Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Correct Naming of Show Awards

Since my good buddy Jeff went off on his blog about how inconsiderate it is for kids to interrupt a judge while giving reasons to shake their hand.... I felt the urge to discuss a pet peeve of MINE.

Correct naming of show awards.

I saw an article like this many years ago in the National Livestock Exhibitor, written by Eldon Miller, and it has stuck with me ever sense. In general, there is a TON of inconsistency in how people list their awards. Here is a good list to use.

SUPREME CHAMPION: This is used to identify the ONE supreme champion of the entire show. An example like this would be when all breed champions go in the ring together to compete and the judge selects the winner amongst multiple breeds.

GRAND CHAMPION: This would be used to identify the one single champion of a breed. I.e. Grand Champion Angus Heifer.

CLASS WINNER: I know some would disagree with me, but I prefer class winner...not class champion. To me the word CHAMPION should be reserved for honors higher than a class.

Now additionally, I have a personal preference on how you represent championships.

For example, if you use a caption on a photo of "Many time champion", this would refer to an animal that has been selected as Grand Champion of the entire breed 2 or more times. This is not acceptable to use for an animal that you showed for 2 years that never won anything, but you decided just to call them a "Many Time Champion" since he was on your showstring. Be honest about the awards. If he won his class a lot, call him a "Many Time Class Winner" or "Consistent Class Winner" to accurately describe the accomplishments.

National Champion. This is another one to watch. The phrase National Champion refers to the ONE grand champion of the show. The grand champion. Not the reserve. Not the class winner. A Reserve Calf Champion is not a national champion. It might be a National Reserve Division Champion -- which is very impressive in itself, but still, not a national champion.

Finally, word order is important when dealing with reserves. For example:

Reserve Grand Champion Bull
Reserve Senior Champion Bull (Not Senior Reserve Champion Bull)
2nd in class is not appropriate to say "Reserve Class Champion"

Off the soap box. For now.

1 comment:

  1. Love this! You and Jeff are on a role this week. I've been noticing lately a lot of pictures are being misrepresented as to what that animal actually won. I always remember that I want to buy from people that value honesty.
    www.crystalcattle.com

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