I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!
Now is the time of year when we close out the "old" year and prepare for the New Year. I've got the majority of our tax information together but still have a few loose ends and information to gather yet for our tax preparer. The hardest part is getting everyone else's information and receipts together. It seems to get easier though and Quickbooks has been a wonderfully helpful program for keeping all of our account information accurate and accessible for our tax preparer.
Looking ahead to 2010, we've already registered for a show in the spring and I hope that we will be able to attend at least two shows this coming year.
I would like to make one New Year's resolution and that is to get back on track with my blog posts. I realize I haven't been updating very much lately, especially this last month when my computer died, but the new (used) computer seems to be working great so I should be able to get back on a blogging schedule.
In the meantime, I wish you a very happy and healthy New Year from all of us at Hidden Pond Farm, LLC!
Showing posts with label alpaca show. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alpaca show. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Ribbons for everyone!
We haven't attended an alpaca show in a couple of years, but we still remember the feeling of bringing an animal into the ring and leaving the ring without a ribbon. I am extremely happy to report that all four of our alpacas received ribbons at this year's Great Midwest Alpaca Festival!
Frances Bean received a 2nd Place ribbon! We had to wait until Sunday afternoon to show her but we're happy with her beautiful red ribbon. HPF Leroy took 3rd place in his medium fawn juvenile suri male class. The judge remarked that he couldn't place him higher than third because his color was inconsistent (light fawn, medium fawn and dark fawn throughout his body). I'm thinking he would have done better if we had placed him in a pattern/indefinite color class instead.
Nuno took home a 4th place ribbon and Luxor's Lucas took 5th in his class. I'm especially pleased with Lucas' placement mainly because of the tough class of light fawn males. Lucas has a "flat lock" structure to his fiber which doesn't always look as impressive as those with the tight spiral-shaped locks of fiber. Lucas was the only alpaca in the ring with flat locks and he placed above two other males because of his luster and density of his fleece. I know many people wouldn't be happy with fifth place, but it sure felt good not having to walk out of the ring empty handed.
We took pictures in the show ring but none of them turned out. All of the pictures were blurry, probably because of the distance we were standing from the ring or the lighting in the arena. Whatever the case, they didn't turn out. I was really hoping I'd have at least one photo to post.
We arrived in Madison Friday afternoon and had our stalls set up and animals color-checked by around 5:30 or 6:00. It took about three people to decide which color class to place Leroy in because of the different color variations. In the future, I'll plan to put him in a pattern class if possible.
We were up bright and early Saturday morning to get to the arena before 8:00 and get our stalls cleaned up again. Then we waited...we didn't get to show Lucas or Leroy until late Saturday afternoon. Rick took Nuno into the ring Sunday morning and I showed Franny in one of the last classes of the day on Sunday afternoon. By the time I brought Franny into the ring, we had most of our things packed up for the trip home. It was a long weekend with a lot of waiting time and nervous butterflies. It's good to be back home again.
Next on our list is to start shearing alpacas. There are some fleece show and spin-off deadlines coming up soon so we'll be shearing some "entries" this weekend.
Frances Bean received a 2nd Place ribbon! We had to wait until Sunday afternoon to show her but we're happy with her beautiful red ribbon. HPF Leroy took 3rd place in his medium fawn juvenile suri male class. The judge remarked that he couldn't place him higher than third because his color was inconsistent (light fawn, medium fawn and dark fawn throughout his body). I'm thinking he would have done better if we had placed him in a pattern/indefinite color class instead.
Nuno took home a 4th place ribbon and Luxor's Lucas took 5th in his class. I'm especially pleased with Lucas' placement mainly because of the tough class of light fawn males. Lucas has a "flat lock" structure to his fiber which doesn't always look as impressive as those with the tight spiral-shaped locks of fiber. Lucas was the only alpaca in the ring with flat locks and he placed above two other males because of his luster and density of his fleece. I know many people wouldn't be happy with fifth place, but it sure felt good not having to walk out of the ring empty handed.
We took pictures in the show ring but none of them turned out. All of the pictures were blurry, probably because of the distance we were standing from the ring or the lighting in the arena. Whatever the case, they didn't turn out. I was really hoping I'd have at least one photo to post.
We arrived in Madison Friday afternoon and had our stalls set up and animals color-checked by around 5:30 or 6:00. It took about three people to decide which color class to place Leroy in because of the different color variations. In the future, I'll plan to put him in a pattern class if possible.
We were up bright and early Saturday morning to get to the arena before 8:00 and get our stalls cleaned up again. Then we waited...we didn't get to show Lucas or Leroy until late Saturday afternoon. Rick took Nuno into the ring Sunday morning and I showed Franny in one of the last classes of the day on Sunday afternoon. By the time I brought Franny into the ring, we had most of our things packed up for the trip home. It was a long weekend with a lot of waiting time and nervous butterflies. It's good to be back home again.
Next on our list is to start shearing alpacas. There are some fleece show and spin-off deadlines coming up soon so we'll be shearing some "entries" this weekend.
Friday, April 24, 2009
On our way to Madison!
Not much time to post a message this morning since we're getting packed up for the Great Midwest Alpaca Festival. Hopefully I'll have some good news to report when we return from the big weekend in Madison.
Keep us in your thoughts and/or stop by and visit with us if you're at the show!
Have a great weekend!
Keep us in your thoughts and/or stop by and visit with us if you're at the show!
Have a great weekend!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Preparing for the show
We've only got a week left for final preparations for next weekend's alpaca show. Since I did a poor job of blogging in March and April, I'll fill you in on the details of what we've been doing to prepare.
Recently, we had our vet take blood samples from our alpacas who will be attending the show. One of the show requirements includes testing your alpacas for the presence of an active BVDV (Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus) infection. This is to prevent any Persistently Infected (PI) alpacas from entering the show facility. It's a good idea to have your animals tested whether you are attending a show or not. Thankfully, to date, our entire herd has all tested negative for BVDV so we are good to go.
We also had to have our vet examine our four alpacas and complete a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection within 30 days of the show. In addition, we have to pay close attention to them during this week to make sure they are still healthy. We'd never want to bring a sick animal to a show and we wouldn't want anyone else to expose a sick animal to ours. A veterinarian will be at the show during check-in to make sure all animals entering the show are healthy. Any sick alpacas won't be allowed in.
This past week, we ordered new stall mats for our show stalls and a couple of new halters so we're patiently awaiting our shipment to arrive.
The show also requires that we worm our animals seven days prior to the show so this weekend we wormed them with Ivermectin and Safeguard.
In addition, we double-checked everyone's microchip with our chip scanner. We had chipped Nuno over a year ago when he was just a cria and had noticed late last year his microchip didn't show up when we scanned him. We thoroughly scanned him today from head to toe and we still couldn't locate the chip. It may have fallen out sometime after inserting last year if we didn't push the needle in far enough. Today we inserted a new chip and I'm confident it will stay put.
During this week, we'll be fine tuning our halter training with the crias. We took Leroy and Lucas for a long walk on Saturday and I was amazed at the major improvement with Lucas. I have to do more work with Frances this week, but I know she'll be fine.
There's still more to do to prepare so I'll keep you posted during the week as our countdown to showtime continues...
Recently, we had our vet take blood samples from our alpacas who will be attending the show. One of the show requirements includes testing your alpacas for the presence of an active BVDV (Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus) infection. This is to prevent any Persistently Infected (PI) alpacas from entering the show facility. It's a good idea to have your animals tested whether you are attending a show or not. Thankfully, to date, our entire herd has all tested negative for BVDV so we are good to go.
We also had to have our vet examine our four alpacas and complete a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection within 30 days of the show. In addition, we have to pay close attention to them during this week to make sure they are still healthy. We'd never want to bring a sick animal to a show and we wouldn't want anyone else to expose a sick animal to ours. A veterinarian will be at the show during check-in to make sure all animals entering the show are healthy. Any sick alpacas won't be allowed in.
This past week, we ordered new stall mats for our show stalls and a couple of new halters so we're patiently awaiting our shipment to arrive.
The show also requires that we worm our animals seven days prior to the show so this weekend we wormed them with Ivermectin and Safeguard.
In addition, we double-checked everyone's microchip with our chip scanner. We had chipped Nuno over a year ago when he was just a cria and had noticed late last year his microchip didn't show up when we scanned him. We thoroughly scanned him today from head to toe and we still couldn't locate the chip. It may have fallen out sometime after inserting last year if we didn't push the needle in far enough. Today we inserted a new chip and I'm confident it will stay put.
During this week, we'll be fine tuning our halter training with the crias. We took Leroy and Lucas for a long walk on Saturday and I was amazed at the major improvement with Lucas. I have to do more work with Frances this week, but I know she'll be fine.
There's still more to do to prepare so I'll keep you posted during the week as our countdown to showtime continues...
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