The goals for our breeding program are to
produce animals with great conformation, outstanding dispositions
and extremely fine, usable fiber. We think we have done a good
job on these, but we
compete in halter classes, performance classes and fiber
competitions to get an "outsiders" evaluation of our progress.
Halter Classes.
Halter class animals are judged with other animals that have similar
amounts of wool, that are of similar ages and are the same gender.
Judges are looking for good proportions (neck to back, and neck to
leg length), straight legs when viewed from the front, back and
side, good tracking and smooth movement when the animal is walking.
Animals in halter classes are evaluated individually with exception
of the Produce of Dam and Get of Sire classes. Two offspring
of the same dam are evaluated as a pair for Produce of Dam and three
offspring from the same stud are evaluated as a group for the
Get of
Sire class. Highlights of our halter classes from
2004, 2005,
and
2006 are available.
Performance Classes.
There are three performance classes that are part of most llama shows:
obstacle, pack, and public relations. In
obstacle the llama
and handler must negotiate obstacles such as jumps, ducking under
poles, and weaving between markers. In the pack class the
llama and handler negotiate obstacles that they might encounter on a
pack trip. Typically obstacles include a bridge (see picture
to the right), water, a dead-fall (jumble of branches). In the
public relations class the obstacle are to simulate things
that a llama would encounter in a public setting; bicycles,
balloons, baby carriages, steps, ramps, showing your llama's feet or
teeth to a bystander or letting a member of the public pet your
animal.
An additional performance class that usually
has fewer entrants are driving classes with the llama pulling a cart
and driver.
Fiber Competitions. Fleeces from
our herd have competed very well at shows in Oregon and Washington
and we also have ribbons from the Grand National Fiber show.
Here are the first results from 2006 for fiber.
Come visit us and choose a winner. Your next Grand
Champion may be standing in our pasture at this
moment, waiting for you.