Golden Opportunity's Blue Ribbon

EEEHAW! Oppie's fleece sample got a blue in the Spin Off last weekend at the MIAF. A SpinOff contest is when the breeder submits 2 ounces of fiber, the alpaca's registration, and usually a picture to the Show. A judge evaluates the fleece, evaluates how it spins, and then evaluates the yarn. I believe this is the true test of an alpaca's fiber.
Frankly, I'm not fond of spinning the really crimpy fleece that the judges so like, and I don't enjoy spinning fiber over 4 inches long. The finer, the better, for me though.

Now a little about "dear" Oppie. She is not a sweet alpaca. She's obstinate, has a mind of her own, and is probably the smartest alpaca in the barn. When Beth was training her to halter lead, she was a horrid alpaca. At first she would just cush down and not move - even if we dragged her. Beth rigged up a towel sling so that everytime Oppie would try to cush, Beth would lift her up. After giving in to actually standing, moving forward was the challenge. Oppie would get so mad that she would leap forward and bang into Beth. It took about 2 months to get her to actually lead, and Beth did take her through the show ring at the spring show (she took a second). Cudos to Beth and her incredible patience.
You can go here if you want to see what I said about her a year ago.

Alpaca Obstacle Training

Beth and John came out yesterday to work on alpaca training. These alpacas are white Snickers and brown JR, both born last September, making them 10 months old. They will probably both be neutered this fall to become fiber boys. Although I don't know, Snickers looks pretty proud in that picture above.
Next month Snickers will go to the Alma Fair as Amelia's 4-H project, and John will take his black girl, Chin.

This is John teaching JR to walk across a bridge. All of JR's fans should be cheering to see that he appears healthy. He runs and plays and Snickers is his best friend. I think he is going to remain a small guy - definitely 4-H material because he's so people friendly.

Backing between poles

John is teaching JR to go over a jump and you can see Beth and Snickers behind them going over the tippy bridge

The final picture is Beth teaching Snickers to give his foot. Alpacas don't like to be unbalanced so this is quite the trick - and valuable when it comes time for us to have to lift each leg and snip those toenails.

Alpaca Training and Cria Update - Astra & Libra

Today is a beautiful, sun shiny, autumn day in midMichigan. The main reason that I haven't posted in a while is because caring for little Libra (above in his GoBlue U. of Michigan coat) has been quite time consuming. Remember, Sonata, his mom has hardly any milk. For a couple of days, I was able to supplement him with a bottle, and then he just started to absolutely refuse it. I couldn't get any down him. So at the advice/help of Beth and Doc Russ, we decided to mix up a gruel. I ground up adult alpaca pellets in my blender and added some Ensure left over from Smitty's ordeal. I suck this gruel up in to a 2 ounce syringe and pretty much force feed it in to his mouth.
Libra does nibble on grass and hay and is frequently under mom trying to nurse the little milk that she has. He is 3 weeks old and has gained 3 pounds, for a total of 15.2 pounds.
The little white guy next to Libra is Astra, who was named by Marianne here on my blog. He is three days older than Libra. See why I'm so worried?????

Beth came over to give Oppie (Golden Opportunity) a halter/lead lesson. This little yearling is the hardest ever to train to lead. Even though you can see Oppie's resistance by the way she is leaning away from Beth, she is doing super. She is up right and actually walking. It's more normal for her to throw her self down and freeze. We lift her up and try another step. Beth is training her to follow along with a gentle tug, tug on the rope. We are out in the field with the other alpacas to give the little girl some confidence. I truly admire Beth. She is quite determined that Oppie will become a happy, confident, obedient alpaca.

Gunny Alpaca Training - continued

First of all, I'm very pleased to announce that I haven't been spit on since that first day. In fact, the little darling hasn't even made the hawky, throaty noise that is a threat.
Yesterday he wore his halter with a short rope dangling. Even though I worried about him, he also wore it all night.
This morning after his breakfast, I tied him up! Yep, for about an hour. I wanted to use a bungee cord so that it would give some when he did his rearing and pulling but didn't have one. So I rigged up an old elastic trailer tie that I had used for hauling horses around. He did do considerable thrashing but never really got himself into trouble. I could keep my eye on him while I was cleaning the horse stalls, but managed to stay out of sight. I wanted him to think I wasn't involved and he would learn to give to the pressure. And....it worked! When I put a lead on him and released the trailer tie, we actually went for a little walk out side with no rearing and pulling. YEA!
I'll continue tying him up for a couple of days until he thinks our walks are fun.
BTW, that's a picture of his awesome fiber all spun up......
☼ ☼
Pam, look, I put the picture where I wanted it. Thanks for your help!

Alpaca Training

Gunny

This is Gunny, the little dear that was given to us about a month ago. He's a year old and weighs a little over a hundred pounds. He has had no training and very little handling. Yesterday I decided that it's time for Gunny to get to charm school. Oh, my, it took my 200 pound husband and myself (ample weight here too) just to get a halter on him. That was after I received my very first ever alpaca spit in the face from him. Yuck! it's really stinky, probably from that second or third stomach.....A leisurely walk down the road was out of question. He leaped and drug me around a small pen for about 5 minutes. I figured that was enough for the first time (for both of us), and I really did need a shower.

This morning I managed to sneak his halter on without his really getting upset. Yea! I hung a small, 2 foot lead from it so that I can get a hold of him later. He is going to wear this all day to get used to it. Of course, I am checking frequently 'cause I have this horrible vision of his getting his hind foot caught in the halter when he does a face scratch.