Show sucess

Apologies for the lack of blog the last few days. Things have been so busy I haven't stopped from dawn till way past bedtime for days.

Saturday morning we moved the girls onto fresh grass which went down well. The cria were running round having a great explore whilst the girls bobbled as fast as they could in case they got moved on!

Their old field was then cleaned, cut and harrowed and this evening has been fertilized in readiness of tomorrows rain we have forecast.

Saturday afternoon we had a visit from Jayne at Zanzibah alpacas way up in Scotland, she is great; in fact makes me feel very sane!! She was showing me some lovely photo's of her alpacas which I have told her she must share on her blog - come on Jayne (I know you'll read this) you know the ones I'm referring too!

Sunday we were preparing for the Northumberland County Show at Corbridge, we were taking both animals and knitted stock.

As I'd not found any time to put the weanlings on their halters since the National Show I thought we'd better have a quick halter session. It turned out to be a bit of a family outing as my parents offered to help so between the four of us we took all 7 weanlings at the same time down the lane onto some very lush grass which everyone thought was delightful. It was actually Gaussian's first time on the halter and he was superb.

Monday was a very early start, I was up for 4.30am to load the car, feed and check everyone before loading the trailer and heading off at 6.30. The traffic was much better getting into the show ground this year and all our microchips were present and correct so we were all set.

Lualeni was out in the first class, very damp and not on her best behaviour she still managed to come away with second place - great start team. Next in was Paul and Princess Mallika in a very big class, she had been switched from the brown to fawn class. Poor Mallika didn't get a rosette but she was very well behaved and we were proud of her.

Junior browns was Sienna's turn to show Northumberland what she is made of. You may recall she is our little squealer, other than one tiny little squeal she was a good girl. The judge Vicky Agar was obviously impressed with what she saw and awarded her third place.

We had four intermediates to show, first in was Chiquita in the female fawn class. Third place rosette here too.

Then it was the turn of the boys, Hughie being the first of the three. He goes along as the crowd pleaser, he loves it and it's nice for people to be able to get close and interact with the animals which is Hughie's favourite pastime. He too was awarded a rosette, 4th place intermediate fawn male.

By this time we were all very hot and bothered, fleeces were getting very sweaty and animals were getting rather bored. No one could accuse judge Vicky Agar of not being thorough, she was very meticulous and gave a critique of all the animals she placed.

Our two black boys were in the same class, Loki is 11 months older than Horatio but they both fall into the intermediate class. I find it very difficult to compare these two boys so I was looking forward to a qualified judges opinion - just has to hope they both got placed; and they did. Loki was placed first - yippee!! Horatio got placed 3rd so great news all round.

It was a fantastic albeit very long day, we were in the first class with Lualeni and the last class with Loki in the Best of British so we didn't leave the show ground until around 8pm. We were all exhausted animals and people alike. We came home with 6 rossettes from 7 animals in the biggest ever alpaca entry at the show so we were very happy. I will make sure I get a photo of the rosettes tomorrow.