Didn’t They Do Well!

 

Courtesy of Regina Dart of Llano Soleado Alpacas I have the initial unconfirmed results of how our alpacas did at the show and they did well.

 

Windrush Zindel’s Kanika took 6^th in her class – the judge loved Kaneka but felt her staple length (length of her fleece from skin to tip) was shorter than the alpacas that placed above her.

 

Windrush Zindel’s Atlas – 1^st Place – poor Regina had to literally run to the class with Atlas due to her having alpacas in the class before.  Regina was the last person to enter the class.  When the judge looked at Atlas’s fleece he told Regina “your going to be happy you made it to the class” so we take it he liked what he saw, especially as he awarded Atlas first place.

 

Maggie’s Lionheart of LSA (known to us as Mags) – placed 6^th in his class.  The judge loved the structure and architecture of Mags fleece but discovered that Mags fleece is tender (breaks easily).  Still the judge liked Mags well enough to place him in the class.  Tender fleece can be caused by a nutritional deficiency or stress.  With Mags being an orphan cria he has had a fair amount of stress in his little life, but we will be tweaking up his nutrition too to make sure that his fleece becomes stronger.

 

Windrush Zindel’s Pride – it seems as if Pride did not place in his class.  We are not really sure why as he is a beautiful alpaca.  The alpacas in the ring with him on the day must have pleased the judge more than Pride did.  We’re not giving up on showing Pride based only on this one result, he is young and will no doubt change as he matures.  We are sure he will get his ribbons in time.

 

Windrush Ashling’s Dream – placed 3^rd in her class.  The two alpacas that placed above her showed more fleece density than Dream.  Dream’s fleece is pretty dense so the two alpacas placing above her must have really dense fleeces.

 

Windrush Zindel’s Zianna – placed 1^st in her class.  I don’t have any feedback on the judge’s comments but with Zianna’s bright, soft handling fleece I am not surprised that she did so well.

 

In the fleece classes we also did well.

 

Windrush Shiimsa  – 3^rd in her class

 

Windrush White Blast – 1^st in his class and also white Color Champion.  Well done Blast!  To get a color champion ribbon in a white class is a great achievement and for an up and coming junior herdsire it is a great acknowledgement of the quality of Blast’s fleece and his breeding potential.

 

Windrush Zindel’s Carissima – we’re still waiting to find out how Carissima did, hopefully she also placed in her class.

 

Regina and Bob Dart also did well with their alpacas – Nightingale took 4^th in her class, Swiss Miss took 1^st in her class, Dulcie took 1^st in her class (Dulcie is a particular favorite of mine as we bonded when I gave her an impromptu halter lesson when I visited Bob and Regina one day – well done Dulcie!), Athena took 6^th in her class and Charlie took 6^th in his class.

 

Song who was also an orphan cria and who was bottle fed at our farm at the same time as Mags took 5^th in her class and has now met her new owner Debbie Conkle of DJ’s Classic Alpacas.  Song will be staying in Texas after the show.

 

Our Stormy who we sold to Bob and Regina for their daughter Abby to work with also performed well at the show.  Both Abby and her brother Nathan used Stormy in their Performance and Obstacle classes, Public Relations Classes and Showmanship Classes.  Nathan and Stormy took 2^nd in their Performance and Obstacle class and 1^st in their Public Relations Class, while Abby and Stormy took 5^th in their Performance and Obstacle class and 2^nd in their Showmanship Class – congratulations Nathan, Abby and Stormy!

 

So all in all it was a good show for us.  Bob and Regina still have three alpacas to show in the white alpaca classes on Sunday and we will be keeping our fingers crossed that they win some good ribbons.    The white classes are the most competitive at any show.

 

A big Thank You has to go to Bob and Regina who took part in their own form of competition – the alpaca 300 yard dash as they worked hard to make sure that all of the alpacas from our two farms made it to their classes on time.  There is quite a distance from the alpaca pens to the show rings, with crowds and alpacas to negotiate along the way.  To keep up with all the classes and persuade some first time show alpacas to make the dash to the show ring with them was no mean feat – I think we need to award Bob and Regina the alpaca handler gold medal!

 

Rosemary