Lamb jumping champion crowned at Hillsborough Co. Fair

DOVER (FOX 13) - The second week of the Hillsborough County Fair kicked off tonight at the fairgrounds in Dover this week.

One of the big attractions was the lamb jumping contest.

In lamb jumping, handlers lead sheep to hurdles where they are supposed to jump over.

It’s like reverse limbo. The bars are set low for the first few rounds. The lambs have to jump the bars without knocking them over.

As the rounds progress, the bars get higher – and more difficult to jump.

Many of the handlers ran ahead of their lambs, jumping the bars first with the lamb to follow, but as the contest got tougher, the lambs became less likely to jump.

Some ran to the bars and stopped. Others tried to go around.

And some just knocked the bars over and walked past.

But one handler got the lambs to jump higher than rest. This year's winner was 16-year-old Hailey Harris from Plant City High School. She says there’s a strategy to getting a lamb to jump.

 "Well, we usually just like jump over, that way they see us jumping over, and they'll follow," Hailey said.

The next big event at the fair is a demolition derby, scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday. Bring a church bulletin to get in for free.

Sunday is also the last day of the fair.