Our young Kahuna son, SBS Kahuna’s Bahati received his first Male White Color championship last weekend at the OABA show in Springfield Ohio. Bahati won the juvenile class (he is 11 1/2 months old) and then beat the yearling winner, SBS Asante, in the Championship. Asante got the Reserve.

Other winners were Piper in the Fawn class, Scarlet in the Dark and  Bryn in the light (all females). Bryn and Scarlet also received Championships.

Overall, it was a great weekend for Sweetbriar. Now that the sun is finally out and no more shows for a while, they are all rolling in our pastures.

On September 17th the first cria out of our Accoyo Crown Royale replacement, SBS Crown Royale’s Accoyo Kenai, arrived, checking in at 20 pounds. He is very solid with excellent luster and coverage. Just like his Dad and Grand Dad, this little boy looks great to us. We are very happy. The proud Mom is Shasta who has had 11 cria for Sweetbriar. I think the best are yet to come from Kenai.

On October 1st, we will be at the Suri Spectacular Auction in Cannon Falls, MN hosted by BBF Alpacas. Please contact Jim at 440-834-8848 or 440-785-3610 (cell) for details on Lots # 6, Laurelyn, and # 32, Laycee. Both of these girls are Brown , 1 is bred to SBS Avett and the other is ready to show this Fall.

Last weekend, Jim attended the annual Suri Symposium held in Chicago instead of Estes Park, Co. The Symposium was a hugh success with approx. 90 attendies. There were all day clinics on Thursday with a classification clinic held at Leraso Farms followed by a cook out hosted by Ray and Maria Rodriquez. With beautiful weather, this got the symposium off to a flying start. Friday and Saturday were filled with lectures by notables such as Drs. Tibary and Walker. President Dick Waker gave talks on the new Suri Herd Improvemnt Program (SHIP) as well as catching us up on the long range plan. The SNPDC and Youth program were also presented.

Late on Saturday the 2 fleece Judges presented their awards. 256 high quality fleeces were judged with incredible competition in the whites. All champions received ribbons and Judy Steel pottery. Sweetbriar did very well with Santana winning the brown championship and Ashe winning the white females and getting second overall (male and female). Both Ashe and Santana got 18 points on luster. Crown Royale was a close second in the Get of Sire competition.

Next came the auction where 5 donated Herdsires were auctioned off. Close to 19,000 was raised.  All in all it was an event well worth attending. Pictured is Santana.

3 weeks ago, Shiraz produced the first cria out of our former Champion Multi, SBS JustinFun. Spirit is a very spirited little girl checking in at 25 pounds and growing to 40 pounds in the 3 weeks. She only knows one speed and that is fast forward.  Very exciting. And congratulations to Justin’s owner, Anita Marlin.

On Friday, May 13th, Jim and Cindy headed off to Columbus for the annual Buckeye show. This show is always a big hit with Ohio alpaca farms as it is a fund raiser for ICI and is run by Mary Reed. Sod in the stalls is a big plus.

Once again, we did very well with 3 Championships:  Bryn was the fawn female champ, Rocket was the light male champion, and Kingsley was the white male champion. Rocket went onto win the Male Judges Choice award. Glynis (fawn juvenilefemale) and Scarlet ( brown juvenile female) both got Reserve Championships. Piper was first in her dark fawn class and Narissa was first as the youngest in the older division in white juvenile females. None of the 10 we showed got lower than 2nd place.

Ashe and Asante were 1st in Produce of Dam (Arizona Sage) and most exciting was that Crown Royale won Get of Sire in a very competitive class. Cindy ran  the CR Get with Rocket, Kingsley and Ashe while Jim was showing in the Calvin Get. Have you ever seen the owner of the Get not present in his own Get but showing in another. Oh well!!

Probably the toughest part of the weekend was watching our 4 Yearlings (Ashe, Kingsley, Rocket, and Santana) get shorn. Over the period of Fall 2010 and Spring 2011 shows this group received a total of 24 First places, 22 Championships or Reserves, and 2 Judges Choice awards. What a record.

Pictured is Crown Princess Ashe after shearing. There were several people gathered around to watch her get shorn. Now it is time for her to get bred.

We are so excited. The first Twist cria has arrived.  If you remember Accoyo Crown Royale’s only Grey offspring, SBS Twist’N Shout. Well his first offspring was just born  5 days ago at Sweetbriar. We were all wondering what he could produce. Twist with 15 Blues and 8 Championships was well known. But the proof is in the pudding. His first cria out of our Gypsy is fantastic. Griffin has incredible luster, great little locks, and very good density for such a little boy. Jim has already stated that he will make our show string next year, somethinghe rarely ever says at this early stage. Twist is owned by Bob and Peggy Procter of Funny Farm Alpacas in Florida.  We think they will be very happy with the first “Twist” offspring.

Gini and Jim left on Tuesday April 26th for the drive to Denver and our first time at the Great Western Alpaca Show. The idea was to get to Denver by the 10 am check in time on Thursday to beat the crowd. Well there were 40 to 50 trailers ahead of us at 10:30.  So much for that great idea.

The 7 Suris we took all got ribbons in very competitive classes. Almost 300 Suris were present. The highlights were Santana winning another Brown Male Color Championship and Ashe getting her 7th Championship (white females). Rocket was 2nd and Reserve Beige Champion and Glynis got another 1st place in fawn females. The show was extremely well run by the Alpaca Breeders of the Rockies. We were very pleased with our first GWAS experience.

However, the trip home was another story. Leaving Denver at 2:30 pm after the Judges Choice we drove for about 7 hours, going home on Int. 70 instead of 80 (possible snow in NE). The next day, Monday May 2nd was awful. 18 hours through Kansas, Missouri, and Indiana, and finally back to Ohio. Heavy rain (what’s new) and terrible roads made for a long day.  But alll in all, it was a great trip.

Last weekend Jim traveled to Grand Island NE. for the 2011 Alpaca Futurity.  Ashe traveled with friends while Jim flew. The weather was cold and awful with snow keeping many West coast breeders from getting in on time.

On Monday our Crown Royale daughter out of Arizona Sage keep her record alive with the White Reserve Color Championship.  We are thrilled.

Now we are off to Denver for our first ever experience at GWAS. Long drive but hopefully it will be worth it. And Gini is going with Jim

Last weekend, April 9-10,2011, Sweetbriar once again attended the Indiana Alpaca Invitational in Ft. Wayne, IN.  This was our 4th year attending this excellent show hosted by Bill and Mary Pearce.  I remember our first year when we won the Champion and Reserve Champion White Female competition. Well this year was even better. Jim and Cindy took 9 Suris and were awarded 8 first places, 4 Championships and 2 Reserve Championships and the Male Judges Choice. What was most fun was the fact that 6 of the 9 were young juveniles in their first show.  8 month old Bryn (Beige) and Glynis (Fawn) were 2 of the Champions while Scarlet got a Reserve.  Santana continued his winning ways with another Reserve and Crown Princess Ashe got her 5 straight Championship. She is on pace to beat her Mother’s record (Arizona Sage).  SBS Rocket (Crown Royale son) was first in the Beige class, Champion, and Judges Choice male.  This was his 3rd straight Championship. And finally, Ashe and Asante won Produce of Dam (Arizona Sage).

It was a long weekend but very worthwhile. The picture pretty well sums up how busy Jim was last weekend.

Gini and Jim returned recently from a very successful trip to Florida and North Carolina. At the FABA show our 3 boys and 2  girls took the show ring by storm. Championships were won by Crown Princess Ashe (pictured) who is chasing after her mother’s (Arizona Sage) record of 7 Championships in a row. Santana (Brown) Rocket (Beige) and Kingsley (White) also took Championships in the Male ring. Another Accoyo Crown Royale sweep, winning both the White male and female Suri classes.

At CABO, outside of Charlotte, the winning continued the next weekend with Ashe once again getting the White Female Championship and Rocket winning another Championship with both Santana and Kingsley getting Reserves.  CABO was once again very well run with great competition in all classes. And no snow in NC this year.

Leaving North Carolina in mid afternoon got us back to the farm at about 1:30 am Monday morning just before a big ice storm hit and knocked out the power for the next day. I always feel lucky to get out and back into Ohio at this time of year without bad weather. Will this winter ever end?