The way shows run they start with black and work their way up to lighter colors. Shelby was the first of our Goldsmith girls to show because she's a darker color. I was a bit concerned how she would show because she has different fiber than I've seen before. I love it, but I was concerned how it would go over. I've heard that zipper crimp gets the preference. Her crimp is very bold and not zipper like at all. However, we noticed that as people walked by her, they often commented on her. When we haltered her and brought her up to the ring she got a lot of attention.
In the ring the judge had a very difficult time deciding on first and second place. In the end she put Shelby in 2nd. For such a hard show, we are very pleased with that placing.
Our Shelby:
In one ring they were showing girls, in another ring the boys were being shown. As sometimes happens we had one going in one ring and one ready to go in the next. J had Shelby in the ring, and I ran to get Jolly Roger for his class. I almost had to actually show an animal! But it ended just in time. J did all the showing *phew* Though I was running around when the judge was talking about Shelby.
The judge said Shelby has perfect conformation and that her fiber is incredibly uniform. I believe she gave the other one 1st because it had more fineness (that's what I think J told me she said).
All the first and 2nd place winners of each class stand in the color championship of their color. The 1st place winners are considered for Color Champion. The Reserve Color champion is then picked from the 1st place winners who did not get color champion and the 2nd place in the class of the one who got Color Champion. In Shelby's color championship there was a mix-up and Shelby was standing in the place of the 1st place winner (J said the ring steward put him in that spot). Shelby was being considered for the overall color champion, which a 2nd place winner is not supposed to be. I was in the audience and a man next to me said "that judge really likes that one little on there" referring to Shelby. He could tell by how the judge was going over her and kept going back to her. He had no idea that was my baby :) until I told him. Then it got sorted out that she was supposed to be in the 2nd row, not to be considered for champion. There were rumblings in the audience that the judge was going to pick that one. Well shoot! I really think if Shelby had placed 1st in her class she would have won the color champion. I don't know if the judge then regretted her decision on 1st place, because the 1st place from Shelby's class did not get color champion or reserve.
On day two Tehya was up to be shown. I've heard that it is very hard for fading fawns to win because they have different colors running through their blanket (in Tehya's case the top of her back is medium fawn, and it goes to light fawn and even beige). Different colors make it very hard for the fiber to remain consistent (sometimes the different colors can cause places with more crimp than other places and different levels of softness). I was nervous how the class would work for Tehya and almost hoped they put her in indefinite class instead (there they all would have a variety of colors working against them). She was placed in the light fawn class (which was determined by a judge, we had signed her up for that class, but the color check people were not sure).
Tehya also got 2nd place. In this class the judge said she had 3 that she really struggled over where to place them. I believe she said that both 1st and 2nd had good conformation, but that 1st had a bit more density. She was impressed with how uniform Tehya's fiber is (so much for fading fawn hurting her, it didn't, she's uniform anyway).
Our Tehya:
In this color championship Tehya was in the 2nd row like she's supposed to be. The 1st place winner from Tehya's class did win Color Champion, so Tehya was brought forward to be considered for Reserve Color Champion. The judge said to J, "you aren't making this easy on me," referring to how nice Tehya is. In the end she did not get reserve, but it's very rare that the 2nd place winner does. It can happen, but when it does it causes a lot of waves. Usually one of the first place winners from the classes gets the Reserve Color Champion.
We are very excited and proud of our girls!
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