Winnie Faust describes herself as an ordinary Penn State student. She enjoys playing soccer, running and shopping.

However, on a raw March evening, Faust (sophomore-petroleum and natural gas engineering) was at an unlikely locale -- the Beef-Sheep Center on Orchard Road.

Adorned in a fleece pullover, the 5-foot-3, 115-pound Faust prepared to meet her newest "friend" -- a 1,000-pound cow.

Faust, along with 27 other Penn State students, will be competing in the Block and Bridle Club's 88th annual Little International, a livestock competition.

But what makes Faust different from her competitors is that, besides riding horses when she was younger, she has never worked with large animals, she said.

In six weeks and at least 20 total hours of training, Faust has learned important grooming, handling and showing skills, including how to give a cow a haircut and how to calm it down if it acts up.

"It's totally [been] worth it," Faust said of the training. "I laughed so much."

The Little International is open to all students, but most participants have some prior experience with livestock, said show manager Tupper Sverduk (senior-animal science).

"We want to give everybody an opportunity to show off livestock," he said.

Faust said she found out about the Little International from her friend Libby Crenshaw (senior-agricultural business management), who is participating in the Little International for her third consecutive year and has been working with animals since she was in middle school.

Sverduk said students in the Little International can choose among four different species to show -- cows, pigs, sheep and horses.

Those who show cows begin their training six weeks before the show because they are the hardest of the species to show, he said.

Crenshaw said the competition is "fun because Winnie never did anything like this before, and I get to show her the ropes."

On Faust's third day of training, with the occasional "moo" heard in the distance, Faust prepared to round up her cow -- which she named Elegance -- with Crenshaw's help.

After placing the halter on Elegance's head, both girls tied their cows' halters to the fence.

Faust said she was a little intimidated her first day, but that by her third day of training she had gotten used to the cow.

"The first week is letting the cow to get to know her," Crenshaw said.

As Faust brushed Elegance's hair forward, she said the cow was giving her no struggle whatsoever. By this point in her training, Faust had learned only basic care-taking skills.

However, she said, she already had learned two important lessons about the cow's tail: first, to watch out for it because cows like to whip their tails around, and second, the tail can be used to direct the cow when walking it.

The following week, Faust began to walk Elegance around the barnyard. She said it was more difficult than she thought it would be. Unfortunately, she added, she did not get to train as much that week due to bad weather.

A week after a late-season snowstorm, the smell of cow manure wafted around the Beef-Sheep Center as milder temperatures moved in.

Faust washed Elegance for her first time during the third week of training. Elegance was moved into a shoot, a temporary cage used to hold her in place, during the washing and hair clipping.

Faust said combing "is an important part of the competition when showing [the cow] to the judges."

After Faust finished blow-drying Elegance, she prepared to practice walking with the cow. At first, Elegance followed Faust with little resistance, but then pinned her up against the fence.

With a cringe and a smile, Faust regained control of Elegance.

"She can be hard to handle sometimes," Faust said.

Crenshaw instructed Faust to rub Elegance's chest, or brisket, to calm the cow down so it would stop moving.

The tactic worked for about a minute, but then Elegance pinned Faust against the fence again. Still, Faust said she had no regrets, although she "doesn't like coming home every night smelling like cows."

On Thursday night -- nine days before the competition -- Faust began to clip Elegance's hair for the show. The cow's hair is clipped in sessions because it takes so long and there are only two shoots available for all the competitors to use.

As Faust held an electric razor, she said she was scared of cutting the hair too short.

"It's hard if you don't know what it's supposed to look like," Crenshaw said, adding that the goal is to cut the cow's hair flat.

After about an hour, Faust had completed most of the cow's back and hindquarters.

For the show, Faust will have to use adhesives and gels to style the cow's hair, Crenshaw said. The object of styling the cow's hair is to make it look square in the back and feminine up front, she said.

The judges critique first on showmanship, how the exhibitor presents the animal, then the "fitting" or how the animal looks, Sverduk said. The biggest thing with all species is cleanliness, he added.

The judges focus most heavily on the competitors' ability to show the animals, not the animals themselves, he said.