This section of my website will be updated on a somewhat daily basis. I will offer information I feel is important to the further education of alpaca enthusiasts coast to coast and beyond. These are solely my comments and insights and should be taken as such.

4-14-08

I am on my way home from the IAOBA show in Peoria, Illinois. This is the second time I have judged this show. Usually I can get home from most shows on Sunday night but I could not get a flight out this Sunday. As it turns out, I was done a bit earlier than expected. There was another show on the same weekend in Kentucky which drew some of the breeders from Ohio who usually come to this show.

In this show I judged the Performance, all Suris and huacaya Grey/Multi haucayas male and female. The quality of the suris was very good. Every class had high quality alpacas and there were very few lower quality suris.

Next weekend I am going to Louisville to judge the female suris at The Futurity. After that I will be heading to judge MAPACA. At MAPACA I will be judging 500+ huacaya males over 3 days.
 

4-6-08

I am returning home after judging the Palmetto Classic in South Carolina. It was a well run show with many new breeders. Also, it was a smaller show with a slower pace and smaller classes. It was good to not being rushed and a good chance for me to give more detailed oral reasons.
 

7-20-07

I am flying out to Denver to do another fleece seminar. This one is being put on by the Alpaca Breeders of the Rockies. I am going to run the same 1 day seminar both days so we can have more “students”.
 

6-15-07

I am heading out to NY to do a seminar at a farm that is having an open farm day. I am planning on talking about fleece judging and fleece preparation.
 

5-21-07

We are driving home from a successful weekend in Kentucky. We did very well at the show and sold our female huacaya in the auction. It is always fun to go to shows where I am not judging so I can mix and mingle with the other exhibitors. I am planning on going to 3-4 shows this fall.
 

5-14-07

Had a great weekend judging at the PAOBA show. I judged the males, both huacaya & suri. I will be home tonight and will be leaving first thing Tuesday for AOBA in Louisville, KY. Cindy and I are driving with our alpacas.
 

4-27-07

I am on my way to Wisconsin to judge this weekend’s show. I have heard from other judges that this is a well run show.
 

4-23-07

Just finished judging the 2007 Futurity. I judged the Huacaya females. One class stands out from the weekend. The rose grey female huacayas were amazing. It was probably the strongest class I have ever judged.
 

1-18-07


Happy New Year. I am flying back to home from Las Vegas. Cindy and I went out to the Alpacas of America Auction. We have been out each year to visit and have bought a few alpacas there. This year we bought two. One grey suri and one grey huacaya. I was also there to talk about the new show rules. I gave an hour lecture which was well attended.

10-18-06


Time for a rest. We just finished the New England Coastal Classic Alpaca show here in Maine. Cindy and I do much of the planning and organizing as well as most of the Barn Management. The show was a big success and we heard lots of positive comments about it. It is a lot of work to get the whole show running.
 

8-15-06

I am back from a trip out to Colorado to judge the Suri Network Fleece show. It was an interesting show. All of the fleeces entered in the show were suri. We saw some awesome fleeces and I am constantly impressed with the overall improvement of what is being shown.

6-15-06

Just back from a trip to the west coast where I visited a couple of farms to do some consulting. It is nice to see what other people are doing on their farms. I reviewed a lot of alpacas and gave assessment of quality and what sort of breeding decisions should be made.

5-24-06

Just back from AOBA Nationals. It was really good to be there as an exhibitor. I got a chance to talk to a bunch of people who I was not able to talk to at shows this spring when I have been judging. Also, our alpacas did very well in the showring. It was a great trip and well worth the 20 hour drive each way. We also had 2 alpacas in the national auction, one which we donated to AOBA. Both our girls sold well so we were happy with that. It is also great to be an exhibitor once and a while so that I can appreciate how everyone feels when I am judging.

4-24-06

As expected judging the male Huacayas at The Futurity was the toughest competition I have seen in the show ring. The first class I judged had 13 juvenile black male Huacaya. It was very tough, all had soft fleeces with good density and character (crimp). As I thought the whites were very close as well. Especially the juvenile whites. There were 24 entered so the classes were split into 2 classes of 12. The hardest decision that I had to make all weekend was the yearling silver males. The top two in the class were so close. One (which I ended up giving the blue ribbon) was a very complete alpaca with excellent conformation, a dense fleece with quite a bit of crimp throughout it. The second male was not as complete conformationally but had the finer fleece, by a couple of microns. Since we are judging 50/50 according to the AOBA rulebook I went with the better all around alpaca. When the championship class came – I gave them Champion and Reserve Champion.


I had a great time judging and got some good feedback from exhibitors afterward. It was kind of hard judging because I am getting over a cold and I have not been feeling well. By the end my voice was about gone. I now have to get ready for MAPACA next weekend where I will be judging 400 Suris in 2.5 days.

 

4-21-06

I’m back on my familiar 4:13pm Friday afternoon flight from Portland, Maine to Detroit where I will connect onto Louisville. I am really excited by my judging assignment for the weekend. I will be judging Huacaya males at the Futurity. This is one of the best shows in the country. It is not the largest but with a $250 entry fee per alpaca most breeders will only enter their best. This is the first year that there will be 4 showrings running at once. The show actually runs Sunday and Monday. There is an exhibitors meeting Saturday and then the auction. I am planning on getting plenty of rest to be ready to go Sunday.

4-2-06

I have just arrived home from the North American Alpaca show. It was good to be on the other side of the show ring. It really helps to keep the proper perspective when judging if your alpacas get shown sometimes. I did not handle the alpacas in the ring myself. Since I have worked with all three of the judges during the past month it is best to avoid the appearance of a conflict in the ring. Friends show for me and I get a chance to ‘mix and mingle’ with my fellow alpaca breeders. The reason why I think it is great to show alpacas as well as judge them is that it gives me a perspective on how I feel when I get placed lower than I think I should be. It also is good to listen to other judges give oral reasons on my alpacas. Overall we did well in the show ring. The two I thought would do best both got red ribbons. Now I get two weeks of rest (well at least I get to stay at home) and then on to the Futurity where I am judging the Huacaya males. I believe that there are about 300.

3-23-06

After a weekend off from judging I am heading back out on the road again today. I am heading to St. Louis, Missouri for the MOPACA Invitational show. Friday I will be judging the fleece show and then on Saturday and Sunday, I will move on to the suris and some huacayas. We are expecting 100 or so fleeces. With an apprentice that should be a full days work. My top number of fleeces judged in a day is about 125. It sounds like the folks organizing the show have things under control. They have worked on fleece shows before, which makes a big difference. If you ever get a chance to volunteer helping out at a fleece show- do it. You will learn a lot about alpaca fleece and how we judge them. I am going to try to get the 150 or so suris done on Saturday. It may be a challenge as I first need to judge the performance classes. I think there are only 15-20 entries in all of the performance classes (obstacle and showmanship). On Sunday I will probably start judging some of the huacaya females. Hopefully we can get everything done by about 3 PM so I can make it home Sunday night. My flight is scheduled to get back to Portland, Maine at about 11:30pm and there are chores waiting for me Monday am.

3-20-06

Halter Training- We have been working with all of the alpacas that we are going to be taking to the North American Show in Springfield, Mass. We are bringing about 18 alpacas, all juveniles. We have 6 males and 12 females. They are all taking to the lead pretty well. It is interesting to see how different they all are when being trained. Some are comfortable right away while others need much more time practicing. The goal is to get them walking at a normal gait while on the lead. Halter training is a very important part of showing alpacas. An alpaca that looks completely natural on the lead will have a big advantage over one that is hesitating or leaning while walking. I am really looking forward to see how well our alpacas stack up to the competition. When I am around the country judging I often think about how my alpacas at home compare to what I am looking at in the show ring. One of our young guys, Wolverine, a fawn almost 7 month old Magnito son has been amazing on the lead. As soon as I put it on him he struck a pose. He walks really well and always seems to be alert and upright. I am very eager to see how he does at the show.

3-12-06

I am at the airport again on my way home from what I feel was another successful show having just finished judging about one hundred male alpacas at the Kentucky Classic. The show lived up to my expectations. I am going to be spending a lot of time in Louisville this spring as I’ll be back to judge The Futurity which will be here next month and then I’ll be back in May to bring our alpacas down to show at AOBA.

At the Kentucky Classic I did have a couple of difficult classes - for different reasons. I had one class of 10 males in which 7 of the alpacas had obvious overbites. I also had a few males that I could find either one or both testicles. Obviously, these are important items needed in males. I often urge exhibitors at pre-show meetings that they check these items before coming into the ring. Any alpaca judge will place a male down or not place them at all if the testicles are significantly uneven or one is not evident. Doesn't mean they aren't there, just means we can't find them when we need to find them - at the show.

Now I have 2 weeks off until I go to St Louis to judge the fleece show and then halter show over 3 days.

3-10-06

I am at the airport waiting for my flight to head out to Louisville, Kentucky to judge the males at the Kentucky Classic. This is another good show which has been growing in size and quality. I remember a time, 6 or 7 years ago when it was hard to find an alpaca in states like Kentucky and Tennessee. Now we have 2 very successful regional shows in these states.

3-5-06

Another show complete and I am really feeling it. Unless you have spent 2 days in a row judging a couple of hundred alpacas at a show it is hard to understand how draining it can be. While I am judging, I usually feel great but when I am done and have a few minutes to catch my breath I start to feel it. I expect I’ll be tired tomorrow. Usually after judging a show I do not schedule much the next day.

The quality of alpacas at this show was as I expected. A good range which included quite a few top quality alpacas. I ended up judging all the suris, the fawn and light males and the grey females.

3-3-06

I’m off again. I am at the airport on my way to Tennessee to judge the Southern Select show. I am scheduled to judge the performance and suri halter classes and then depending on how many huacayas are left I will probably move on and judge some of them.

I am really looking forward to this show. I had a great time at the Dallas show last month and I am eager to see the alpacas that the breeders are going to bring out to this show. I expect there will be a large turnout. The location is close enough to Ohio and the Midwest that there will be a lot of breeders making the trek. I know of folks from New York who have attended this show in the past.

2-24-06

We are on our way home following a few days “off” in Florida. We get a chance to go and visit my parents during Charlie & Petey’s school vacation. I am home for 1 week and then right back out on the road to go to the Southern Select show in Tennessee. If we have good weather this week I am going to try to get some more halter training in on my 15 or so alpacas that I will be taking to the North American Show the last weekend of March. I believe in working in groups of 2-3 and trying to do small amounts of training multiple days. I will be taking mostly juveniles and so they all need to be trained from scratch.

2-19-06

I am now on my way to Florida after an exciting weekend in Dallas. The weather was a bit rough. While it had been 80 degrees on Thursday before I got in it was only in the 30’s the days I was there.

The show was very good. A nice range of quality in the alpacas. All of the classes were well organized and ready when I was. It is much easier to judge when I do not need to wait for the next class or try to organize them myself. David Friedman was working as my apprentice at this show. He and I had a good time looking over all the alpacas. We moved at a good clip. I really was happy with the overall quality I found. The one thing I did notice as a general note on conformation was there were a number of alpacas who had weak back legs. There were some that were “post legged” (legs too straight when looking from the profile) and a few who were “cow hocked”.

Overall, I was very impressed with the fleeces I saw. Most had very soft handling fleeces and there were some exhibiting excellent crimp. There were a couple of fawn fleeces and a couple of white fleeces that were top quality. I will remember them clearly. The show was very fun to judge. I had a great time and am looking forward to Tennessee in 2 weeks. For now though I am looking forward to a few days of R & R at my parents home in south Florida with my family.

2-17-06

Well, I am on my way to Dallas, Texas for the TXOLA Spectacular. I am scheduled to judge most of the huacayas on Saturday and Sunday. I am excited to get the New Year started. This is my first alpaca show of the 2006 show season. This is a fun show to judge because it is big enough and draws from a large area so that we have a good range of alpacas. It is much more fun to judge when I see some spectacular alpacas. Also, I enjoy educating some of the less experienced breeders who may not have the highest quality alpacas. I am also excited as an old alpaca friend, David Friedman will be working with me as an AOBA apprentice. David is from upstate New York. It will be much easier to see how David is doing in his placing at this size show also.

I judged the fleeces last year at this show on Saturday and then a bunch of halter classes on Sunday. This show usually invites the fleece judge back the next year and has them work as the main halter judge. We had about just about 100 fleeces last year.

The other thing I like about this show is that last year and this- I go straight from Dallas to West Palm Beach, Florida to meet Cindy and the boys for a few days vacation at my parent’s house. We spend time visiting, swimming in the pool and ocean as well as fishing. It is a pleasant change from cold Maine. Usually when we get back the coldest weather is done and we can see spring around the corner.
 

2/3/06

Welcome to this website. I hope you find this site a great source now and in the future of educational information related to alpacas - their levels of quality and their overall value as investment animals. It has been a goal of mine for sometime to get a site like this on the web so interested parties can learn more from a judge's perspective, before, during and after they leave the showring.

It's a big task to be a judge. I am glad that a lot of these skills have grown with me over the years as I truly enjoy judging alpacas.

This website has been designed to help you, even if you never enter the show ring, learn more about alpacas. Topics we will discuss will include - proper conformation, fleece character and breeding strategies - all designed to help you learn and improve upon your herd's quality.

Please enjoy!

Copywritten 2006-8 by Tim Lavan. All rights Reserved and Reprint by Permission Only.