When we first contemplated moving from Australia and farming alpacas here in the US we said we would never show our animals. Whilst we had shown a lot on the Aussie show circuit and done very well we decided because Jude is a judge at so many top level shows here that we would not show because it may seen as a compromise to her judging.

We soon realised however that showing was the easiest way to show people across the US what we could produce. Rather than try to attract people from all over the country to come and visit to see what we have produced, we decided to take the alpacas to them. We are not arrogant enough to suggest we will dominate in the ring but we are proud enough to say we have incredible consistency of quality.

We're just back form our first alpaca showing so here is a bit of a run down.

INTERNATIONAL ALPACA ODYSSEY  Laughlin, Nevada, March 2007

We'll be a little brash here. We have no idea why such an influential show was held in such a nondescript location. It pains us to see such a gorgeous line up of animals only being seen by the alpaca breeders that attended. It was like preaching to the choir. But it was a nice venue and really well run, although it was tedious waiting so long for the three judges to come to agreement on placings. In the end all breeders that showed were either benefactors or victims as they are in all shows. This was no fault of the judges purely the system of having three judges evaluating alpacas at the same time. We were very happy where we ended up in the placings. Whilst we won no first place ribbons all but one of our alpacas got a ribbon plus we won the class which we think is most important - Get Of Sire - where three Pucara Kahuna progeny got the nod.

A big thanks here to good friends and clients, Steve and Laura Hall. They are just new to alpacas but Steve led all our alpacas and performed like a veteran.

Results:

ALPACA WESTERN EXTRAVAGANZA Reno, Nevada, April 2007

Another west coast show in Nevada! It was a fantastic facility and a well run show. We again had a suri team but this time a much larger team of 18 spread between the three herds. All ribboned bar two. This time we  managed to get amongst the blues a little, Sur-Real Alpacas got a Championship with Pucara Kirra in the female beige and Pucara Kahuna again won the Get of Sire. We are happy beyond belief. The thing we are most happy about is that we have a very uniform "peas in a pod" style team. The heads are especially pleasing, the conformation correct and the fleeces are coming along nicely. Whilst none of the animals we had in the Get of Sire won a blue the judge loved their uniformity of quality. Although it was a completely different team of three to the IAO Get team they still won. It was also very pleasing to win second place in the Produce of Dam with our Pucara Amaryllis team of Pucara Little Jimmy and Pucara Amare.

Results:

THE FUTURITY 2007 Louisville, Kentucky.

We are over the moon with our show team. It seems like at each show they do a little better and this show was special because our partners Bruce and Alison Van Natta could attend and share in the fun. The pressure was on a bit however because when we first got there breeders were saying they had heard how well we had done at the last two shows. We had a quick look around and boy oh boy the competition was really strong as it always is at the Futurity. We think its the most important show on the circuit and because of how it is structured it attracts the best animals.

We are not silly enough to think we have the very best but we are very proud of the consistency we have achieved throughout our suri herd. We managed to win or place highly in nearly all the classes we entered, again mostly Kahuna cria. We managed a quinella in the beige juvie females with Muana Kea ( co owned with Plinzy our farm manager ) and La Paloma. We took blue in white juvie males and females and our co-owned ( with Bill and Ann Rogers at Coildwater Creek) fawn male, Chakotta, took Dark Fawn male champion. He is out of a Kahuna daughter and Durango.

More important than anything at last we have people from all over the country recognising we have a real depth of quality in our suri herd. Next the Nationals!

Results:

THE NATIONALS 2007 Louisville, Kentucky.

It just kept getting better. We were so pleased after the Futurity. But we were stunned at the Nationals. We collected two championships, one with Pucara Rapper and another with CCR Chakota a Durango son from a Kahuna daughter we sold to Ann and Bill Rogers at Coldwater Creek Farm. We purchased a half share of Chakota when he was two months old! Also A Kahuna daughter Baja Dreaming won Reserve White Female Champion. It started well with the group classes on Thursday. We managed third with Pucara Kahuna kids in the Get class, two Kahuna kids came second in the Produce of Dam and three Kahuna kids came in third in Breeders Best Three. We were more than happy.

But it got a lot better On Saturday and Sunday. Only two of our crew of 19 got the gate. Rapper and Chakota won championships, Baja Dreaming got the Reserve  Championship in white females which was a superb line up. In one class kids we owned or had part ownership incame 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 6thand that class was the white Juvenile Males! We were pumped. We think in all Kahuna progeny won 15 ribbons but we are waiting to get the official results.

We had achieved our goal. It was to show a large team of very uniform high quality suris.We wanted to show suri breeders at large that we can compete and that we have depth. Considering we left many potential ribbon winners at home we were walking on air. It certainly led to sales of females and potential herdsires and it put not only our breeding program on the map but especially Pucara Kahuna.

But hey, its over this year but next year is another year!

Results:

Our first place Pucara Kahuna Get of Sire team at the AWE show.