4-H members including Caroline Lanoue, at center, tapped their pigs to direct them around the ring at the Lyon County Fair swine show.

MARSHALL — There were a lot of people – and pigs – in motion in the show ring at the Lyon County Fair on Friday. Competitors in the annual 4-H swine show did their best to drive their animals around the ring, all while giving the judge a good look at the pigs and avoiding traffic jams.

“I try to go around them. Most of the time it works,” 4-H member Jackson Wichmann said of steering past other pigs.

Unlike some of the other types of livestock judged at the county fair, swine aren’t led into the show ring on halters. 4-H members competing in the show stayed on the move, walking around the ring with their pigs, and correcting the animals’ course along the way.

The show gives judges a chance to see the pigs from different angles, and to see how they’re muscled, said 4-H member Elsie Knott.

All the work that goes into showing pigs for 4-H starts early in the year, Knott said. They start by getting the pigs used to people, she said. “Toward April or May, we start walking them,” she said.

“It’s been really cool,” William Buyck said of showing pigs. In order to get ready for the fair, he worked with his pigs, Cupcake and Arthur, three times a week. Buyck said he would walk the pigs around the yard.

4-H members said getting to know your pigs was also part of the experience of showing. Some animals were easier to handle in the ring than others.

“They all have different personalities,” Knott said. “Some of them like to walk with their head up, and some take a little more work.”

“Some days, they’re supper happy and they want to walk,” Knott said. Times like that were fun for her, too, she said.

Wichmann said he liked working with female pigs a little better than male ones, partly because of their temperament. “They’re easier to clean up, and they’re not as mean,” he said.

Some of the competitors said they got interested in showing swine partly through family connections. Knott and Wichmann both said their dads worked with pigs.

“And I thought it would be cool to show them,” Wichmann said. It was his second year showing pigs for 4-H. “I like getting to go into the show arena and see what you can do,” he said.