Samantha Bellairs, a poultry showmanship winner, showed she knew how to handle the eight additional livestock species when she took the blue ribbon Saturday night in the sweepstakes competition at the 76th Annual Chelsea Community Fair.
When the evening began, there were nine senior showmanship winners who began the competition on their original animal.
There was a pig, goat, rabbit, chicken, two horses (one English, one Western), steer, dairy and lamb. Each was stationed in a different area of the multipurpose arena.
They had four minutes to show the judges they knew the finer points of handling another animal before time was called and they moved to another one.
This year, the contests were:
Samantha Bellairs – poultry
Allison Bellairs – rabbit
Taylor Luckhardt – dairy
Grant Bater – goat
Weston Barnes – Western horse
Anyssa Marsh – English horse
Michael Staebler – lamb
Jacob Kern – pig
Jason Trinkle – steer
Each showman moved from one animal to the next as they ventured into new waters — showing both their knowledge of the animal and their handling skills.
Samantha Bellairs, 16, who is home schooled, said the dairy animal was the hardest to show and aside from her chicken, the Western horse was the easiest to show.
“I’m very proud of her, she and her sister worked very hard together to do this,” said Cathie Mason, the two sisters’ 4-H leader.
In addition, Mason thought it was the first time in many years — if ever — that a poultry exhibitor was chosen as sweepstakes champion.
Samantha beat her sister, Allison, who tied for second with Jacob Kern.
“I’m proud of her,” Allison said of her younger sister, “She beat me by seven points.”
She said the two of them made sure they spoke to showman from the other species to learn as many pointers as possible before they walked in the arena Saturday night.
