Thursday 24 October 2013

Fab day at Yorkshire Alpaca Group Show - Thirsk

James with Swift & Jess with Sparkle
It was very dark, cold & wet when we woke up at 4.30am for our trip to Thirsk! After driving through heavy rain & strong winds we managed to arrive in Thirsk just in time. Our girls & boys unloaded we just had enough time to set up the stand with all our gorgeous scarves & have a bacon butty before the judging began. Our black girls are now over a year old & were in the second class of the day the intermediate black female class. This was quite a large class for black alpacas which makes for a good competition. James was in first with Swift & Jess further down the line with little Sparkle. Mary-Jo placed Swift in 3rd & Sparkle in 4th & we were delighted.
James with Daley

Daley went to the show having already been sold 2 weeks before, & we were really hoping for a rosette for his new owners Roots at Thorpe Farm. James took him into the ring & even though he did get bored & sit down alot, he came out with a fab red 1st rosette, which I think will be on show in Roots :)


Tuesday 8 October 2013

Eventually the last cria of the year

JandJ Tiberius
The last cria of the year was eventually born on 26th August, just 2 days off a year's gestation. His birth was straight forward, we had been watching while feeding & it was very slowly moving forward. So we just nipped up to the house to grab a piece of toast for breakfast, (not been gone 10 mins), came back, all looked calm. Thea was sitting on the ground, but behind her was a cria completely out but with his neck & head twisted in a strange shape. Martin, who was following me quickly picked up the cria & give him a couple of swings & a little heart massage, it's wonderful to see a grey blue mouth turn pink! Just shows you always have to be there when little cria are being born, never know what's going to happen to them.

JandJ Tiberius nibbling mum Thea
What a beauty he is, absolutely the best was left to last. He's James' to name so he is called Tiberius & he may live up to his name. Even at a couple of weeks old he acts like a stud boy, struts across the field, stands tall and handsome, always at the front. We have just moved the alpacas & he walked up the ramp into the trailer & down again as if he had been in and out of a trailer lots of times. Once in the new field he was the one out in front checking out the field :) He's very funny & happily for us a home grown brown little boy with a fab fleece.