Two young competitors enter the ring wearing matching white coats and serious expressions. They’re holding red plastic boards. Braced between the boards is a black-and-white Hampshire pig named Ann. The handlers, wearing oversized white lab coats and hats too big for them, are seven-year-old Asher Blenkiron and eight-year-old Zarlei Mears.
They guide Ann around an obstacle course on fake green turf in front of a stand full of spectators at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. First, they usher her through a gated fence, then around a set of barrels, then through another fence before walking under an archway and back into the pen.
