NJ Alpaca Classic

We had a great time at the show. Benjamin was a wonderful baby and slept most of the time. He was a bigger hit than the alpacas. Everyone wanted to see him and stopped to ask how old he was. One guy asked me if he was microchipped and what class he was in. Lol.

The first alpaca to go through the ring was Marauder. I was worried about taking a 2-year old breeding male to a show with females all around, but he did great. His class had 6 alpacas in it, but one was disqualified due to a registration error. I like Marauder because he is a big boned male, great conformation and density. In his class, he placed 3rd. Which I consider great since it was his first show and he is 2 years old. He also placed above a male we had considered buying last year so that me feel good, too.

My other alpaca to go through the ring was my medium fawn female, Cassiopeia. We absolutely LOVE Cassie's fleece. Fawn is a very hard class and is always a large class. Ribbons go from 1-6th so inevitable someone or more than one person always walks with nothing. That was the case with Cassie. We walked. It is hard to say why since the judge only comments on the ribbon winners. Cassie would not walk into the ring without some help so I am sure the first impression wasn't all that great. In his reasoning for the placements he commented on fineness and crimp. This judge liked the high frequency crimp, which I know that Cassie does not have. She has a medium frequency crimp, but it is consistent. I feel she did well for her first show, though. We need to work on her walking through the ring and being comfortable so that her conformation shows well. We will put her back into the ring in the Spring show circuit and see how she does. I am confident she will follow in her dam's footsteps and be a ribbon winner. Her dam only has 1st or 2nd place finishes in over 20 shows and one third place in a spin-off. Her dam was very consistent in the show ring for halter and fleece.

Overall, a good show. It was our first show so it was a learning experience for me. It was also a huge learning curve on what we needed to bring, setting up with a baby in tow, color checking, registration, etc. Atleast, now I am better prepared for the next show. :-)