to sell heifers at Stoneleigh we used to get Alastair or Catriona to lead them up and down in the lines to show potential customers how quiet the heifers were. We have a wonderful photo somewhere of Alastair at the age of 8 or so fast asleep against a heifer in the Stoneleigh lines.
Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 9:59 pm
by carole
Thanks Duncan your post really made me laugh after a pretty depressing day at work, oh well at least it pays for our dexters and I do complain to them on a regular basis....sort of cow therapy (apparently its cheaper than retail therapy.....mind you I could just go and buy more cows??) Sorry forgot to say thanks for the advice, I was thinking of our local one day show, one of our new mums is a little sweetie quite happy to brushed etc by our daughter just need to make sure she is still O.K after having her first calf