How clip a show steer

Clipping show steers is a art and every steer is different. Therefore, you need to first find what needs to be be clipped to make him look better than he does. Most judges like to have wide backs, thick boned legs, look like a box, and wide rear ends. There are other minor things that will help but for the most part thats it. Before clipping your steer should be completely clean and blown dry to keep dirt from dulling the clippers blade. Some people can clip calm steers tied to the fence but i find that it works best to put them in a chute for clipping. I would start with the head because its simply the easiest part. You need to take the hair all the way done to a buzz being sure you get his nose, ears, sides of his face and under his mouth. The hair is normally really long and curly on a steers head so you should always try and clip against the hair. I would then move to his back. The hair should be combed up and towards his head. If you have an extra hand around to constantly comb after you clip it helps out a lot. For the back you want to take the hair down short, in a straight line down his back starting at his shoulder. From there you can take your finger and rest under the blade like a guard and come out off his body leveling of the hair with the straight line you clipped down the back. Remember you can always come back and take off more but you can not  put the hair back on! Be patient it could take a little while to make it perfect but having a steady hand and moving slowly will pay off in the end. After you do this to both sides stand  behind or steer and look down his back. Does it look even all the way across? It should look almost like an airplane landing strip. On the rear end i would cut like you did the head with about to or three clipper heads off each side of the tail in a box. The tail needs to be fluffed and cut off even with his hocks. The tail should also be trimmed straight up and then spiked at the top even with the tail head. On show day when all the hair on his legs are pulled up with hair spray i would take the clippers and trim any long hairs that are uneven and under his belly and down his sides. The overall goal is to look like a box. There are other types of clipping like slick shearing in which you take down all of the steers hair but this is not normally used on show cattle.