Tom Alty, commentator and judge of Bartle, Lancashire chats about the quality of the pigs with a fellow judge, Stan Samuels. 'Showing pigs is a performance because you don't have a halter and rope or bridle, you just have a bat [a stick] and a board. You have to have an empathy between pig and handler, but even the good pigs are not as obedient as you'd like. At one show about 15 years ago I asked my wife, who had never taken an animal in the ring, to walk round an old Large Black sow. It was a placid pig, but suddenly there was a grunt and a rush, and the pig disappeared into the horticultural tent, which housed, among other things, a display of eggs. My wife has never been to a show since.'
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