Royal Bath & West Show

 

 

"hmm, second...I'll try and do better than that"

Squeezing the trailer out of the drive this morning at 7.30, I clipped the corner of the guttering on the porch....I reversed, but there is a pinch-point with the oil tank on the other side (anyone with a trailer or caravan will know that when a manouevre is a bit tight, it's best to go right back to the start because it only gets tighter)...I eased forward, and this time took the other corner of the gutter off and buckled the length of gutter between...I should have gone back to the start...so instead we un-hitched it and moved it by hand leaving the pieces of gutter for our return! Manouevering a trailer is great for marital 'harmony', so we got on our way, both tense, biting our tongues, not blaming each other for dismantling the gutter...things got better.

Our girls classes were early in the day, and their entry numbers were 4 for Empress and 13 for Elstar, which was to prove lucky. Rosemary's hair was looking fantastic today (you'd need to read her blog to understand the context: www.westhill alpacas.blogspot)
Junior Female Whites began the day, and while seven were entered, three did not turn up, and I was chuffed as she took second place, behind the same winner as at the Devon County Show - that's second out of seven in my book!

Judges apprentice Barbara Hetherington assisting judge, Mary-Jo Smith

Soon it was Junior Female Fawns, and Elstar was in a class of five, the judge Mary-Jo Smith, called for the colour chart and concluded she was brown, so off we toddled having had a taste of the ring experience, which set us up for a polished performance to take first in the Junior Female Brown! A big moment, as it was our first first - and she was our second to be born from a dam born on the farm, Bramley, whose sire was CME Centurion, and her own sire was Van Diemen Qjori of Patou - good work boys.

Despite the expression, I am delighted!

We then had the unexpected pleasure of both girls being in the Championship line-up, rubbing shoulders with the best of all colours - no sashes for us, but we feel our breeding plans are now bearing fruit, after steady progress, and a slow-down while we sought additional land to allow growth.
The next task? to shear those fleeces well enough to compete in some fleece shows later in the summer - I'll need to be concentrating when I shear those!