Well its come and gone and I know we had decided not to attend this year but in the end changed our minds and exhibited and I must say I am very glad we did. Not only were our results tremendous but the event, though much smaller than previous years in number, was very well organised, very well attended and as per normal the alpacas themselves were the real stars. The seminars were worthwhile, I counted well over a hundred people at Dr Tibarys first lecture which covered the pretty concerning subject of early cria death but it was a relief to attend something where only facts were given.

Felicia did all the showing, she tends to present the alpacas in a better perspective. I tend to make them all look undernourished!! This works well as it allows me to flash the trusty Nikon around.

Infact the weekend got off to a cracking start when the trusty Nikon won Best in Show in the photography competition. The ‘alpaca and rhea’ entry was the big winner. I just wish I had thought of a better title now! Before you ask anything like ‘ how many entries were there?’ …….over 50 is the answer…..ha

The rest of the pictures are a precis of Felicia’s showing weekend and as you can see she even sought some divine help at one point and then when Gomez was given second she graciously gave thanks!!

A brief summary of our results are:

Cosmo was Brown Suri Male Champion

Equador was 2nd in the adult black male huacaya class Gomez was 2nd in the junior fawn male suri class

and probably the one that gave me the most pleasure was Joshua was 3rd in the very large intermediate white male huacaya class. He is a stunning male. It is always a pleasure when people come charging over after the class to have a look at the alpaca you have just shown.

There was a good turnout for the tb awareness meeting at Exeter and I was rather anxious about it but as it turned out there wasn’t really much new information to be had and it was not all doom and gloom. I feel that we down here in Cornwall are pretty well informed about the situation as it has been in our press for quite a long time now. It was all pretty much a repeat of the VLA talk in Truro last year, even with the same slides. The one slide I  hadn’t seen was of a badger with the disease, pretty gruesome and he was still alive!! It’s this ability to survive the disease that makes them such “super secretors”.

Anyway the message was pretty positive, Gina agrees that the industry can continue in the same manner ie mobile or drive-by matings and shows must continue but with the exception of a serious improvement to our bio-security. That was where most of the talk concentrated on and there were some very useful pieces of advice to be had.

There was Teresa from Rosecraddoc Alpacas and Dawn from Golding Alpacas in the car with us. This mean’t for a very chatty trip up so fortunately I remembered my earplugs!! We dropped our fleeces and photo entries of at Classical Alpacas before going to the talk. Chas had to phone Rachel to tell her we were there, she was busy hunting for rabbits!!!! I did spot a fat looking pheasant hanging from the beams so there is obviously more to Rachel than just being an alpaca breeder, magazine editor, industry leader in the alpaca textile world, Futurity organiser etc etc….

The Futurity show team are enjoying the grass in their new  isolation field which is just the lawn with a bit of wire around it. It’ll certainly save on the grass cutting when that starts up again. It also means we can get them into the barn easily and quickly when the weather turns nasty. You’ve got to keep them shiny and clean!!!

Tracy has been continuing with the halter training. Here she is with Gomez who, as you can see, already knows how to stand like a champion.

This afternoon we are off to the BAS tb roadshow at Exeter. I hope that after all the positivity of the BAS Show committee meeting of a couple of weeks ago to come back in the same happy frame of mind. We shall see!!

Felicia and Sarah are getting on with the halter training. These are the junior suri males for the Futurity and as far as suris are concerned they are behaving pretty well.

Last Sunday I was up at Stoneleigh for the BAS National Shows Committee meeting. It went on for 6 hours and we covered everything from show rules, trimming, sedatives right the way through to the thorny subject of tb. This was the first of these meetings where the regional groups send their representatives to discuss the various issues. Recommendations are then made to the board for approval. I am pleased to say it was not negative at all and it was decided that shows must definitely carry on but obviously bio-security has to be tightened up and people made aware of what risks there are.

Bryony the vet returned today to check the alpacas that had the tb tests and thankfully they were all clear so the show team can go to the Futuriy and the sold animals to their new homes over the weekend. Now Felicia really needs to get on with the halter training, I don’t want any badly behaved alpacas in the show ring…do I. Apart from that good news its been pretty miserable here weather wise. The raceways have become mud pathways and instead of ice skating we are now mud sliding.