Alpaca Shows and New Arrival

As I write this it is Monday April 16, 2007 and my wife, grandson and I have just been through what may well be the busiest week end of the year, with the possible exception of shearing week end; which is next weekend.

We attended the Alpaca Ontario Show in Orangeville Ontario. At this second largest alpaca show in Canada we exhibited one of our machos, Starbucks Ray. Since the competition included some of the best stock from across Canada we were not too disappointed to not bring home a ribbon.

My grandson, Peter did an outstanding job of handling Ray in the ring. Peter is thirteen years old and until last Saturday had never exhibited an animal at any show. Although he was showing against some of the top men and women in the Canadian alpaca business he handled his charge as good as any of them. He looked very professional in the ring.

While at the show my wife and I were thrilled to discover that, Megan, the only daughter of our other macho,Pavio, was stalled across the aisle from Ray. When we purchased Pavio the owners had told us about this baby but we had never seen her. We were doubly thrilled when she took second in her class.

Meanwhile back at the farm on Friday night my son Rick was awaiting the arrival of the latest member of our alpaca herd. A hembra from River Rock Alpacas in Alberta was due to arrive at supper time, around five PM. When I phoned at ten PM Rick was still waiting. I phoned again the next morning and was greeted with the news that Hope had arrived at midnight.

We had purchased this girl over the Internet so had not seen her in the flesh at this time. We left Orangeville shortly after the end of our class and hurried home to get a look at our new girl. On the way home we were blessed with some of the same rain, snow and wind that had slowed the delivery of Hope.

Not arriving home until eleven-thirty we unloaded Ray and headed to the barn. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Hope is a very large alpaca. Size is one thing that is hard to judge from a photo.

All in all the weekend of April 14, 2007 was a very successful and fulfilling weekend.

And so it goes chasing the dream.

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