Our First Alpaca Show

Miss A has been working with Clementine for most of the summer.

We initially focused on building trust between them, did a little reconnaissance at the county fair and then set up a few of our own obstacles in the pasture.

We practiced most weekends and tried to expose Clementine to as many different "uncomfortable" things as we could think of like changing surface areas, walking under and through things, going into a dark rooms, ramps, stairs and doggie distractions.

Our first show was yesterday where Miss A and Clementine signed up for the three of the Performance Classes... Halter, Obstacle and Public Relations.

Halter is just like the regular Color Classes, except it's more about how well the kids handle their alpaca than  about the conformation and fleece of the alpaca itself.

Since all of the kids in Miss A's age group were signed up for both Obstacle and Public Relations, they ran them at the same time.  The first half was the Obstacle course and the second half was the Public Relations.  As far as I can tell, the PR portion is a little more difficult with one station having a human distraction.

Miss A was in the youngest group and is very competitive, so she was a little disappointed that they were awarded Participation Ribbons instead of Placement Ribbons... especially since she and Clementine did very well on the Obstacle/PR portion.  She was sizing up her competition and figuring out who would place where.  It's my fault for not realizing earlier and preparing her for that, but she was still very proud of a job well done.  :-)

They award Placement Ribbons in the next age group, which she will be eligible for next year.  She was very excited and has already started planning next year's show with the new cria... Pearl, Holly and Willow.  She thinks Willow will be the best candidate for Performance because she's the most bold.  I have to agree, I think she's right.  :-)