Showing our Traditional Dexters via youtube

[irishtx23]

Hello all,

I am sad to share that we were unable to attend the North Texas Irish Festival this Spring. My son and I were battling the flu but more importantly I did not feel I had given our wonderful Dexter girls enough training to be prepared for the craziness of the show location. The Festival brings out thousands of folks and I honestly find myself being firm about the touching of our little ones and the constant sticking fingers into the cows sides, face, etc. Maybe I am getting grumpy in my old age but showing is not always what it's cracked up to be. (I knew I was in trouble when I had nightmares about our girls getting loose and being put down by authorities because of the environment...this is a outside event and is close to an interstate.)

So, my solution is to consider having a Show for our Dexters via Youtube. We can share a "pattern" or agreed upon trail much like horse shows. We could have our Dexters to be judged much like Showmanship and groom them to look their best. To me this can be great promotion and the videos promulgated to the cattle world and newcomers to the Traditional Irish Dexter world for years to come. The expense is minimal unlike the cost of our Festival, Shows as there is no need to transport.

Honestly, I am not the only one who seems stressed when taking our cattle off our ranch as I can sense it in our cows, too. Last year I am sure we picked up a virus and have been battling warts with our little one. This is disheartening to me as I try really hard to keep everyone healthy but when you are at show there are diseases that seem to be everywhere.

Here are my thoughts on "Showing our Traditional Dexters"

1. Create a Youtube page to add videos. Note...we can add the Dexter's lines, owner information, etc.

2. Create a pattern so everyone is doing the same thing with their Dexters.

3. Promote to social media for others to see

4. Only for registered Legacy "Traditional" Dexters

Please give me your feedback...thoughts and suggestions on how we can help encourage our members to share their beautiful Traditional Dexters.

Angie Gaines

Fitz's Golden Dexters

[dexterfarm]

tell me how you see this working. I have only posted to you tube once. How does a channel work can anyone post to it? Or would they need to send the video to someone to post.

Is this something you see as being judged?  I am on the fence about that. As someone shows. I know I will loose every time. I dont care about that but would just like to see something that looks like a Dexter win. It is almost always the biggest beef that wins and that is not what a Dexter is and not helpful to the breed to constantly having the biggest beef win at a small breed show.  

[irishtx23]

Exactly...
I am doing a similar show with Curly Horses to promote our 50th anniversary for our registry. This is the way it is set up. Members only, $10 per class (we will have four classes, english, western, trail and showmanship. So if you enter all four it is $40. Each class has a winner and all the monies collected go to the winner in the form of a prepaid credit card by mail. No monies are made for the registry but hey this is for the members! The judging will be chosen as experienced, volunteers who are not entered. The members simply have a video taken of them and their Curly Horse doing the "pattern" for the class. The pattern gives everyone the same advantage. The judging is based on the class requirements for other horse shows.
Once the payment is received and it would be awesome if it could go to Legacy's paypal as I do not want anyone thinking I am taking the monies! The patterns are posted for everyone to know what to do. We promote it and the videos are uploaded to our Legacy Facebook page or a page that can be seen by the public. A disclaimer of course allowing us the opportunity to share the videos on youtube and all the legal jargon. It does not require any insurance on the registry's part which is a plus.
So I need to research cow showing to come up with a pattern to create a class. If you feel showing the conformation is a good idea we can do that as well. We can have a class for Chrondos and Non-Chrondos...but I do feel it should be Legacy registered only cattle. We can have a class for Bulls, Cows over the age of 12 years, heifers etc. Anything that a regular cattle show would have.
I hope I have helped answer your questions. I feel it could be great fun, inexpensive for the owners and a neat opportunity to show our wonderful Traditional Irish Dexters. We will also have a presence in video form to share with others{:>
Angie

[dexterfarm]

for me its all about the animal. I dont care for the showman ship classes for cattle. so perhaps show the cow being led from all sides. the video should probably be limited to x amount of time. Does it need to be contiguous video or can it be stopped and started? How far have you gotten setting up this for the horses? Any examples of what you are doing there that could be applied to the cattle?