Show - practice

We didn't show any animals at the show in Fort Wayne. We had signed up to show Remington and Sommerfield, but with Remington dying, we did not want to just bring Sommerfield. Instead J and I attended to get more insight into showing. As it happened the farm we bought Victoria and Kateri from, South Haven Alpacas, was in need of help. They had 3 girls and 5 boys to show. Since it was such a big show, there were times when more than one of their alpacas was to be shown at the same time. On Saturday only 1 of their's showed, but that meant there were 7 yet to be shown on Sunday morning, and 3 rings going at the same time. J ended up showing Contessa and Lucky Wind (Contessa is Victoria's daughter, Lucky Wind isn't from one of ours but is the same age as Contessa). At a smaller level show there is only 1 ring at a time, but being such a big show, there were at least 2 and at times 3 rings where they were showing.

The show was huge, a level 5 (biggest there is). And the competition was tough. Animals who won at other shows were not even placing at this show. In some ways we are glad we did not show any of ours as it was a tough show and might have been brutal for a first show. Though I am curious how Maddie would have done in a show like that (she did not have her ARI registration complete in time for signing up for the show). I do think both Maddie and Sommerfield are on the big side for their age. Some of the ones there looked so young, but when I looked up their birthdate, they ended up being older than Maddie (she's seven months old, youngest that can show is six months, so she would have been one of the younger one but looked bigger than many in her class).

We do plan to show both Maddie and Sommerfield in shows this fall. By then Maddie's registration will be all set. In the mean time, I need to start on halter training them.

This is the set up South Haven had for their alpacas (the white alpaca near the front of the first pen in Lucky Wind):


This is the stand they made to show off the awards for Princess and Bam Bam. Princess is Kateri's daughter and Bam Bam is Kateri's brother:


Buccaneer's Ribbons (he's Victoria's brother and the guy we plan to breed to Kateri):


J showing (not the best picture, I kept waiting for the good shot that never happened):