Hope Fleece Show Results Day

Had a great night's sleep at the George Hotel, Hathersage and then found ourselves in a queue of traffic waiting to go into the Hope Valley Show . Fabulous to see all the fleeces displayed and delighted for Donna Stalker of Honeyfield Alpacas , Wiltshire for winning Best of Show. Thanks again to Lesley, Liz, Jan and Rachel for all their help. They did more hours work than I did as they did the preparing, weighing and displaying afterwards. Great job. Thanks for asking me. 

Hope Fleece Show

Left Dunchurch really early to get to Derbyshire to judge Hope Fleece Show. Over 70 entries. Really looking forward to the challenge of my first fleece show. 

Broken my duck.

What a relief to have finished my first alpaca show since I certified. I'm pleased to say that I enjoyed it. Doesn't stop you going over your decisions all night ! Looking forward to the next. Hope fleece Show and then the Scottish National Fleece Show. Congratulations to Burren Alpacas. 

Dundalk Agricultural Show

We were in Dublin before we knew it! 45 mins drive and here we are at the Ballymascanlon House Hotel. The show organisers have done us proud. Beautiful hotel in a beautiful setting. It is so quiet here. Can't blame any noise for my lack of sleep tonight. Have just reread the AAI show rules. Not that different to the BAS show rules.  Changed ready to have dinner with my companion animal. This is the life. Lets hope all my alpaca judging gigs are of this standard. So far so good. Just got to get them all in the correct order tomorrow . 

Birmingham airport to Co Louth

On my way with my companion alpaca ( Rob ) to so my first show. 50 alpacas to judge. Can't wait. 

South of England 2013 Alpaca and Llama Show

What a great time we had at the South of England Alpaca Show. Such a good time I never got round to taking any photos of alpacas! I ended up doing the commentary for the two days and Rob took the photo of Jackie and I in the recording trailer. Jackie did a sterling job recording the results and said she learnt a lot about alpacas from my commentary too. As usual Llama Liz Butler organised a splendid show. We even had Penelope Keith turn up to a watch the alpacas strutting their stuff. I didn't get of photo of that either!
Rob was judging the show with Barbara Hetherington of BeckBrow Alpacas apprenticing. We managed to hold quite a crowd for the majority of the time over the two days. What a friendly and fun time we all had. Thanks again to the breeders in the South East.

Best of British Alpacas

Having spent two days at the Heart of England Fiesta I am showing you some snaps taken that Rob hasn't posted. The Best of British award goes to the alpaca that is best in the show that comes from two British parents. We have watched this award grow over the years.At one time you struggled to find any alpaca with an award that had one British parent never mind two. There were three British huacaya alpacas and two British suri alpacas that achieved Championships. Numerous other awards were achieved by alpacas with two British parents, including several alpacas here at Toft. That is a great result for the British Alpaca industry. Well done to Karen Oglesby, Meon Valley Alpacas for her excellent huacaya intermediate fawn male and Margaret Silver , Pinkney Alpacas for her impressive suri junior white male. Apologies to Karen. I never got a close up of you. I thought I had but damned if I can find it this morning! She is in the line up Champion Huacayas.

Fighting teeth. Must do something about them.

Three pet boys have been behaving fine together in their own paddock over the last three weeks. We do this so that we can monitor their behaviour having been removed from the large group and ensure they get on well with no bullying before they go to their new home. Wouldn't you know it? I was doing another session of halter training when I noticed one of the boys ears was bleeding. To cut a long story short the youngest of the group ( three years old this summer) had grown fighting teeth and had done some damage to his friend! These teeth are usually trimmed at shearing time. The two older males had fighting teeth last year that were removed at shearing. Over the last 16 years we have managed to avoid any injuries by ensuring removal at shearing. This warm weather does seem to set the boys off deciding who is boss of the field.
Antibiotic spray sorted the ear and Rob and Linda used the 'cheese wire ' to take the tops off these barbed teeth before they did any more damage. They behaved fine on the journey to their new home and appeared very settled when fitted with their new head collars and released into their new home ready for the children to come in from school. We have been told that there was a reluctance to go to school this morning cos they wanted to play with their new alpacas. Brilliant.

Sunshine ! Halter training is a pleasure.

What a difference a few degrees and some sunshine makes. Laura, our singer songwriter daughter is home for the weekend and got roped into helping. She knows that the noseband has to be on the bony part of the nose. Unfortunately one female would only keep standing if she was with her friends and on a long lead rein. Fingers crossed she will go into the ring on her own in a few weeks time.

Social Media here I come!

I have at last given in and decided that I should do a blog. I'd like to share my experiences with our alpacas and other breeders alpacas. Here is my first photo of our weaner field who were all microchipped today. Getting ready to show at the Heart of England Show at the end of April. Halter training begins with a vengeance after our Open day on Monday 1st April.