At McHenry Fair, goats and owners udderly identical

People, it seems, will compete at anything. And willing or not, animals will, too.

Such was the case Thursday at the McHenry County Fair, where goat owners dressed up and gave their goats a complementary look in a costume show Thursday at the McHenry County Fair.

Jordann Bauer, 19, of Lake Geneva and her goat Legacy won the contest in their dairy farmer and cow outfits. Jordann used black hair spray to put spots on Legacy just before the contest started.

Jordann said she competes in the 4-H and open shows with her 20 goats and decided to give the costume event a try during her down time.

Her mom, Marleen Bauer, said, “She just told me a list of things to go buy, and I was like, ‘What are you going to do?' and she (Jordann) said, ‘Don't worry about it, just do it.'”

Her logic? Goats have udders, too.

“Everybody's like, goats, like, you milk goats? Why do you milk goats? I thought only cows milked,” Jordann said. She played up the misunderstanding and won the first place ribbon.

The contest was judged on how loud the audience cheered for each contestant. Jordann couldn't have won without her cheering section. Jordann's friends — Daniel McPherson, 18, of Richmond, Brooke Prehn, 13, and her sister, Bobbi, 10, both of Woodstock — all screamed for Jordann and Legacy when the voting started.

Bobbi said she would have been tough competition if she'd entered the contest. “I don't have a costume. Otherwise, I was going to do Pippi Longstocking and I was going to dress my goat up as a horse,” she said.

The four of them have been in the same 4-H group and travel together to the different competitions. Jordann even keeps her goats at Daniel's farm. “Well, we're still basically all family,” Daniel said.

His grandma, Barb Howe, is the superintendent for the goat shows. It seems different to dress goats up, but Howe had good reasons. “I just thought it would be something different on Thursday because there's kind of a lull ... We thought we'd try something fun.”

The county fair, on Country Club Road in Woodstock, runs through Sunday evening.