What about us? Don't we get to go to the Ricoh?

Sorry dudes, we can't take you all. You may have won rosettes at the British Alpaca Society National but this is a different ball game and entries aren't cheap.

In a Futurity it's the nominated sires who are actually competing through their offspring. The sire with the the most winning points achieved through the competition of his progeny  wins the Futurity. Technically if you have a sire with a stack of offspring and your sire happens to pick up the dams colour, and produces elite alpacas and they do well in every class and achieve champions in something you are In with a chance. Not a big ask, huh?  At least I think that's how it works ...

LAVENDER PARK TULLEY who is standing at TOFT is one of the sires and all our entries for the Futurity are his offspring in as many colours and age groups as we can muster. Does he have a chance? It all depends on who is standing next to his kids...hey, that's show business!

TOFT Showteam all shedded up and ready for the Ricoh....

Shedded all the TOFT Alpaca Showteam yesterday ready to go to the Ricih arena tonight for the British Alpaca Futurity on Friday and Saturday. These Elite boys and girls were all taken out of their quarantine paddocks and settled in the dry.  After the last few weeks of dry weather we thought it best not to take any chances with these elite boys and girls of the TOFT Showteam. We want these elite alpacas to look their best in the spotlight over the next two days.

Alpaca fibre is a dry fibre and cannot be judged wet. As it is a dry fibre without lanolin it also can absorb over 20% of its weight in water if left in damp conditions ruining the handle and making the fleece appear coarser thn it truly is. The finer and more Elite the alpaca and it's fibre the more it react to the damp. 

Given our UK weather this probably means that UK alpacas are very rarely judged at ther driest and hence finest, but each year we try. These lot won't be totally dry for the judges at the British Alpaca Futurity but they will be close thanks to a little foresight and a nice dry shed. Hey ho and a showing we will go!

TOFT Show team wanting out of quarantine to go to the BrItish Alpaca Futurity at the Ricoh, roll on. Thursday

The TOFT Show team are all ready to go again at the Ricoh Arena Coventry this weekend at the British Alpaca Futurity. Will they do as fantastically well as at the British Alpaca Society National Show a couple of weeks ago? Who knows . Another day another judge anything can happen. If one knew the beforehand what the outcome would be there wouldn't be a point to going would there? Here's wishing everyone who attends a great weekend and much success- including ourselves. 

Well let's get real it is a competition after all !