Start the Show Season!

Showing With Kidding season in the rear view mirror, we move into the next of the three dairy goat seasons – show season. Or, the reward for the years hard work. The first show of the season started with the Plymouth DGA show. This is such a fun show because it is only an hour away. Not only do we get to go up the day of, we get to come home at a reasonable time as well. Plus, for the last few years Jenn and I have been the ring stewards. This is probably my favorite job because you get the best seat in the house and people have to actually listen to you. This year the show was particularly fun because we brought some of our first year 4Hers with us. This was their first exposure to a goat show and I really think they enjoyed themselves. Not only did they get to show our goats, they helped lots of other breeders show their as well. Nothing like handling national show winning quality animals to get you excited about goats! To top it all off we were able to put a dry leg on my favorite of Jenn’s kids this year – Arizona. The way it works in the dairy goat shows, in case anyone doesn’t know, is that to become a permanent champion and have the “CH” designation on the goats papers you need to acquire 3 grand champion wins (we call them legs). All of the wins must be over 10 animals and at least 2 of the wins need to be when the goat is milking. The 3rd win can occur when the goat is still a kid or dry yearling. Most of the time this is the first win and it lets you know just how nice the kid is because she already has her first leg. There are a few other clauses and variations but really this is a huge step for Arizona. I can’t wait to see that happens in the next few years after she kids. The second show for our herd was a buck show where both Arabica and Brazil went. I was judging out in Idaho so I will have to let someone else write about this one. The next weekend (we have a crazy life) we went to our third show. The was a new show that we had not been to before. It was up in Red Bluff and it was holding the Togg specialty this year which was the deciding factor to go up instead of the show in Paso Robles where we have gone before. Not nearly as much fun as Plymouth but enjoyable in its own right. Zinfandel has held her own in both of the last 2 shows. As a yearling milker she is not really expected to beat the older does, but really she has something special and I really hope to see her bloom in the next few years. The star of this show was Ysis my grade Saanen/Lamancha 2 year old. Sat she came in 3rd and 2nd behind UC Davis’ beautiful does. We were not planning to stay for Sunday but we decided to go for it just for her at the last minute. In the first ring she took 1st in her class over a large class of 8 other does and then took RGCH to a 4yr old! I was really excited. In the second class she I employed all my showing magic and nearly cried when she was awarded GCH! My first unrestricted milking leg ever!!! I will write about the jr show later, because today it is all about her. The thrill of standing in the BIS line-up with a 9 yr old saanen who I admire greatly and Kastdemur’s Make7upYours who Arabica is 2x bred on was just a moment for the books. So exciting!!!! and what is more is we still have more shows to go this season. Here is to sleepless weekends and tired weeks for the thrill of it all!!