Long Meg’s Diary

 

We are really excited because we are going to a SHOW!!!

Tenbury Wells and I are off to the North Somerset Show on 7th May and we’re going to put our best feet forward.  Tenbury Wells will be in the one – two year old class and I’m in the two and over class, because my second birthday is on 5th May – happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me-ee, happy birthday to me.

Pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant, pant

I’m VERY excited.

What is a show anyway?

Well, I had to ask the boys who know about these things, and apparently, what happens is we go along with our people who we coax around a ‘ring’ whilst a senior person looks closely at us.  We are to be ‘judged’ whatever that is.  Well, very exciting anyway.

Since the two-legs told us yesterday we’ve been running round the yard in great excitement.  When we’re back, we’ll have to tell you ALL about it.

 

 

Long Meg’s Diary – 10-05-07

 

SO, let me tell you all about the North Somerset Show.  I’m still very excited.

The two legs persuaded Tenbury Wells and me to spend the night before the show in the barn and yard so they could groom us and load us into the llama trailer easily the next morning.  But it rained overnight and so we weren’t groomed – ha ha ha.  We were haltered and stepped smartly into the trailer and off we went.

The showground is about an hour and a half away, and when we got there, the back of the trailer was opened and we stepped out and found ourselves in a field full of llamas.  Fantastic!  We walked into our own Old King Street Farm llama pen and had a look at the parade ring.

Our people went and talked to some other people that some nice looking llamas had brought along, and Tenbury Wells and I had a chat with some animals we’d never seen before – alpacas.  They are really a smaller version of llamas.  Or llamas are a larger version of alpacas.  They are not so tall as us, and have shorter faces and ears.

Meanwhile there was lots going on in the show, what with a fairground, and stalls and lots of animals, and just over the way we could see some pigs being ‘judged’.  This gave us an idea of what would happen when we came to be looked at by a senior person who knows about these things.

There were three classes for male llamas first, and we saw big rosettes being given to the best llamas.  It’s a bit of an insult really – a llama beauty show if you ask me.

Then it was time for Tenbury Wells to go into the ring.  She was a bit nervous, but she walked round well with our male person and the judge was pleased to award her a big blue rosette for first place which was very nice indeed.  Then I went in the ring with a bunch of other older females and walked around rather well with our female person, showing her the way.  I had to walk in a circle (easy), in a straight line up the ring and back again (dead easy), and show my mouth to the judge (not quite so easy).  I must have done something right as I came second and got a lovely big red rosette.  Llama beauty shows aren’t so bad.  Hurrah for us!

Our people hadn’t told us, but there was a funny thing called an obstacle race to take part in.  Gosh, this was difficult.  We had to weave through some poles, over a bridge, under a couple of low wires, step through some rubber car tyres, over a couple of jumps, pass by some flapping bags on a wire, and past a person making a strange noise with a thing that rattled, through some water, and over a rug.  Strange isn’t the word for it.  Well the people didn’t seem to have much idea what to do and kept on messing up, so only Tenbury Wells (who I was very proud of) and two alpacas managed to go around the course.  Tenbury Wells was struggling with the low wire, but she worked out what she need to do was kush (that’s lie down in llama-speak) and shuffle forward on her haunches.  Brilliant!

Back in the pen, we proudly displayed all our rosettes, and let lots of strange people come and look at us.  This was a chance for us to relax.  Meanwhile our people yakked on about llamas this and llamas that and people seemed very pleased to look at us.  There was lots of talk about llama treks, llama fibre, llamas as field pets and as livestock guardians.  We’ve heard this all before, and it had been a tiring day, so we took the chance to lie down for a bit

After a time we walked back to our trailer and we were driven home to Herefordshire, where we were very happy to see the males who were even more pleased to see us.  We had been told that going to a show would really open our eyes to the big world, and that it’s a great thing to do.  It’s absolutely true.  We had a lovely day out and can’t wait to go again

 

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