Thistledown's Myfanwy - second place
juvenile dark brown female, full fleece halter class, MaPaca 2005. Judge:
Mike Safley. |
At the
largest alpaca show in the US, which attracts top breeders from states as
far away as Oregon and Washington, every alpaca we took into the ring won
a ribbon - one first, two seconds, a third and a fourth. Five of our
fleeces also ribboned - three seconds, a third and a fifth, so almost half
of our foundation herd won a ribbon at this incredibly competitive show,
which had over 1600 entries this year!!
In
the full
fleece halter classes, PV Nikos was the first place dark silver grey male,
Thistledown's Myfanwy placed second in her dark brown juvenile class,
Holly Hawk placed third out of all the medium brown yearling females,
with Mike Safley pronouncing her "the densest alpaca in the
class",
and our dark silver grey roan female, Ishbel, placed fourth in a bay
black yearling class. In the composite class, where the alpaca is judged
shorn in the ring, their fleece judged separately and the results
combined, our beige female, Bronwen, was the second place yearling white
female. To win any ribbon at all at
this show is a huge honor, so to obtain these results, and take
part in two Championship classes at the MaPaca Jubilee, represents
a tremendous achievement for a small,
family farm competing at this level.
|
PV Nikos - first place dark silver grey
yearling male, full fleece halter class, MaPaca 2005. Judge: Julio Sumar. |
Nymphs and fairies |
Our
daughters won a second place in the costume class with their "Nymph
and Fairy" outfits. This class may look like it is just for fun,
and certainly demonstrates what a well-behaved and good-natured pet
an alpaca can be, but is not judged on the basis of
"cuteness" alone! When judging the class, one of the most
important factors is the degree of difficulty involved in putting the
costume on the alpaca, and their tolerance level in wearing it. You can
see that our alpacas have costume pieces on all four feet, a
headpiece with attached veil swinging around their face, a blanket
covering their back, wings strapped around their bellies and
two stuffed toys in costume "riding" on their backs! Given
that alpacas are a prey animal, they are quite head and leg shy, and do
not usually tolerate articles on their backs, especially glittery
blankets, so this costume was a true test of Bronwen and Ishbel's good
nature, and the alpaca-handling skills of our girls!
|
|
Dundee's Holly Hawk
|
Our
eldest daughter did extremely well to place second with her alpaca
Bronwen in a junior obstacle class, with 25
other children and their alpacas competing for the top ribbons. She
went on to do a magnificent job of showing Bronwen in her white yearling
composite class, where she was up against adults showing their
alpacas in serious competition, and brought home another red ribbon, both for her
alpaca and our farm.
Thistledown
also entered the fleece show, which had over 200 entries from many of
the largest and most prestigious farms in the country. We were awarded
5 fleece ribbons - three seconds, a third and a fifth, which
means that almost half of our foundation herd, or core breeding
stock, won a halter or fleece ribbon at the largest show in the US this
year. Now that just can't be bad! |
Yupanqui's Bronwen |
