Result

We took some of our young alpacas to the Devon County Show last Thursday.  Mike came with me in the morning to help me unload and set up.  He stayed to watch Tanya (our pretty little multi alpaca) win first in her class and after a bit of a wander round he went home so that the dogs were not left too long.  Jose and Pepe both had third place rosettes which was especially pleasing as the classes were quite big for the browns.

Although we had finished showing by early afternoon we could not leave until after the show closed so it was quite a long day.

We are giving the does and kids free range of the race and  they are really enjoying the extra grazing and the exercise must be good for them.  Number 7 the kid I have been bottle feeding is behaving more and more like a pet dog.   When she sees me in the yard she starts calling and if I go into the race she follows me around.

We are still waiting for the next cria to be born.  Bourree looks very pregnant but no sign of any movement yet.

We usually by sacks of potatoes from a local farmer in the winter  and  this afternoon he called in with his daughter to have a look at the alpacas and to say that they were baling some hay on a nearby  field and offered it to us.   Timing was perfect as we have nearly run out again.   Although the alpacas do not eat much hay in the summer it is good for them to have it available as the long fibres are good for their digestion.  They arrived at tea time with a trailer load which is now safely stored in our hay loft.

Nick has been continuing his onslaught on the weeds today.   Apart from the usual nettles and docks we have a lot of Himalayan Balsam - I think its other name is Japanese Knot Weed - which is trying to take over around the bounderies.

I took Romie for a private lesson with Sam Waring on Monday which was very useful. As I suspected my timing is not right and she gave me one or tips to try and and exercise over three jumps which I shall be working on up  until our ext session.

Dolly and Charlie are both doing well and  I am hopeful for them both when they start competing.

We have another broody hen and we are  hoping it might be third time lucky hatching eggs.   The last two attempts have resulted in several chicks and they even nearly reached maturity but all met untimely deaths for one reason or another.  She is laying on 9 eggs so we might get several chicks if she sticks to her job.