As luck would have it, Kelley took O'Ryan into the ring for her first ever show and guess what? We won first place in a large class of fawn yearlings! We started raising alpacas only 2 years ago so this was quite a pleasant surprise. To this point, it has truly been a team effort. If you are considering raising/showing alpacas, I'd strongly recommend you get to know the breeders you are buying you foundation stock from and get involved in your local alpaca community. There are many people out there with years of experience and this community is very willing and eager to help you succeed. We teamed up with April and Richard Angotti of of Benvenuti Alpacas (www.benvenutifarm.com) to get started with nice moms. Our breedbacks were carefully planned and we were able to stay focused in the Snowmass (www.snowmassalpacas.com) line. The Angotti's have some really nice Herdsires including one (Giacomo) who took 2nd at the Nationals this year. We went with his brother (Riccardo) who also has been in the ribbons at every show. Anyhow, I can't tell how rewarding it was to enter our first show, with our first Alpaca and come home with a blue ribbon in a very stong color class!
