The Swedish Alpaca Society held its first National Alpaca Show at a riding arena in the town of Hoerby in the very southern part of Sweden on March 8. Eighty three alpacas were entered for the show out of a population of between 350 and 500 animals so to have 83 of them enter the show felt great.

The show was judged by colour classes and we had the great joy of having Nick Harrington-Smith judge our first National Show. Sweden is at the very beginning of ?alpaca history? and the show was as much an educational opportunity as well as a competition and both exhibitors and spectators enjoyed the entertaining and experienced oral reasoning given. From what we hear most exhibitors find their awareness, when it comes to evaluating their alpacas, has taken a real step forward. Both handlers and alpacas being beginners when it comes to showing it was amazing how well behaved most alpacas were. We did skip the normal dress code. Sweden in early March could have given us a day with many degrees below zero so the dress code was to keep warm and we did have some worries that a British gentleman would not realise how cold it could get. We did have extra clothes for him ?backstage? just in case.
There had been plenty of ?marketing? the show beforehand and we counted almost 1000 people coming to see alpacas be judged.

Nick Harrington-Smith briefly summarised his impressions of the Swedish alpacas and concluded that he had seen a number of really nice animals and especially mentioned that he was glad to have seen a lot of sound conformation and good bone structure. He left us inspired to take new steps and to learn a lot more and we do hope to have him back in the future to monitor our progress.

Results.

Champion Grey Female Österlen Alpackas Paucara
Champion Grey Male Arinal of Maya Alpacka

Champion Black Female Nybo Taffy
Champion Black Male Kururu, Bettina Persson

Champion Brown Female Coca of Nybo Alpacka
Champion Brown Male Nybo Fernando

Champion Fawn Female Kusipacha Livia Milagros
Champion Fawn Male Spring Farm Enzo (Kusipacha Alpacas)

Champion White Female Maya of Kusipacha
Champion White Male Kusipacha Pachacamac

Best Phenotype Kusipacha Pachacamac

Supreme Champion Maya of Kusipacha