The first step in "Going for the Purple" is to teach your animal to lead. This is called "halter breaking".
- You need to start by teaching your calf what the halter is. There are two ways to accomplish this. The first way is to place the halter (with a rope attached) on the calf and allow the calf to drag the halter for a few days. By doing this, the calf will learn what the halter is by stepping on it. Another way to halter break the calf is by tying the calf at a natural position to a pole or wall allowing about 12 inches of halter slack. You should check your calf every 15 to 20 minutes when tying the calf for the first few days to make sure that the calf does not injure itself in any way.
- After a few days, the calf will become accustomed to the halter. This is a good time to teach the calf to lead. Start slowly with your calf and don't jerk the calf around when you are starting the halter breaking process. Leading your calf and talking to him in a calm voice will put your calf more at ease and make the calf unafraid of you and the halter breaking process. When removing the halter from the calf, do it slowly and, once again, use a calm voice when releasing the calf.
- After about a week, when your calf has become accustomed to the halter, start tying the calf with its head up and its feet squarely underneath him. This practice will make for muscle development and teach the calf how to stand when you are in the show ring. Start with about a 15 to 30 minute session, gradually increasing the time over a week's period to a duration of 60 minutes at a time.
Brushing and touching the calf and talking to your calf in a soothing voice will calm your calf. Playing a radio in the barn will allow your calf to become accustomed to noise and human voices, further calming the calf.
Start brushing your calf with a rice root brush, as this practice will accustom your calf to the handling it will later receive as you continue to prepare your animal for the show ring. You may need to put your calf in a fitting chute to brush him. This will allow your calf to become accustomed to the fitting chute and train him for later on in the show season.
The most important thing to remember when halter breaking and taming your calf down, is to do so in a calm manner, never raising your voice or
injuring your calf. If you do raise your voice or injure him, he will associate the pain with you and his attitude toward you will be less than desirable.
You must continue to build a good relationship with your animal.
Growing and training hair is imperative if you expect to make your calf look its best on show day. Hair can and does hide a multitude of faults in the structure of an animal and hair is a very necessary part of a successful project. The best way to grow hair is to brush your calf every chance you get. Keeping your calf in a dark place during the day will decrease the amount of daylight and promote hair growth. Also, keeping calves under fans and misters will lower the temperature of the room which further promotes hair growth.
Washing and rinsing your calf everyday is also a very big part of hair growth and stimulation. Show calves shouldn't be washed more than once or twice a week as too much washing will dry out the hair and skin. Make sure that you get all of the soap out of your calf's hair when rinsing. Calves should be rinsed at least once a day and, preferably, twice to promote hair growth and manageability. Calves with dry hair should be sprayed with products such as Rag Oil, Final touch or Final Bloom. These products should blown into the hair, prior to washing. Using this practice will increase the "bloom" or "pop" to the hair and help train the hair the way you want it to lay on show day.
On rinse days, check your calf's hair condition after blowing it dry and, if needed, use a product such as Revive to keep hair clean and loose. Blow your calf completely dry and then spray on the Revive, working it into the hair until it stands up or lays in the proper manner.
Clipping cattle is an art that is mastered by few showmen across the country. The key ingredient to a successful clipping job is to know your calf's
strong and weak points, taking care to accentuate the strong points and use hair and clipping techniques to hide the weaknesses in your calf. One
of the most important factors in a successful clip job is to realize that all animals shouldn't be clipped the same way.
