Alpaca Shows

One of the highlights of owning alpacas is the opportunity to show them. There are hundreds of shows across the country where you can show your alpacas and their fleece. Two of the best are celebrated right here in Virginia each year.

The first and one of the earliest each year is the Virginia Classic Llama and Alpaca show held for the past several years at the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington, VA. The show is usually held in early March which can mean some cold and sometimes unpredictable weather. This year was to be their twenty-first annual show but they had to cancel the show at the very last minute due to the nasty storm that hit Virginia late last week. It looks like they will probably re-schedule the show but no one is sure right now. We have attended and shown animals at this show and it is one of the best run shows around. The show is a Level II alpaca show. This means that you can expect somewhere between 100 and 299 animals being shown. As indicated by the name it is a joint Llama and Alpaca show.  So not only will there be a couple hundred alpacas attending but you also get to see and experience several hundred Llamas.

The other show we have attended and shown alpacas at is the annual VAOBA Alpaca EXPO. VAOBA is the acronym for the Virginia Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association. VAOBA was formed in 2005 to assist the hundreds of Alpaca farms in the state of Virginia with marketing and education about all things alpaca. They held their ninth annual show in December 2014 at a new location, The Meadow Event Park in Doswell, VA. We showed two of our yearling males and came away with several ribbons for fleece and halter classes.

Winning ribbons isn’t the only benefit you derive from showing your animals. We were excited and happy to have come away with some ribbons. But we got so much more out of the show just observing the judging, listening to the judge’s comments after each class, meeting and talking with other alpaca owners and breeders, and attending some of the seminars that are available. It’s really amazing what you can learn from one of these shows. For anyone considering owning and raising alpacas I would emphatically recommend that they attend at least one alpaca show before diving in and starting your farm. Attendance at almost every Alpaca show is free to the general public. In addition to meeting Alpaca owners and farmers you can also meet many alpaca product vendors, such as spinners, knitters, and farm product vendors. All of them will be more than happy to answer any and all of your questions. And I suggest you ask a lot of questions. An alpaca show brings together hundreds of people with a vast range of experience. Most of them have had the opportunity of learning by doing so they can relate the mistakes and errors they made before you go out and make them yourself.

Showing alpacas can be a fairly expensive proposition. In addition to the entry fee (Halter Fee) there are generally fees for stalls and fees to enter the fleece also. Besides the show fees you will probably incur expenses for vet fees for providing a CVI (Certificate of Veterinary Inspection) health certificate, hay and feed, transportation, motel/hotel, dining out, and assorted costs you would incur on any trip. The cost for a trailer to haul alpacas in is something you will have to consider before you even begin to show. Some folks will tell you that you can transport an alpaca in a utility van or regular passenger van. And I’ve actually met folks that did that. But it was usually a situation where they absolutely had to move the animal from point A to point B and had no other means of moving them. You would be hard pressed to bring a couple of Alpacas along with all their feed and tack to a show in a Dodge or Chrysler Town & Country passenger van.