Continued from last posting....
So, there I am at home, holding the fort while the rest of the family are over the border in Victoria at the Stawell Show with our core show team of:
- Puck – Dark brown intermediate male
- Drifter – Mid-fawn adult male
- Chorus Girl – Light brown intermediate female
- Gypsy – Mid brown intermediate female
- Lulu – Mid brown adult female
I’m waiting anxiously by the phone for the call about how things have gone. It rings and:
Perry: So, how did it go then?
Sarah: Disastrous!
Perry: What do you mean?
Sarah: We got two second places.
Perry: OK.... That’s not too bad really, who beat Gypsy?
Sarah: Gypsy wasn’t one of them... The seconds went to Drifter and Chorus Girl.
Perry: What? So... Gypsy, Puck and Lulu? How could Chorus Girl beat Gypsy?
Sarah: Oh yes... They all won their classes and Gypsy got best brown in show again.
Perry: %%&*#$!!!
It's enough to drive a poor harmless bloke to drink...
Three firsts and two seconds though, I'll forgive anything for that. After I calmed down, it turns out that it wasn’t a huge show. A few of the big Victorian breeders that we’d been hoping to go up against didn’t go but, it was still a great result. The judge said some wonderful things about Gypsy and Puck and there was lots of interest in all of the team from other breeders (none of them are for sale though).
So... This is second best brown in show for Gypsy who is becoming quite a special animal and who will now go on to the Alpacafest in Melbourne at the end of June and has probably earned herself a place in the Nationals in October.
And Puck? I’m starting to wish that we’d given him a more macho name... We were working through characters from Midsummer Night’s Dream at the time – he should have been an Oberon! (mind you, I suppose it could have been worse, he could have been a Bottom...). Puck will now be DNA tested and certified for stud work. Hopefully he’ll start working for his living in the Spring.
You’ll have to excuse me now.... It’s Shiraz time.