Alpaca Show = rollercoaster ride

There is so much packed into one show weekend, that it creates an incredible emotional rollercoaster ride. One minute you could be on the best high, your alpaca got first place... the next minute you almost miss a class and can't find the lead for the alpaca's halter, or the alpaca you had high hopes for does not place well or worse, you discover something wrong with it. There are times you are so busy you don't have time to breathe, then you have several hours of down time anxiously waiting for the rest of your alpacas to show. It can be pressure cooker, being at a show. I've seen even great couples get into a fight. J and I have had our share, though overall we work well as a team.

Within that rollercoaster ride, personal growth happens, along with growth as an alpaca farmer. I know we would not be doing as well as we are in the show ring if we did not attend alpaca shows like we do.

We have learned so much during these hectic rollercoaster weekends. At times we had to face truths we did not want to hear or know about. But we faced them. At times we found we were being too hard on ourselves and our alpacas, and had let unfounded fears hold us back.

We not only hear what the judge has to say in the show ring about our animals, but we talk to fellow alpaca farmers. We ask well established alpaca farmers to come into our pen and give us an honest opinion about our animals. We have learned as much from fellow farmers as we have from the actual show ring. I also watch and learn from other farm's alpacas. When a color champion leaves the show ring, I go over and feel and look at that animal's fiber. You don't know what that animal is really like unless you look closely and feel the fiber. There is so much to see and do, only a couple of days at a show is an extremely compact time to take it all in.

This weekend there were some firsts. I showed an animal for the first time. I actually showed 2. I took in a male for Ashton Stone Alpacas, and I took in our own OHVNA Challenger (who got a 1st place!!!). I'll post much more about our ribbons in my next blog post.

While overall we had a great show, along with the great highs, there were some lows too. For the first time ever I walked out of the venue, walked out to our truck and had myself a good long cry. The emotional lows are as intense as the emotional highs. These weekends really are a rollercoaster ride.

We actually had our best show ever. This is the first time we came home with two 1st place ribbons from a level IV show! We took home two 1st place ribbons at a level III before, and we've gotten a 1st at a level IV, so we've had other good shows, but this was the best we've done at this level show. And even more sweet about these first place ribbons is that they are breeding choices we made, from our own females and males we own! We didn't buy a fancy expensive breeding to some big hot shot male, and we were still able to create incredible alpacas.

Small breeders - it can be done, it really can!!

Saturday ~ show day one

This morning, Saturday morning, is when the actual alpaca showing began at the Best of the US Alpaca Show.

When you arrive at the show that first day of showing, the first thing all the exhibitors want to get their hands on is the Show Book. They can't print up the Show Book until Friday night, after color check is complete (because sometimes an animal ends up in a different class than what the exhibitor registered them for). These are usually hot off the press, sometimes literally just picked up from the printers early Saturday morning.

The Show Book:



The Show Book lists the alpaca by class (age, sex and color), then the dam and sire, along with who owns the alpaca and who is showing the alpaca.

When we get our Show Book, we flip through it to see how many are in our alpaca's classes, and who is in the class. Often we don't specifically know the competing alpaca, but we may know the sire and therefore know what sort of competition we may be up against. We make sure each animal is in the right class, and high light them on the page.

Each alpaca also gets their own number, that number you wear as an arm band when you show them in the ring. On the bottom of the band it shows the animals age in months, and months of fiber growth since their last shearing.



Our only animal to show today was Our Copper Canyon. I should back up a bit to say that since his fiber has been growing in after his first shearing, I have not been impressed with him. My choice would have been not to show him at all. And while J agreed with me in many respects, and has Copper's price listed as a fiber animal price, he wanted to get Copper to at least one show just to see if our thoughts would be similar to that of a judge. Unfortunately we did not get a full evaluation of Copper. Copper walked so poorly on the halter that the judge stated he could not evaluate Copper's confirmation and therefore placed him lower because he just doesn't know. He also said that Copper was not as fine but did have some nice fiber attributes and he could see why we took him to a show. Copper took a 5th place, which is about what I expected from him. However, I wanted to cry hearing the judges words. It wasn't his placement that had me upset, I already considered Copper a fiber boy. It was the fact he did so poorly on the halter that upset me. Zack and I spent so much time trying to train him. I knew he was terrible on the lead, but I didn't know what else to do. Most alpacas train fairly easily, given some time and training. But there are a few that are so stubborn and just don't want to learn, that I don't know what to do with. I still wonder what I could have done. J's feeling is that I did what I could, he is just that stubborn. Either way, we were not planning to bring him to another show anyway, this was our one time evaluation of him.

Here is Copper's ARI and ribbon:



We have 4 more of our alpacas to show tomorrow - it's gonna be a busy day! I expect we will get home very late Sunday night (or early Monday morning). I won't be able to blog about tomorrows showing until Monday. Our most exciting alpacas have yet to show, so stay tuned.

Gone County

In my day to day life I sometimes forget the difference between city and country. I moved around several times during my childhood, but always lived in a residential urban area. From 6th grade through high school I lived in the suburbs of Chicago. You don't get too much further from country than that. It isn't until I visit a city that I realize how country I've become. I have forgotten what traffic is, and what it's like to have to wait at more than one stop light before getting to a destination. I forget about the noise. I'm used to the only thing I hear all night is our guardian dog, Spot, barking. Then I get to a city and it all comes back to me. I am reminded why I chose to raise my kids in the country. I know there are pros and cons to both places, and we need people in all areas. But for me and mine, we are quite at home in the country.

I also often forget to write in this blog about the other part of alpaca shows. I always tell our show story, what happens at the show. But I often forget that for this country girl, this is a big trip. While we are very busy at the show, we also enjoy going out to eat, and treating the trip like a vacation. Usually it is a trip without our kids. While I love my kids dearly, a weekend away every so often is nice too. And I know some of my readers are also like me, in that we don't get to a big city often. So to help you live vicariously, I thought I add a bit about our evenings out.

Friday night we were very hungry, very tired, and wanted to eat something filling but not wait too long. I ended up at a local place call the Pig Iron BBQ. I couldn't find a website for them specifically (I found some reviews and such but no straight forward website with the menu etc.). But I did find a picture of the place:



Sorry the picture is so small. And yes, that is a big pink pig out front. How can you go wrong with a pig like that? The place was awesome!! Incredible food, great BBQ, one sweet flavor and one very spicy. I thought I'd have heart burn all night and wouldn't mind one bit because the food was so good. As it turned out, after I doubled up my heartburn medication, I was able to sleep all night.

Then tonight we decided to treat ourselves with a nice dinner out. It's not too often we have a chance to go out, without kids, and have a nice meal. We went to J. Gilbert's a very nice steak and seafood restaurant. It was a completely different type of restaurant than we were at Friday night, but wonderful just the same.

By Sunday we will be busy with the show and the long drive home, so no more fancy eating out. It was a great food weekend, and people who know me know I love food. I'm glad I keep busy with farm work and running or I wouldn't be able to eat like I do.

We also had a chance to sit in the hot tub and rest our aching joints. We usually enjoy relaxing in a hot tub after a long day at a show. It's the best medicine.

I've gone to rating hotels by this scale:

* I'd never go to again
* I'd stay there again
* I'd love the spend a week there
* hey, I might just stay here forever

This hotel was a "I'd stay here again". It's nice and clean, located not to far from the venue. My complaint would be that it's busy and a bit louder than I prefer (but that might be the city talking).

This country girl isn't quite ready to return home yet. We still have another day to show. And, we have three more spring shows to attend. I'll try to remember to tell this other side of our show trip adventures.

We are here!

We arrived in Columbus, Ohio about 2:30 this afternoon for the Best of the US Alpaca Show. We had a good trip down, after almost leaving without some necessary paperwork from Ashton Stone Alpacas. Thankfully they caught us on the road, just as we were about to leave town.

The first day at the show there is no actual showing. There is a typical sequence of events:

* Arrive at the venue
* Vet Check
* Color Check
* set up your stalls
* Exhibitors meeting

The Vet Check is where the vet checks the alpaca's micro-chip number to make sure it is the right alpaca. They also will look for any signs of illness or a problem with an alpaca.

Color Check is where they verify the animal's sex, age and color, since this is essential to the animal showing in the right class.

I'm always amazed how long all this takes. We also find it takes longer the more animals you have. While that makes sense in some respects, it still amazes us how much longer it takes. While we took a break for dinner, we still did not get to our hotel until 9 p.m. (which to me is late, I'm usually home at night so being out and about and busy isn't my usual).

There are a lot of things I did not get a picture of today. We were so busy that it doesn't always work to take out my camera to capture the moment. I didn't get a picture of the animals packed in our trailer, or the vet check in, or when J almost ran me over (he was backing up the trailer and didn't know I was closing the back door - other than my hand getting smashed, I'm fine, it was quite the scare though). I didn't get a picture of color check either.

I do have some pictures of us setting up the stalls. We took 5 of our own alpacas and 4 alpacas for Ashton Stone Alpacas. We put our two girls and Challenger in one pen (they already reside together back at our farm). Then we put our two older boys in with the four boys from Ashton Stones.

This picture is early on in the setting up process, before the alpacas are in the pens. What we do is put down cardboard chips (that the show supplies to you) then we put down our matts, then straw on top. The cardboard soaks up the alpaca pee, and the straw covers up the poop, to keep both off of the animals. There are a lot of different ways to do the stall set up, but we have found this to work the best for us. We also makes sure the fans are right at the alpaca's height so that they have no choice but to be in front of the fans. Fans can make or break an alpaca's fiber when it comes to showing. Fans keep their fiber from going limp, which would mask the crimp and bundling that we want to shine in front of the judge. I used to get so annoyed because J was particular about where the fans go, but the more I see and learn, the more I realize he was right about this.



We put up our Oak Haven Alpacas signs:




Here is a close up of the matt and hay with the cardboard underneath:



On the front of the stalls we put up the animals ARI (their ancestry is on there, along with there age and color). With the ARI there is a picture of the alpaca, and any show ribbons they have (note Rose's blue first place ribbon from last fall's show):



Tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. the actual alpaca show will start. The first alpaca with us to show will be Alpacula. He is from Ashton Stone Alpacas. True Black is the first color to show, and he is true black. The first of our own alpacas to show will be Our Copper Canyon. He should be the only one of ours to show on Saturday. Two other boys from Ashton Stones should also show on Saturday, so that makes 4 total for that day. This means Sunday will be another busy day for us, showing 4 of our own and one for Ashton Stone Alpacas.

On our way......

If all goes according to plan, we will be on the road by 7 a.m. headed to the Best of the US Alpaca Show in Columbus, Ohio. I'm sure I've mentioned before how show season is our favorite time of year.

The ride to the show brings out all the wonder, dreaming, and anxiety that comes with life's adventures.

If possible, I will post updates throughout the show weekend. Last year I was able to do that at almost all the shows we attended (one show I had internet issues and couldn't get on-line). After a long day at the show, it's fun to relax with the laptop back at the hotel and tell the story of what we experienced. There is always so much to see and take in, that if I wait to post it all after we get home, so much of the story gets lost.

OHVNA The Challenger

Challenger really is the whole package: grey, typie look, fine fiber with consistent crimp and shine that parts with bundles. My concern with Challenger is that he has been incredibly difficult to halter train. I finally got him to stop laying down and refusing to move. I broke him of this habit by each time he laid down, I'd walk over and pick him up and stand him on his legs again. He finally gave up that tactic. But he still walks funny on the lead. I fear this will make his legs look bad in front of the judge and could affect his placing. Judges grade them not only on their fiber, but also on their conformation, which includes how their legs move.

Fiber pictures:

OHVNA Chaska

Like Twilight and Copper, this will be Chaska's first show also.

I fear I have set Chaska up by all my past bragging about his dam, Kateri. This is Kateri's fourth cria. The previous three were not only all female, but all three received 1st place ribbons. Kateri has been an incredible production female. Chaska may not do quite as well as his sisters did in the ring. While I love his look, and prefer to spin fiber with a bolder crimp, that crimp style is not always rewarded in the show ring (crimp is the waves in the fiber). We will have to wait and see how his fiber comes across to an alpaca judge.

His fiber (very bright and shiny with incredible bundles and bold crimp):



Cute face:



Update:

Unfortunately Chaska will not be able to attend this show after all. He has a skin issue on his feet. I would describe it similiar to eczema in a human. The skin gets scaly and red, it looks dry and if unattended the skin will start to crack and bleed. We have been treating it, and his skin looks nice and pink now. But our vet did not feel he was good enough to attend the show (he still has some missing fiber on his feet). Our vet does tend to be very cautious. Since she signs the vet certificate, the final decision is up to her. We are sad that Chaska will not be able to attend this show. But we will be vigilant in treating him so that he is able to attend the next spring show.

Our Copper Canyon

Copper was the first cria born on our farm in 2010. He also is the first cria in several years that his dam has had that is a color other than white. Unfortunately for Copper, I don't think he's quite as good as his older brother, Lightning, nor his sister, Lily. They were both ones we took to an alpaca show with some confidence they could do well. While the white class is the most difficult, they both held their own. Copper does not have quite the fantastic fiber that they both had. However, Copper has more of the whole package with his cute face and rock solid confirmation. It will be interesting to see how he does in the ring.

His fiber:



Head shot:

ATA Peruvian Harley

While he's new to our farm, we are very excited to get Harley to a show.

His fiber:



His macho head:

Smokey’s Twilight

Twilight will be attending her first show at the Best of the US Alpaca Show this coming weekend. She is the only other female that we are sending to this show. Ginger is still too young, so her first show will be at the next show (an alpaca has to be at least 6 months old in order to be old enough to show). Twilight and Rose will have eight boys to keep watch over at this first show.

While we initially thought Twilight was a true black like her dam, as time has gone by we've noticed very clearly white fibers throughout her blanket. We don't know that she has enough to be considered a dark silver grey (which her sire is), though you can see the grey color from a distance, so it's definitely there. Based on our experience with other animals, we believe she will show as an indefinite dark (some grey, but not quite enough to fit the grey class). However, I have been very please with how her fiber is coming in:



Her fiber is very shiny and bright. The picture doesn't show the grey fibers that are much more clear in person.

She's such a cutie!



Zack and Twilight halter training (well, hugging them isn't supposed to be part of halter training but Zack manages to work it in):

Enlightenment’s Rocky Rose

Rose is the only veteran alpaca going to the show with us this year. Rose was able to go to one fall show last year, where she received a 1st place ribbon!



We are excited to see how she does in the shows this spring. To me, she's a beauty!



Her fiber:



Zack and Rose enjoying some halter training:

One Week!!!

In just one week we will be leaving for the Best of the US Alpaca Show in Columbus, Ohio.

Alpaca shows always bring on a lot of feelings, because there is so much involved.

There is the preparation ahead of time:
* decide which alpacas will go to the show
* figure out a budget for the show
* halter train all the juveniles who are going to the show
* get the alpacas ready with trim nails and top knots
* take the alpacas to the vet for the vet certificate

Then there is getting to the show and setting up. For this show we will be bringing 6 of our own alpacas, and 4 alpacas for Ashton Stone Alpacas, which means a total of 10 alpacas! Last year at this show we had 9 and that kept us extremely busy.

I think for this coming weeks blog posts I'll post about each of our alpacas that we are taking with us.

Then there is all that goes on at the show. It's a wonderful time to meet up with fellow alpaca farmers. It's fun to show off your alpacas and to see how they do in the show ring. It's a time to learn and grow as an alpaca farmer with all there is to learn and see at an alpaca show.

Last years blog post about the 2010 Best of the US Alpaca Show can be found here.

This year I hope to blog throughout the show. I will have my camera and laptop with me, so each night at the hotel I can give a quick update.

Bellies

As birthing season gets closer, the dam's bellies get bigger. I've been able to see movement in Sancha's big belly. I find the cria is especially active after grain time:



I've seen some movement in Tehya's belly too, but being she's a maiden, it's harder to see. I've looked some on our other girls, but they are all due later in the season, I'm not for sure what is cria movement. I can't tell you how many hours I can spend watching in utero movement. I know to someone who is not an alpaca farmer that sounds really strange, but trust me, it's addictive once you start!

Herd Dynamics

Maybe I took too many sociology courses in college, but I always find herd dynamics very interesting. How the alpacas relate to each other is still in many ways a mystery to me. I know there are several roles within the herd. There is the herd leader, of course. I've also noticed that one always is sitting on look out, as if that one has been put in charge of monitoring the area for intruders. I notice the same ones always sound the alarm call. I can understand that to have a community, a herd, you need different roles filled.

I notice a lot of non verbal cues that go on within the herd. I've seen a dam (mom) bend her ears in a certain way and her cria (baby) comes running to her. I swear I've seen older girls give the evil eye and the other girl then backs off.

I know most families do not talk about herd dynamics at dinner time, but we've been known to do that. I find it interesting and the kids love to come up with theories on what really happened. The most recent incident that I witnessed was the start of a fight between Miss Kitty and Maddie. Now keep in mind that Miss Kitty is still fairly new to our farm, and still trying to figure out where she belongs in the herd. Maddie has been at our farm since she was 4 months old. She is now 3.5 years old. Maddie tends to be more of a loner, in that she'll be the only alpaca to go graze in the pasture. She doesn't need the comfort of the leader right by her. Maddie is also the only alpaca who does not like Spot. And she really does not like him. I've seen her go after him on more than on occassion. The most recent one I was out there and interveened. Thankfully Spot has never been aggressive towards any of our alpacas, but in this situation, I wasn't sure Maddie would back down. I value Spot's work and did not think he needed her chasing him. What I witnessed was Miss Kitty and Maddie getting into a spit fight. They were starting to neck wrestle. I had my camera on me, but by the time I got into position to take a picture of this, it was over. This fight was taking place right next to Victoria. Victoria is the clear leader of our herd. Victoria turned her head away from the hay bin and spit right in Miss Kitty's face. Right at that moment the fight between Miss Kitty and Maddie was over. The kids and I have theorized what really happened, but since we don't talk alpaca we will never really know. I do wonder if Victoria was putting Miss Kitty in her place, or if she was protecting Maddie, or a combination of both? Whatever the cause of Victoria getting involved, I found it interesting that she did so, and that they both backed down and took her leadership. Like I said, she's the clear leader of the herd.

This is the only picture I did get of the incident, this was after Victoria spit at Miss Kitty and they all stook there:



(Miss Kitty is the big fawn girl, Maddie the black and white girl, and Victoria the brown/maroon colored girl).

The best days

Often my day job does mean a lot of sitting. Sitting by a computer, or sitting in a car driving to appointments, or sitting at court waiting for hearings. I'm not very good at sitting, so by the time I get home I am iching to get outside and do something.

My favorite days are the ones when the sun shines:



Even with all the work of feeding the animals and picking up afterward (in this picture I have lots of bowls and buckets and sleds to pick up), I love being out there. The sun, the fresh air, the activity, it is all good for me.

I like this picture of Spot in the sunshine:



While I cannot wait for spring, I am happy with even a snowy day, provided the sun is shining.

Farewell my friend

This past week we said goodbye to three of our boys.

Snowstorm:



Apollo's Griffon



and OHVNA The Cavalier



These boys went to their new home, at a farm who is just starting their adventure with alpacas. I know these boys will have a great time at their new home.

While every alpaca on our farm is important to me, some stand out for one reason or another. While Snowstorm is *just* a gelding, he has always been one of my favorites. The first three alpacas on our farm were Kateri, Hana's Victoria and Snowstorm. Snowstorm was a gelding, but he was there to give us a complete herd (you need at least 3 to be herd). And he was a great guardian to our girls. The first few days they were on our farm, I was so sad because when I arrived to feed them, they would run out of the barn and get as far from me as they could. I had been so excited to have them on our farm, that it really hurt my feelings when they did that. I knew it was normal, but still it was hard. After they had been on our farm a few days I was in the pasture doing some cleaning when I felt breathe on my neck. I turned to see Snowstorm jump. He had been following me! As long as I didn't look at him, he'd creep closer behind me. The second I'd turn towards him he would jump back. This became our daily routine.

In those beginning years Snowstorm was invaluable to us. He was there when we just had Kateri and Victoria to give us a herd. When we added more alpacas to our herd, we could put Snowstorm in with any age and sex and he would be their guardian. We had a wealing pen, with only two young girls in there, so Snowstorm went in with them. He was gentle and acted as a loving uncle to them. Later on there came a time we had some older rambunctious boys. We put Snowstorm in with those boys and the fighting decreased significantly. Our farm has now gotten to the size that we have plenty of weanlings to fill a pen and don't need an extra gelding in there to make a herd. Ours years of needing Snowstorm have come to an end. We decided it was time for Snowstorm to go on to a new home that could use his services.

I will miss Snowstorm.

I don't mean to leave Apollo and Cavalier out of my story, but the truth is that I'm not as attached to them. There really was something about Snowstorm that stood out to me personally. I do remember the day Cavalier was born. Emma had walked home ahead of me, but called to let me know she found a baby on the ground. I rushed home to see our new cria. Here was this fluffy fawn boy, that took us days to come up with a name for him. He was too pretty for any of the macho names we had been considering. Once I thought of Cavalier, we knew it was perfect. Even though he acts like he thinks he could be tough, he's so pretty he looks elegant and luxurious.

I wish our new friend well with their adventures in alpacas.

ATA Peruvian Boppana

We are excited to add ATA Peruvian Boppana (Bo) to our herd. Bo comes to us with a new set of genetics, not found on our farm. We were specifically looking for a male with certain fiber characteristics to breed to our girls.

Bo has the Accoyo bold, high amplitude crimp style Shangri La is know for putting on his offspring. Bo also has great consistency, uniformity, bundling, and density.

Click on his name to see his full Alpaca Nation page. He is already two years old, so he is ready to breed.

I was most excited to see the bundling that he possesses. That is something that some of our girls could use a boost in. I can't wait to see what he will produce with our girls.

ATA Peruvian Harley

We are excited to add ATA Peruvian Harley to our herd. Click on his name to see his Alpaca Nation page. Here is what we wrote about him:

When I saw Harley at the Indiana Invitational in 2010, I loved how he was the total package. He has the compact, big boned body style we love. His head is absolutely gorgeous. His confirmation and bite are terrific. Add his incredible fiber characteristics, and you have a Jr. Herdsire who has everything we are breeding for.

Harley's sire is the impact herdsire 2002 Lord Stanley, a Conan son. Stanley has given Harley his extreme brightness, density, and bundling. Harley's dam, Picolo's Peruvian Heide has added her fineness and crimp style. The combination has produced the type of male we are striving for.

Fiber pictures:





Harley will be 2 years old in June. We are hopeful to use him for breeding this year.

Yarn!

While I haven't been spinning as much yarn as I'd like, I am spinning some. This is a skein from fiber off of Rosco. This skein is already sold, since it was spun as a specific request. I hope the buyer enjoys the skein.

Plying:



Done:




I am now officially out of Rosco's fiber. This is the first blanket I have sold out of this year.

Digging Out

While the last storm got a lot of media attention, this storm left more snow at our house. I think the last storm encompassed more of the country, and did leave a lot of snow for a lot of people. In our location, we got just under a foot with the last storm. This time I am measuring over a foot. Either way, it's a lot of snow!

Out the door:



The bowls in the snow (note that the table was completely clear of snow before this storm started):



I didn't get a lot of pictures of the alpacas in the snow. As it was, it took me over 2 hours to dig everything out so that I could do my 10 minutes of daily chores. We are set now, so the evening chores should go smoothly.

The plow guy came when I was out there doing chores. Our snow pile is almost as high as the alpaca trailer: