Show Prep 101, Part 2

This is the second part of an article which originally appeared in the fall 2006 issue of the Cas-Cad-Nac Farm Chronicles newsletter. The post below has been updated, revised, and edited to bring it in line with current practices and show rules. I also changed some wording which I found annoying. The original author will just have to deal with his loss.

In part 1 of this piece I talked about show preparation mostly as it pertained to the shearing, upkeep, and training of your alpacas. Now here in part 2, I’ll touch more on the organizational things you need to think about as you take the animals on the road. I will also look at some things one can do to make it all flow more smoothly once you arrive at the show itself. I will continue to use a hypothetical show string of 5 juvenile alpacas born in July and for the sake of argument say that you are prepping for your first show to be part of the spring circuit in March or April of the following year.

Fast forward to late January and your juvenile alpacas have just been weaned from their dams. Having started the ARI registration process early, you also have their ARI certificates in hand (AOBA rules allow only registered animals to show). Because you absorbed every detail and nuance of that training clinic you attended last summer it took only a few days to teach all five of your critters how to walk on a slack lead, stand, and get used to human touch with minimal fuss!

Now you must look ahead and decide which shows you want to do and keep a very close eye on the calendar. Long gone are the days when one could just wait for a given show’s registration packet to come in the mail and take a leisurely approach to signing up. Though the shows in 2011 rarely sell out in mere days any more, were you to wait a couple of weeks without reserving your space you could still find yourself on the outside looking in. Virtually all shows post where and when their registration materials will first appear online though, so all you really need to do is keep your eyes open and pre-plan a bit. If your group of five alpacas are made up of 2 males and 3 females (or vice-versa) then you know that when you register you will need at least two stalls (most shows will allow us to house up to three juveniles per stall) for the animals plus another space for our farm display and/or tack.  Most shows will allow you to diagram your preferred stall layout (say a display stall with an animal stall on either side) and how you decide to lay out your pens is really quite subjective.

Registering the animals for a given show can be a bit confusing and though theoretically self-explanatory, the forms can certainly be a little intimidating to the uninitiated. When in doubt do not hesitate to call one of the show organizers or the show’s superintendent (often, though not always, different people) with questions. Trust me: they would much rather spend some time on the phone talking you through the registration forms now than deal with paper work problems — or even worse missing registrations — on check-in day itself. Once you have submitted all the forms that you can online you will also need to mail in copies of your animal’s ARI certificates, your AOBA Exhibitor Disclosure Form, as well as any Owner of Record for Show Entry Forms for any of your animals that might still be registered in the name of the farm you purchased them from. Some shows allow you to pay for your stalls and entries online, for others you will just mail in a check with the other paperwork.

Once you are registered for a show, the next major consideration is going be travel papers. Having verified the health requirements for a given event, you will need to schedule a vet appointment so that the Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (CVI) bearing your veterinarian’s signature is dated within 30 days prior to the show itself as is required under AOBA rules. Any addtional tests required will vary greatly depending on which state you are traveling to: some need only the CVI itself, essentially a document issued by your veterinarian identifying the animals you will be taking with you and stating that they are in good health. While some other states will also require testing for Tuberculosis, Brucellosis, and even in some cases — VT is guilty on this one — Blue Tongue. Your vet would merely note those test results on the CVI if that is the case. Many states also require that you get an import permit number which though it may sound daunting, usually just requires a phone call from your veterinarian to that state’s animal health/state vet office telling them that you have all of your testing done and when and where you will be taking your alpacas. Often times they will simply issue you a permit number over the phone which just gets noted on the CVI as well. In addition to the state health requirements, AOBA rules also require that all animals traveling to certified shows be tested negative for Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus (BVDV) with a PCR test at some point in a given animal’s lifetime (in other words one single test and that requirement is fulfilled forever). That too will need be noted by your vet on the CVI. Though the process of getting animals screened for BVDV was rather scattered when that requirement first came into being several years ago, it’s now quite easy. The Alpaca Registry has made it so that one can, for an additional fee, have your animals screened for BVDV using the same blood card you are sending in anyway to have their DNA verified and register them with ARI. One less blood draw!

Current AOBA show rules (and most states health requirements) also require any alpacas arriving at shows to be identified with a microchip on the CVI. Often inserted beneath the skin and behind one of the ears (base of the tail is another common location), microchipping an alpaca takes practice and when in doubt is something probably best left for your veterinarian. As anyone that has shown or transported alpacas much can tell you, microchips can not only be a little tricky sometimes to put into the alpacas but also have a nasty habit of either falling out or “going dead” between the time they get put in and the time you arrive at a show. In either scenario the given animal in question would be denied entry to the show venue, which is not a happy occurrence if you have just driven 12+ hours to get there. For this reason it’s always a good idea to be sure to check microchips as you load your show animals back at home, making sure that you can find all the microchips and that they match the chip numbers on the CVI. Investing in a microchip reader will pay dividends if you manage to catch even one missing chip before you arrive at a show. This is true even for a small farm.

So now you have got your required testing done, your show animals are micro-chipped, and your vet has given you any paperwork needed to both legally cross state lines and be admitted into the show venue.  At CCNF we always pack all of our health and travel papers, copies of the relevant animal’s ARI certificates, as well as copies of the registration forms and the check we sent in along with it (or online receipt), and our microchip reader into a canvas zip folder/organizer that has simply come to be known as “The Black Book.” The Black Book is our traveling life support system, at the end of the day containing every document relevant to our participation at any given show.

Now assuming you have that all set, what else should you bring for the alpacas themselves?  For animal supplies we need to make sure that we pack enough hay and, if applicable, bedding for the amount of animals and time we will be away from home. If stalls don’t already have sod laid in them, then most times shows will provide a certain quantity of bedding for each stall you buy. In my opinion though they rarely provide enough. It’s not a bad idea to either arrange to purchase an extra bale of straw for each stall (or bag of cardboard as the case may be) there at the venue, or else plan to bring it with you from home. We always make really conservative estimates of what we’ll need for feed and bedding and then round up. Running out of hay at the show is, at best, embarrassing. For your five hypothetical show animals two hay bags, two water buckets, a rake and poop scoop, and a broom should round out the basics of what you would need to bring. We also never go to shows anymore without some good sized fans — the idea being to hang one in each animal pen — as well as a bunch of extension cords. The fans will maintain some air flow over the show animals and keep their fleeces from getting droopy and wet from sweating. You always want to pay a little bit extra (if it’s not included already) on your registration so that there will be electricity available at your stalls.

Lastly, make sure to bring an alpaca first aid kit with you which should be accessible at all times both on the road and once at the show. That kit should contain: nail clippers, a digital thermometer, lube, a bottle of Pepto (yes, that Pepto), some powdered electrolytes, at least one syringe for dosing oral meds,  and probiotic paste, as well as some gauze, vet wrap, exam gloves and some surgical scrub in the event that you need to clean, dress, and stabilize a wound until you can get it looked at by a veterinarian.  If you don’t already have it, it’s also not a bad idea to have your vet draw up a couple of syringes of Banamine to keep in the first aid kit as it can help immensely with any number of fever/inflammation scenarios, at least on a short term basis. Though you obviously want to hope for the best, it’s good to be prepared for the worst.

When you first arrive at a show the first thing you will need to do is to clear health check. At most shows you walk in with your animals (Black Book in hand!) and show the relevant people doing health check your CVI. Bring a photocopy of the CVI made ahead of time to give to them for the permanent show records (the alternative being to stand around while they go and make a copy). They will also quickly scan the animals’ microchips to confirm that they match up with the chip numbers listed on the certificate.

Next you will in most cases get ushered over to an area where the show organizers will be doing color compliance checks on all of the animals coming in to verify that they are indeed the color (as per an ARI color chart) that they were signed up as. A quick word here on the importance of keeping one’s sense of humor intact during color checks: don’t get flustered if the color card at the show doesn’t match up with what you thought your alpaca’s color was/is. The reality is that for whatever reason the ARI color charts are so wildly inconsistent that one year we had an animal show as a medium brown at one show, dark brown (his true color by consensus) at a second, and then bay black at a third show…all over the course of six weeks!  In all three cases it was impossible to disagree with the color charts the checkers and the show superintendent had on hand which for the purposes of a each individual show were that day’s color-law of the land.  In the event that some of your animals do shift to a different color class, just make sure to note the change in your records, as that will not usually appear officially for public consumption until the following morning when the all powerful, yet benevolent (hello Melissa!), show superintendent posts the official final class listings (after all color shifts have been taken into account) at a previously announced location within the show venue and produces the actual show book. Remember: it will be your responsibility to make sure that you show up for the correct class in the event that an animal has changed color classification and/or classes due to shuffling within the ranks of all the animals present. When in doubt don’t ever be shy about asking questions if you are confused about what class your alpaca got placed into. So long as you are not raising the alarm at the last minute most show superintendents, show organizers, or even other experienced exhibitors are happy to help explain things to folks who are new to the scene. After all, we’ve all been there at one time or another.

Once you have cleared health check and color check you will be given your farm’s show packet which will contain both the placard numbers for each of your animals which you will wear into the show ring, and obviously the location of your stalls within the venue. We like to put the entire packet into our Black Book or it’s equivalent for safekeeping until such time as we can sit down and calmly check everything over. We then take our alpacas to our stalls, unload our trailer as quickly as possible, park it out of the way, and then give our critters their hay and water. Once the animals are settled into the stalls we then set up the fans as well as any show display we brought with us.

Once everything is unpacked and setup, it’s time to pull the show packet out again and check everything for accuracy. Are your females definitely in female classes? Seriously, it happens. Go through the number placards you received for each animal and write a given animal’s name and class # on the back of their placards. It is standard practice now for shows to also put an animal’s class number, age, and time of fleece growth since their last shearing in months on the front of the placard as well (the side where the animal’s actual show number is). The name and class number on the back is for our organizational purposes only (judges are not supposed to ever see an animal’s name) but the animal’s age and fleece growth time on the front both provide answers to questions the judge will likely ask you in the show ring when trying to compare relative size and fleece regrowth of alpacas within a given class.

Many of the larger alpaca shows will often have as many as three show rings you will be potentially showing animals in. It’s vital to know which animals will be going into which ring with the rings usually split by sex, breed (huacaya/suri), and/or colors. Once you know the ring assignments though, you can then set things up back at your booth to make your show experience run more fluidly. The first morning of a show we will have all of our number placards in several piles, stacked face down (so that we can see the animal’s names and class numbers we wrote the day before!) in the order in which they will be going into the ring, with each pile representing a different show ring. If ring #1 is black through white huacaya females that’s one pile, ring #2 which will be black through fawn male huacayas is another pile and so forth. Having it set up that way allows you to stay on top of things and minimizes the chance of missing a class, even if it all gets a bit hectic. Though it’s by no means rocket science it makes a big difference if you find yourself with only minutes to spare between classes. Just grab a number placard, an alpaca, and go!

OK, back to the present non-hypothetical world. Obviously the organizational tips above wouldn’t be as critical with only 5 animals at a show. However the bigger your show string becomes the more one comes to appreciate having your ducks in a row so that all you have to do when the proverbial start gun goes off is follow a pre-set plan. Having said all of that though I also want to say a little something about human stress and alpaca shows. This is coming from a stress-prone person too: please don’t allow yourself to get worked up too much over anything while at a show. It is, after all, just an alpaca show. Remember that the wonderful creatures that you will be bringing with you are all domesticated prey animals and as such they are hard-wired to literally tune into such things as human emotion as a survival instinct. Needless to say that while not every calm exhibitor will have calm animals in the show ring I can almost guarantee you that folks that walk into the ring feeling on edge will have an alpaca on the end of their lead line that reflects those emotions in one way or another and very rarely is that a positive thing.  Put your best foot forward and represent your breeding program with pride. Do that and whether you win a ribbon or not people will in the long run be left with a positive impression, which is ultimately what showing alpacas is all about.