When you get to be a really good showman you learn to study your cattle and know what foot placement makes them look better at each angle. I never set up in a true scissored profile stance when they are nose to the rail for a butt view, but I also dont always set a heifer perfectly square then either. But from a showmanship standpoint they should always be square when they are on the butt view.
I have said it in posts before about setting up cattle in showmanship. In my opinion one of the biggest problem with setting up cattle is that somewhere along the way we quit teaching the kids why they set up the way they did and why they do the things they do in the showring and just started teaching them cookie cutter stances, and since all cattle arent cut from the same cookie cutter, the same cookie cutter technique doesnt work on every calf.
How many of you have seen the kids showing that have obviously been taught with repitition a routine to use in the ring? It ussually goes something like this. Stop, get the head up, place the feet, loin them, scratch, if the calf moves a foot then make a circle and repeat the process. The problem is, not every calf needs to be loined and exactly how high should the head be? I see parents all the time yelling get their head up, when the calf's head is already to high. Truth is for most calves they look the best when their eye is level with the top of their shoulder, but I hardly ever see one shown this way, they push that nose way up in the air. When you raise their head that high it naturally drops their back making them look weak topped, and then the kids loin them making them look even weaker topped. Now if you have a calf that is slightly coarse fronted or maybe roaches in the top a little, then lifting their head a little higher may help them look a little better, but not always. And if your calf is pretty level topped and super square hipped and level from hooks to pins, then you dont always need to loin them. With some calves setting their legs perfectly straing can make them look a little post legged, but if you let em move one leg a little forward then it allows them to relax a little and they will appear to have a more desirable set to the leg.
I am not saying that this always works, like I said every calf is different so how you handle, prep, exhibit and set up each calf has to be different. I think we would see much better showman if we went beyond just teaching them what to do and teach them why they are doing what they are doing and what the desired affect is so that they when to do what and when its not all necessary.
Everybody has a different opinion, but this is my two cents worth
