The Southern Show, one of the highlights of the island’s summer calendar, is on this weekend giving us a chance to see some of the island’s finest livestock and horses, all looking their very best. Julie Blackburn visited Vicky Masson down on the farm to see what it takes to produce a champion.

Vicky Masson, of Ballacricket Farm in Ronague, knows a thing or two about getting livestock ready for showing. She and husband Neil are the proud owners of Honeybee, the Holstein cow that won the Supreme Champion award at last year’s Southern Show.

This year they will be taking six cows and calves and, if you think they can just run a hosepipe over them on the morning of the show, then you couldn’t be more wrong.

Vicky brought out a one-year-old Holstein, Connie, who belongs to her daughter Rhian. This little cow already looks immaculate and there’s five days to go before the big day.

But all the preparation to achieve this began for Connie when she was just six months old and Vicky picked her out as having the potential for showing.

Back in January, Vicky and Rhian set about making sure that Connie got used to being handled, tied up and led around, getting her accustomed to, first a rope halter, and then the smart leather halter which she will wear to the show.

Around six weeks before the show Connie was put on a special feeding regime. Its exact constituents are a closely guarded Masson family secret but it’s designed to have her in optimum condition on the day. Winning show animals, especially children’s ponies, are often criticised for being unhealthily fat but Connie is a dairy cow and they are supposed to be lean: the judges like to be able to see the outline of the ribs beneath the coat.

A couple of weeks before the show the real hard work begins as Vicky explains: ’That’s when we’ll start bathing her and then the week of the show she’ll have a clip and then another bath.

’When we’re clipping we leave certain parts of the body and use different clipper blades for different areas, so you do take the legs shorter and ribs because the judges want top see them.’

The hair on Connie’s ears is also clipped but the ’top line’ hair, running down her neck to her back, will be left and on the day it will be washed and blown dry so it stands up straight.

Vicky adds: ’Her hooves were trimmed a good few weeks before the show, just to tidy them up, then on the day of the show we’ll put some spray shine on them.’

It will be an early start for the Massons on show day getting all the animals ready to go, including Maggie, the Holstein calf which Rhian’s younger brother, Alec, will be showing.

Vicky says: ’We’re planning to be down at the show field for 6am - having done all the milking beforehand.’

Very often having the right temperament can be the ’X factor’ that makes a showing animal a winner. As it turns out, Connie not only looks very pretty, she also has an ideal temperament which is a huge help, as Vicky explains: ’You can get difficult ones and it all depends how strong minded you are whether you pursue them or not because there’s nothing worse than getting a cow to the show and just fighting with her all day.

’The one that won last year, Honeybee, she’s amazing, she loved it, absolutely loved it she just loved the attention. She turns it on.

’She looks like a real dopey thing at home and as soon as she gets to the show she’ll put her ears up and her head up and absolutely loves it - she’s one of a kind.’

*The Southern Show is on this Saturday and Sunday at Great Meadow, Castletown. For more information visit www.southernshow.org.