Young handlers at the BAS National Show 2014

In a welcome break for the judging of alpacas the young handler competition was held on the Saturday lunch hour with two separate classes, one for the young uns 3-7 and another for the older handlers 8-15. 

Shirley ran the younger class and Tim Hey from Inca Alpacas the older one. 

It was refreshing to see that all of the entrants knew their way around alpacas. All competitors walked and handled with confidence and with very little prompting even the youngest managed to answer intelligent questions on alpacas. Sometimes it's the cute factor which governs the winners and I must admit it was nice to see several first prizes handed out to the under 7's but the older handlers had to strut their stuff in style and be knowledgable about alpacas and were placed accordingly. The winner in the older group was Chloe Edwards from Mulberry Alpacas.

A lovely diversion and an important one we must encourage every opportunity to get the younger generations involved in our industry and much thanks Tim and Shirley for making it enjoyable for all.