Much of the Champaign County fair focuses on the livestock, but in Tuesday morning’s Junior Fair Sheep Showmanship contest, it was local students who were being judged.

The contest, one of the most difficult events of the fair, lets the judges know which competitors know the animals best, said Melinda Morrison, 4-H educator for OSU Extension. To be successful, students often spend as many as two or three hours a day for two months leading up to the fair to train their animals. Nearly all the animals have some weakness, Morrison said. What the judges are really looking for is which competitors can hide those flaws and present the animal as well as possible.

“I like showmanship because it’s about the youth,” Morrison said. “It’s about the kids and it’s not about how much money you put into the animal.”

The winners of Tuesday morning’s competition have a chance to move on to the King of the Ring Show on Thursday evening, which includes the best showmen throughout the fair.

Maggie Neer, a senior at Mechanicsburg High School, knows the challenges of the competition better than most. A competitor for the past nine years, Neer was named the best showman in the competition for the past three years and won the King of the Ring Contest in 2010. The sheep are one of the hardest animals to show, she said, because they are often skittish and competitors have to make sure the animal’s feet are set properly.

“It’s a team with you and your animal,” Neer said. “You guys both have to stay on the same page.”

Still, Neer said she gets a thrill from competing. The challenge for younger competitors is to find their niche and work hard to improve their skills, she said.

“You get out of it what you put into it really,” Neer said.

For the best competitors, judges will sometimes require them to show a different animal than they had trained with.

“That tells the judges, is that person just a good showman with that animal, or is he a good showman with any animal he’s given,” Morrison said.

Logan Rowe, a junior at Kenton Ridge High School, won first place for showmanship in the senior class Tuesday morning. Competitors are split up by age group into one of four divisions, ranging from beginners to the senior class.

The challenge, he said, is to train the animals to remain calm throughout the competition.

“They just like to move around a lot,” Rowe said. “They’re not used to it.”