Back to the Futurity, Part #1
One of the unexpected highlights of the show last weekend was getting to meet and talk with Elena Barreda of Estancia Accoyo in Peru. Her late father, Don Julio, is arguably the most famous alpaca breeder in history, so getting the chance to meet Elena was a real treat. She was at the Futurity with the Quechua Benefit, to speak about the history of Accoyo at the QB dinner and to be present for the unveiling of a new statue honoring her father which will ultimately reside at Casa Chapi, the children’s home that QB is building in Peru. It was after all Don Julio who was the original inspiration for the Quechua Benefit.
Under the heading of small-world-connections-you couldn’t make-up is also the fact that Elena’s uncle, Atilio Barreda, was Jennifer’s spanish teacher years ago when she decided to take a spanish 101 class at a nearby community college. I think Jen was justifiably sick of having the rest of her husband’s family be able to talk in front of her (I was born in Guatemala and lived there until I was 9) without always knowing what was being said! Atilio, also by total coincidence, happens to live here in our home town of Weathersfield, VT. Needless to say that connecting all of those dots and getting to chat for a little bit with Elena was an experience we wont soon forget!
As part of the events surrounding the QB dinner and auction which took place Saturday evening after the Futurity Sale, Elena also presented trophies for the males and females, huacayas and suris which she had judged to have the best heads present at the Futurity. She had spent some time walking around the main building there at Fonner Park and selected the 2 best heads from each breed. We were tickled that our young up and coming Herdsire, Invictus, was chosen as the huacaya male winner. Also selected was the Elite Legend daughter, Honeybee, owned by our friends and co-conspirators at Tripping Gnome! When we headed over with the Munros for a photo with Elena on Sunday morning, Jude Anderson and her husband Alan Cousill of Pucara fame, who had also won a trophy for best suri male head with their boy, Pucara PureSuri Tikanui, just happened to be in the photo area as well. Well, why not do a picture all together then? Though there were of course others photos from the sequence — and thanks as always to our friends Doug and Donna Herrmann for their excellent work, no one photographs alpacas better — once Al struck the pose above there was zero chance of that shot not making it into cyberspace! Follow me on Twitter @CCNFalpacas
