Recent News
OFFF News! The 2014 OFFF Llama Show is also the first ever ILR Western Championship Show!
The show will start on Saturday (9/27) with
performance classes, fleece-on classes and shorn fleece judging. The double halter show will be on Sunday (9/28).
In 2013 we had a great turnout of youth for the performance classes and it would be marvelous if we could have even more youth showing this year! Spread
the word among your 4-H clubs about how much fun you had, start practicing your obstacles, do "stand still" lessons for showmanship, and bring your llama to
Canby at the end of September.
Forms are ready for download, so go to the OFFF page (use the link
to the left labeled "OFFF ILR Show") for the latest information and registration details for the 2014 Show. I look forward to seeing
you in Canby September 27th and 28th for the 2014 ILR Western Championship Llama Show and Thank You for your support!
WOW! - Congratulations to Ken and Celia
Austin! They
had the high selling llama
at the Spring 2010 Celebration Sale in Oklahoma City. Chilean Rosalind RDRL was the high selling female
and the high selling animal overall - by the way, her sire is ourFino Chilean Rosario, the
two-time National Heavy Wool
Male. Congratulations - we are tickled by your success and
pleased that the Rosario X Okey Dokey breeding paid off for you!
HOLY SMOKES! Fino
Chilean Rosario does it again at the 2008 Grand
National! What a llama! I'm so glad that he's well behaved - it has been my job
at the show to keep him exercised (when he is not exercised and gets bored he takes apart the stall) and
he was fun to take on laps of the facility. Between trips for exercise and trips to the pile, some people
must have wondered if I did anything but walk and run the llama!
He was a gentleman on our walks but in the ring he really shows some swagger!
Congratulations to all the male heavy wool entries - we were really concerned as we watched the classes
assemble - what an outstanding group of male llamas!
BTW - limited breedings are available...
Heather is the 2008 recipient of the "Follow Me" youth award from the
Llama Association of North America.
Congratulations Heather - we know you are special, but it is very
cool to receive this recognition from LANA.
We believe the name of this award is especially fitting given the
work you do with the Lucky Longneck 4-H club and the example you
provide for all of us with your behavior and work ethic both in and out
of the show ring. We love you and you are a great role model - Congratulations!
ROSARIO - 2007 National Grand Champion!!!
Fino Chilean Rosario is the 2007 National Grand
Champion Heavy Wool Male! In contrast to his "performance" at
the 2006 Grand National (when he would *not* stand still),
this time he strolled into the ring like a champion; walking out when
asked and posing at every opportunity. With his
size, presence, fiber quality and a great
disposition, we
can't think of a thing we would
change about him. Congratulations to
all the other competitors in the adult age group - we were not at all
sure that we
could come out as #1 in that outstanding group of animals, and big congratulations
to everyone who had an animal in the Heavy Wool Grand Champion class -
what an awesome group of animals and we are honored to be selected from
that outstanding set of heavy wool boys!
Thanks to everyone who talked
to
us as we left the ring - it was such a blur and we don't even have
pictures because Hal, Heather and Chris were busy getting the Get
and Produce animals ready for the
next classes!
Willamette
Valley Llama Foundation
banquet and auction. Rosario will
return to the (WVLF)
banquet in Wilsonville,
March 8th. We are proud to participate in this
effort and to donate a Rosario breeding to
benefit camelid research.
Come see "Ro" in person and you can bid to win a breeding to
one
of your females. If you can't be at the banquet, phone bids
will
be accepted - more information is available at this link.
Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival 2007 is
"in the books"
The 2007 Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival
in Canby has come and gone! There is a brief summary
and a long list of "Thank Yous" from Hal on the OFFF page (click on the
OFFF link to the left). It was great to see lots of our llama
friends in Canby and meet some new llama folks! I
had a good
time and I hope all the competitors did too!
Third Baby!
Rosario's third baby is on the ground thanks to Dr.
Kutzler (details below)! As you can tell from these "less
than day old" pics, we have a beautiful fawn/peach colored girl out of
Beautiful Dreamer. This makes it three in a row for the fawn
coloring - first, it was Duncan's "Romeo," then Tallmon's "Chase," and
now this one (who needs a name but it will be something involving
"peach"!). Her head and tail are a little darker and her nose
and ears have some gray coloring, but the body is the same color as her
neck.
We
have been very fortunate to have many reasonably "routine" births, but
this was our second really tough dystocia. Dreamer was in
labor for most of the afternoon and early evening and at about 6:30pm
the cervix was dilating and we had one foot and then the second - but
no nose.
We
gave Dreamer some time to "work on it," and Julie would periodically
check if the head had come up (it was down to the left side of the
baby's front legs), but it wasn't, and despite her efforts, Julie could
not get it. We put in a call to Dr. Michelle Kutzler who raced
over, within 1 minute of getting out of the truck had her coveralls on
and had received a briefing on the situation, less than two minutes
later had the head up and out!, and two minutes after that was handing
Hal the baby! You have to appreciate having the "right person
for the job" available when you need them! Big
"Props" to Dr. Michelle; you're our Hero!
The
baby is doing fine (kicking up her heels in the picture to the right!)
but Dreamer had a tough-go with the placenta and is feeling the effects
of labor and a tough delivery.
Thank
You Tallmons!
Some time ago, Sherri told Julie that she wanted to buy one of the Gold
Glitter girls; Julie finally let one go earlier this year.
The Tallmons purchased "Too"
who was a Grand Champion at the 2006 Oregon State Fair and earned a Top
Five award at last year's Western Regional show. Thank You
Sherri and Will - we appreciate your confidence in our animals and we
wish you great success in the show ring with Too and her future babies!
A
couple of our Bolivian Asombroso kids are growing up and you will see them on
the show circuit in the northwest this season. "Lookin
Real Sharpp" is pictured on the left and his mom is Baby Magic. As you can see, he is very wooly
and he is also very responsive. Chris has been training him
on the obstacles and they have been doing well together.
"Silver
Shimmer," pictured on the right, is another Gold
Glitter
daughter. Like her older sisters (Gold Sparkle
-2005 National Grand Champion Heavy Wool Female, Its Destini
and I Sparkle Too),
Shimmer is friendly, easy to work with and wants to please.
The 2006
Grand National Llama Show in Lincoln,
Nebraska went well (and getting there and back was not *too* big a deal
this year - just one 30 minute white-out!). Highlights
included Bright
New Dawn being named the Grand Champion Light Wool
female - not bad for an 11 year old! Chris and
Heather received Top Ten ribbons
in all but one performance class. A couple years ago, Heather
decided that she and Salsalito (A.K.A. Lee) needed to drive - driving
is a nice goal, but Heather did not want to "just" drive, she wanted to
drive at the Grand National! With her brother's help they did
all
the ground training and Lee went into the cart on July 1,
2006.
Lee's ALSA debut was at the Flock and Fiber Festival - it was a bit
painful to watch, but it qualified them for the Regional
show. At
the Western Regional, he was somewhat better - there were still rough
spots, but it was enough to qualified for the Grand National.
With Niki Kuklenski's coaching and many warm-up laps around the
Lancaster Event Center, Heather and Lee finished below Niki and Isle
Eagle as the Reserve Champion Drivers!
Congratulations Niki and Eagle for being National Champion Drivers and
thanks for helping Heather with her goal!
MORE Congratulations
to the Benton County Llama 4-H group,
The Lucky Longneck Llama Club, on their
successful show at the Benton County
Fair on August 2nd. Thanks go out to our judge, Niki
Kuklenski for driving down from Washington and creating a relaxed and
fun atmosphere in the show ring. As a group, the club
finished with more blue ribbons than red ribbons and there were no
white ribbons given out - what a great effort!! In addition, Christopher
Koenig, Heather Koenig, and Deanna
Duncan competed in the large animal Master Showmanship competition and
ALL were named Champion: Christopher in the junior age division,
Heather for the intermediates and Deanna for the seniors.
Very Impressive! More information about The Lucky Longneck Llama Club
is available by clicking the "Benton Co. 4-H"
link in the menu to the left.
Our
congratulations to the
Benton County Llama 4-H group,
The Lucky Longneck Llama Club,
on their success with their
Multiple Sclerosis "Walk for a Cure"
fundraising efforts. The club's goal was $6,300 which is $1
for every person in Oregon with MS and they came close; raising
nearly $6,000.
This puts the club in 10th place in Oregon in the "Friends and Families" team
division and 11th place overall. Great
Job!!! Julie and I want to send special
thanks to
both the club parents and the llama community. To the
parents, we appreciate your help with the fundraising and provided
extra hands during the walk in April! To the llama community,
thank you for your generous donations to this cause - a large part of
the club's success is due to your contributions. We really
appreciate your participation.
Well, we had black ice
followed by packed snow on the
roads on the first day of our trip to the 2005 National Show, and
coming home they closed I-80 west of Cheyenne and that night we had
temperatures in the teens with blowing snow driven by 30 mile/hour
winds, but WOW,
are we GLAD we were there - what a
final day we had at the 2005 Grand National Show! We ended up with
two of our girls in the front row of the Heavy Wool Championship class
and Gold Sparkle was named the Grand
Champion Heavy Wool Female!
Then Fino
Chilean Rosario
(in the picture to the left) was the class champion for the Heavy Wool
Two Year Old Males. And to top it all off, Gold
Glitter’s Produce ended up with the blue ribbon
(Gold Glitter is Gold Sparkle’s dam) and Bolivian
Asombroso’s Get also
earned the top
honor. You can see a summary of the 2005 show
results here.
Please
take a look through our site, and then make an appointment to come visit us and let our herd show you why
llamas are so special.
