How to build a show string

Many folks want to breed to the males with the most ribbons, or the "biggest names" in their lineage, or maybe who sold the most at an auction. We have always taken a different philosophy. We hand pick out males who are young or unknown in order to stamp our babies with our own name. We want to be the ones to promote these unknown males, make the babies and then show the world that, yes - we have an eye for quality. We have a full Accoyo male who babies are just now hitting the show circuit, and our full Peruvian male, MLS Peruvian Sebastian, who is doing amazingly well in the circuit, both himself and his babies. Here is the story of how we came to find our 2 top studs.

MSA Accoyo Volunteer
It was just months after than Snowmass Invincible sold for $480k at auction. We had been searching for a new amazing white male for quite some time, but were not finding something without Beuno genetics on the east coast. We already had an amazing Beuno son and wanted a new white boy to breed his daughters too. We always were and are white and light breeders first, so I wanted to make sure my white program had a head start before I move to lights and blacks.

We went to a local well know auction specifically because there was a young unproven male there who was from the west coast and pretty rare genetics east. He was 20 months old and unproven. There was also an amazing Bay Black male there MA Multomba who came home with us - and for those of you who know me, know he was my favorite of all time!! He passed of cancer the day after Christmas 2008 and there is still a hole in my heart. Special in all ways, "Mo" was my man.

MLS Peruvian Sebastian
Several years ago, my husband and I drove onto a small farm and saw this amazing male standing among a few other males. We were looking for a few more foundation females and had not even known of this male or his status. We were not looking for another male, but he was impressive!!

We asked the owners if he was for sale and they said they were not sure if they were going to sell or keep him. He was at that time, around 4 years of age. He had not been shown in halter or fleece up to that point. I thought it was odd as he was quite the specimen. It was as if the current owners did not even know of his worth, as if they did not even see him standing there.

We bought a few girls from this farm and inquired about the male several times over the next few months, finally the owners decided to let him go and we brought him home in October 2008. This male is MLS Peruvian Sebastian. Click here to see a video of him and some of his 2009 crias. The very next month was the Fall 2008 NJ show. We didn't even have the transferred ARI back yet, but decided to enter him in the show as a mature male.

Tim Lavan was the judge and since it was the last show of the season, there was some really tough competition. I asked my friend what he thought of Sebastian's chances were for the ribbons and he stated "He's gorgeous".

We easily won the blue ribbon round for the mature male class and the Color Championship. You can read here about our experience in the ring.

He went on to take 1st place "Get of Sire" in March 2010 at the NJ Show and Sale out of 4 groups, including a group of white, which is tough to beat, since we had a TB, DB and LF in our group of 3.

His children are doing well in the show ring taking multiple blues, reds and other colors. His son "WaveChaser" is a TB male who has started breeding this past spring and we expect big things from him as well !

So my advice to all of you out there is: instead of chasing the big boys and big breeding programs, trust in your own eye and make your own studs! Stamp your name on them and who knows - you may just be the next sought after breeding program in the country!!

New Yahoo Group For Brainstorming on All Things ALPACA

- Want a forum to discuss ideas on how to make the industry better?
- Want a common place to brainstorm ideas to take to our affiliates?
- Want a voice?


Come join our group - Brainstorming Alpacas

Click to join brainstorming_alpacas

Camelidynamics Advanced Clinic June 2009

I got back from Bend, Oregon about 6 weeks ago after attending another exciting, fun filled learning experience at Marty McGee-Bennett's Ranch. I am going back to Bend on Saturday Aug 8th for another clinic so that I can become a Certified Practitioner of Camelidynamics. Currently I am a Certified Handler/Apprentice Practitioner.

The clinic in June helped me to learn a few key things . . .

1. if you don't practice you don't get better
   
2. each animal needs to be approached anew with no preconceived notions of how he/she will act or react
   

Point number 1 stresses the fact that you have to be working with your animals everyday and with different techniques, not necessarily for them, but for you. I often avoid the rope and wand technique because I like to use the mid-line catch. Typically 95% of my animals allow this, are comfortable with it and it is easy for both the humans and the alpacas/llamas. However, there are a few animals that would really benefit from the rope and wand, so after I left the June advanced clinic, I made it a mission to practice this technique on my farm, more for me to hone my skills as I advance in the practitioners program rather than for the alpacas, although they have also greatly benefited.

Point number 2 stresses that just like humans, camelids are all different, with different experiences and different personalities. While at the June advanced clinic, there was a llama that was labeled as difficult by her owner, and one of the practitioners in the clinic approached the llama with this in mind. She made some errors in judgment and was unable to effectively work with this llama. What that taught me was to approach each animal with a blank slate and bring with you all your "tools" to handle whatever situation arises. Sometimes animals take to a halter immediately and walk like they have been in the show ring a hundred years. Some animals take much more practice before you can even approach them with the halter. This is where you need to be experienced in ALL the Camelidynamics techniques so that you can switch approaches quickly.

Take each lesson as an experience and remember that even though you may have haltered, led and shown hundreds of animals, this may be their first time and they can be reacting out of a place of fear. If they are young, go slow as this is new to them and they may be fearful. If they are older and were not raised on your farm, they could have had bad prior experiences which makes them fearful.

Some tips to remember:

• Remain calm
  
• Do things safely (for both you and the animal)
• If something isn't working, change techniques
• Take a "blank slate" in the pen with you when you are working with a new animal, making no assumptions about how this animal is going to react. Make no assumptions about the animal even if the owner thinks he/she is difficult
  
• Don't make initial sessions long, especially with young animals 5 - 15 minutes is sufficient, if a first lesson with a weanling - keep it short
• Don't start training on animals younger than 5 months of age - they mentally aren't ready, it is a world of difference training a 5 month old versus a 7 month old
  
• End on a positive note - have the animal do something that will allow them to feel like they succeeded. For example - if they have been doing well standing still and allow you to approach them but don't quite have down walking . . . then end with standing still. This will allow your energy of "good boy" to radiate to them and they will know that training isn't so scary!
• Get help - if you are having trouble - get help. Feel free to look on my website about Camelidynamics and reach out to me if you need help, either myself or one of the other practitioners will be more than happy to work with you and your camelid !!

To read more about Camelidynamics and how a handler/practitioner may help you - click here.

To get Marty's book which I highly recommend - look to the top right of my blog and purchase it.