Archive: Around Town

Ashley Engels lives on her family's alpaca farm, Angel Tree Farm.  Last weekend she showed some of their livestock at a show in Syracuse, winning ribbons.  This is her account of her experience.

We left for Pennsylvania on the 9th of September right after school. Five hours after we left, we arrived with the animals in our trailer. Then it was our turn to unload and check in our alpacas. When they were checking in the alpacas they had to check the color and length of their fleece.

They asked to see their certificates for their age to determine which class they would be in. They also checked their microchips and their owners (alpacas have microchips in the flap of their ear). We finally got everyone situated and then we had to make a trip to K Mart because my parents had forgotten their show clothes. People wear a white shirt and black pants in order to show alpacas. We then went to find our motel and had dinner at 11:00pm. It was a long day.

The next morning we cleaned up Marcus, Morgan, Kilo and Robbie. Later Mom and Marcus and Grandma and Morgan (the grays) went into the show ring. They walk them around and let the judge feel their fleece. Marcus got 4th place and unfortunately Morgan did not get anything. We had no more animals in the show that day, but I had to show Kilo first thing the next morning. He got 5th place.

Later in the afternoon I took Kilo through the obstacle course. We had to go up a ramp, down three stairs, stand inside a hoop and pick up his foot, jump over a jump, run from one point to another, weave through poles, go over a see-saw platform, go through posts on the ground and then back Kilo up through them. I had to hold an umbrella over Kilo and put it up and down. Unfortunately, again we got nothing, but it was our first time at a show and mine in the obstacle course.

At the same time I did all this, my mom was showing Roberto in a class of three and got third place. Even later, I showed Kilo in a Junior Showmanship class just like the adult halter class I showed him in earlier that day only for kids. Kilo was really done for the day and so he didn’t act right. I wanted to give up but still, I got 4th place because it was based on how the handler handled the alpaca. Then we were done for this show. We had a great time!

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