For Kendal May, the emotions began to hit her when she realized all of her hard work over the years paid off in a big way.
“I cried,” said May, who was named the best overall showman out of approximately 130 participants Tuesday evening at the 2016 Fayette County Junior Fair Swine Showmanship Show. “I put a lot of work into this. Every day, twice a day I worked hard at it.”
May, now 17-years-old, has been practicing showing hogs since she was 3. She advanced to the championship round of the showmanship competition after winning her individual class at the swine arena.
May is a member of the Pigs-N-Things 4-H club. Her parents are Jamie and Ria May.
Participants who also fared exceedingly well were: Aubrey McCoy, second place; Faith Holloway, third place; Emily Reeves, fourth place; and Tori Evans, fifth place.
“This was a very good group of showmen,” said Brian Down, the judge of the show. “I go to a lot of national competitions and this show in Fayette County is right up there.”
Down said that May’s composure from start to finish was the main quality that stood out to him while judging. “She was just very smooth with the animal and very, very composed,” he said.
At this year’s competition, there were 15 classes competing for spots in the championship round.
The individual class winners were: Cody Clyburn, Faith Holloway, Kendal May, Tori Evans, Tyler Eggleton, Kylie Pettit, Aubrey McCoy, Matthew Haddox, Kylan Knapp, Zander Ivey, Mara Simonson, Aiden Knecht, Konner May, Hunter Havens and Emily Reeves.
The 2016 Junior Fair Market Hog Show gets underway today at 8 a.m. at the swine arena on the Fayette County Fairgrounds.
