When we started farming here in the summer of 2004 we had no plans to show any alpacas or their fleeces unless we had something really special to show...and that can take quite a while in the alpaca business.

But rules are there to be broken and I have decided to show one of our alpaca fleeces at the Monterey Pronk...great name and a great venue. John Cleese lives in Monterey (and has an alpaca or two) as he says "Monterey isn't heaven but it does share the same zip code."

So we all know that when showing fleeces skirting is time well spent and last summer I knocked together a skirting table with some old wood we had lying around and a piece of wire mesh.



You can probably see where I went wrong straight away...its way too small!

Oh well we can always learn from our mistakes.

The other daunting aspect about entering the Monterey Pronk is the amount of paperwork that has to be completed....you would think I would know about this having helped organise a couple of level II alpaca shows but there is no substitute for seeing another shows paperwork to realise just how daunting we make it for newcomers.

I think I may have discovered one reason why only 30% of breeders show their alpacas...


Adrian Stewart
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