What a fabulous East of England Alpaca Show!

Now that everything is packed away for another year, it is time to reflect on a wonderful weekend of showing and catching up with friends.

Early on the morning of Saturday 8th October, a valiant team of Eastern Alpaca Group volunteers were beginning to lay the ground work for this year’s East of England Alpaca Show. We were back at Beechwood Equestrian Centre near Chelmsford and staring at the blank canvas of a beautiful indoor arena. At a pretty rapid pace this year, membrane was laid, pens set out, a show ring assembled and metres and metres of electrical cable woven around the building. All in time to welcome the first alpaca arrivals at 3pm.

With the benefit of distance now, I am sure that the Committee won’t mind me mentioning that two days earlier the show had been on the verge of cancellation due to an issue with hurdle delivery. As anyone who has ever participated in, or attended, a halter show will know hurdles are a vital component! Planning the show is a year round task with many obstacles along the way. As ever show organiser, Harley Laver, managed to get everyone and everything in the right place at the right time. Hurdles were delivered with the minimum of fuss in the end, on the day that we needed them, and in the right place. As ever team work and persistence were key!

A highlight of the Saturday was the evening get together for a meal and a catch up. This year we were hosted by the cafe at Beechwood Equestrian Centre and EAG committee member, Sandra Justice, had prepared a challenging quiz to get our brains going. I still haven’t quite got over losing by one point. It was a tightly fought contest!

We were delighted to be able to invite the public back this year and it was lovely to see so many people welcomed through the doors during the show day on Sunday. Lots of visitors sat for a long time and watched the activity in the show ring. Our judge, Jay Holland, provided lots of feedback to exhibitors and this was also appreciated by the visiting public as they learnt about alpacas and their beautiful fibre. Garry Naish, our Ring Steward, ensured that everything ran smoothly.

EAG were also very excited to be live streaming the show for the first time. We know that lots of people were watching from home and a link to the recording can be found here.

As ever show day flew by in a whirlwind of judging and catching up with friends and very soon we were ready to assemble in the ring to award Supreme Champion sashes, Best of British, Judge’s Choice and Best EAG member. Once the congratulations had been given and the alpacas headed for home, the team began the task of returning Beechwood to a pristine indoor arena.

We would like to take the opportunity to thank all of the Committee members, supporters and volunteers that worked tirelessly behind the scenes and over the weekend of the show to ensure that it was a huge success. Also the many sponsors who supported the show. In particular our live stream, sponsor Artwork Alpacas, our gold sponsor Pinnacle Alpacas and silver sponsors Chinchero Alpacas and Pemberley Alpacas. We really couldn’t do it without you all.

We look forward to 2023 and hope that you will join us!