LIVE: Behind the Scenes With a Bovine Beauty Pageant Contestant

FARGO — Call it a cow beauty contest.

It’s the new competition category in the Clay County Fair going on later this month, and it’s called “cow fitting.”

And we got a live demonstration on the Morning Show of how you give a cow a glow-up.

Owner (and cow stylist) Riley Rickford is competing with her cow Pixi in the category.

Among the products she uses are “cow glue,” which is essentially hairspray for cows, to shape the cow’s hair into a more flattering body line.

Think “butt mohawk.” It’s sort of like the function Spanx fulfills, but for cows.

She’ll also use hair mascara, and a type of animal-safe spray paint.

That makes Pixi’s coat blacker, and makes it stand out more.

She clips the hairs to make them uniform, and blow-dries her to make her look extra fluffy.

Pixi’s a hybrid, and the goal is to make her look as balanced as possible, Rickford says.

It’s a labor-intensive process — each one of Pixi’s legs alone takes about ten minutes.

Rickford gave us an on-air demo, along with the fair’s Allison Smith, to talk about what it takes to make it as a top cow model contender and why they love working with cattle so much.

https://www.mnclaycountyfair.com/