“…All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

I am not a fan of back to back show weekends. In fact, I am really more whatever the opposite of a fan is. Though a condensed spring show season such as the two or three event April schedule we have followed for the better part of the past 18 years (usually choosing between NAAS/NAE, Nationals, Futurity, and Mapaca), followed a couple of weeks later by shearing at least causes it all to go by fast – ripping the the proverbial band-aid off, the combined stresses on both the animals and the humans that care for them when those events are separated by less than 5 days and — and in this year’s case 20 hours of drive time each way — do unquestionably take their toll. As an aside, wouldn’t it be kind of great if I could switch stress responses while on the road with our alpacas, and they gained weight, while I lost it? Something to work on but I digress…

The funny thing about the 2018 Futurity show is that we — and in this one very rare case (please note for posterity) “we” really means “I” as the primary truck and trailer driver — had a totally legitimate reason to forgo this year’s show in Kansas City. Two years ago we had done just that, spending our kids’ yearly April vacation with our then high school junior, Sam, making college tours and helping him to get a handle on where he might like to go for flight school. Celebrity Sales had done it again in 2018, giving us the perfect cover if we wanted to take a pass. They had scheduled their show so that check-in day for those of us mental enough to show up with two trailers full of animals (more on that in a minute) would be on Thursday 4/12, which meant that less than 96 hours after leaving the NAAS/NAE, we would then be unloading at the Futurity. We saw that schedule way back in early winter, knew that we again had a high school junior who needed to make school visits, AND that Max’s vacation again fell the week after the Futurity. We had a totally legitimate out and “we” chose not to take it. J.K. Rowling fans should now picture Dobby slamming his own head against the wall, because at least on set-up/check-in day in KC, it felt kind of like that.

As it turned out, the final decision we made was that with the help of of our dear friends, Dave Serino (who drove our 2nd truck and trailer) and Sue Monat (who flew into KC with the rest of the crew on the Saturday of the Futurity Sale so that Maxy didn’t have to miss any school prior to the show), we would in fact tackle attending the Futurity in full force, though only with the caveat that Jen and Max would then hit the College World Tour immediately on Tuesday after the show, while Dave and I journeyed back home to the farm with the four-legged show team. I generally love calm but apparently also suffer from a fatal attraction to craziness too. And early April was going to be crazy by design with the only question hanging in the air being whether the price we would pay both literally and figuratively for putting both ourselves and our alpacas through that ringer would be worth it? Though the jury is still out, early returns say that it was…

Now in the abstract at least, Dave and I were happy to take on the additional workload as the advanced crew. After all, last year we had come with only one animal less. What we hadn’t taken into account was the difference a third person had made when dealing with setup for a show team of 40+ critters. This year when we pulled into the American Royal Center in Kansas City late Thursday morning, temperatures were already in the low 70s and steadily rising and things started to get a little dicey for the very full-fleeced 44-member show team. Even with a generator and fans running on both trailers, we were not happy with the airflow onboard and I don’t think that in 19 years of showing alpacas, that we have ever hustled so hard to get show mats and bedding down, so that we could get the animals safely off of the trailers and into the air conditioned comfort of the show arena. We knew it had been a long day of set-up that evening when we were waving to the security guard as we finally headed out — sweaty, filthy, and exhausted — to our hotel around 6:30. All of the animals were happily in their pens though with plenty of space to stretch out, hay, fresh water, and fans. As it turned out, in our fervor to get the team unloaded, we had worked straight through lunch and were so hungry by the time we finished, that 90 minutes later, showered, shaved — and smelling decidedly better — we giddily binged on Mexican food and a pitcher of Margaritas. Was that really healthy? Probably not, especially when dehydrated…but it sure was fun. Dave and I and the animals in our care had made it out to KC unscathed, and a mini-celebration was in order!

Our 4-legged show team for the Futurity was undeniably Elixir-centric — dance with the one that brought you — though there was a decent smattering of representation from the rest of the CCNF Stud Barn as well: Snowmass Matrix Majesty, Spirit Wind’s Maestro, CCNF Defiance, MFI & KVR’s Mint Mo Money, CCNF Magistrate, and last but certainly not least, Elixir’s younger maternal brother, CCNF Centurion. Also very present though not immediately obvious unless folks dug a bit deeper into the pedigrees of this year’s show string, was the late, great Golden Sovereign. Golden Sovereign (Snowmass Legacy Gold x PPeruvian Jesusa) was most known for being one half of the original power sibling pair here at CCNF (there’s a narrative forming here, bare with me) along with his full sister, Magdalena, who was likewise represented on our team this year by her son, Magnar and granddaughter, Midnatsol.

It was Golden Sovereign’s daughter, CCNF Moonlight, who was directly responsible for 6 different animals on our Futurity show string: CCNF Moonshine, CCNF Clair de Lune, CCNF Oriflamme, CCNF Moonraker, CCNF Valyria, and CCNF Sovereign-Legacy. Those last two are the so-called wonder twins (a potential next generation power “sibling” pair in their own right) in the photo above, both Elixir kids out of two full sisters, Moonlight’s older Majesty daughters, Moonbeam and Luna. Moonraker and Clair de Lune, BTW, are likewise the full siblings of those dams. The oldest maternal sister of that full-sibling foursome, CCNF La Vie en Rose (shout out to OG Ringo!), was herself bred to Elixir in 2015 and produced Oriflamme (2017 Futurity JC female, forced to slum this year with RC light). So maybe, just maybe that maternal line has a little juice in it…or it could all just be a giant fluke, right? Yeah, probably not. Sovereign-Legacy for his part — though still less than a year of age — along with his older, white paternal brother, Bataclan (RC white male at the Futurity this time around with a big old tip o’ the hat to our colleagues at Irish Meadows), represent the 2nd and 3rd Elixir sons born here that will ultimately start to regularly steal breeding females from their sire. Bataclan will hopefully be getting down to work here in about a month’s time, while baby Sovereign will have to wait until 2019. It’s all good. We feel like seeing that next generation take shape is what really feeds the proverbial fire here, and it’s an exciting time trying to plan and think about where we go next. As always, we shall see…

Our show results from Kansas City rather speak for themselves and above all for what Elixir has meant to this breeding program both since his birth in 2011, and more importantly since his first kids started hitting the ground in 2014. In fact, this also marked the first year that he had grand-babies on our show team as well, though if Dreadnought, Bataclan, and Sovereign-Legacy have anything to say about the matter, 2018 marks just the beginning of that particular story line.

All of that said, we know as well as anyone through prior experience not to take any of these show results for granted — and lest anyone forget, that’s all they are: show results — and that the world is filled with incredible alpacas. We are always excited to see what the next developmental step is whether that animal is born on our farm or elsewhere. Regardless, it is vitally important for the continued development and health of our industry that that step be made, and because of that belief: we press on. Though first, the small matter of shearing some 240 alpacas…:-)

Cas-Cad-Nac Farm LLC – Championships & 1st Place Finishes, The Futurity Show, Kansas City, MO

CCNF Sovereign-Legacy (CCNF Luna Majesty x CCNF Elixir) – Judges’ Choice Huacaya Male

CCNF Valyria (CCNF Moonbeam x CCNF Elixir) – Judges’ Choice Huacaya Female

CCNF Sovereign-Legacy (CCNF Luna Majesty x CCNF Elixir) – Champion Fawn Huacaya Male

CCNF Lyanna (CCNF Dorianna x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) – Champion Fawn Huacaya Female

CCNF Idris (CCNF Mechlin x CCNF Centurion) – Champion Light Huacaya Male

CCNF Amalthea (CCNF Capella x CCNF Elixir) – Champion Light Huacaya Female

CCNF Valyria (CCNF Moonbeam x CCNF Elixir) – Champion White Huacaya Female

CCNF Angiolo (CCNF Bellisima x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) – Best Bred & Owned Huacaya Male

CCNF En Vogue (FRE Elixir’s Fashionably Late x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) – Best Bred & Owned Huacaya Female

CCNF Midnatsol (CCNF Lilah x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) – Reserve Champion Brown Huacaya Female

CCNF Dreadnought (CCNF Prima Majesty x CCNF Elixir) – Reserve Champion Fawn Huacaya Male

CCNF Tristan (Chatham Lancaster’s La Boheme x CCNF Elixir) – Reserve Champion Light Huacaya Male

CCNF Oriflamme (CCNF La Vie en Rose x CCNF Elixir) – Reserve Champion Light Huacaya Female

CCNF Bataclan (CCNF Daliance x CCNF Elixir) – Reserve Champion White Huacaya Male

CCNF Rainbow Pulse (CCNF Couture x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) – Reserve Champion White Huacaya Female

Snowmass Matrix Majesty (CCNF Dark Storm, CCNF Lyanna, CCNF Sage) – 1st Place, Get of Sire (Dark)

CCNF Elixir (CCNF Amalthea, CCNF Bataclan, CCNF Valyria) – 1st Place, Get of Sire (Light)

CCNF Moonlight (CCNF Claire de Lune, CCNF Moonraker) – 1st Place, Produce of Dam (Dark)

CCNF Mechlin (CCNF Heimdall, CCNF Idris) – 1st Place, Produce of Dam (Light)

CCNF Sage (CCNF Jasmine x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) – 1st Place, Light Brown Juvenile Males

CCNF Sovereign-Legacy (CCNF Luna Majesty x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, Dark Fawn Juvenile Males

CCNF Lyanna (CCNF Dorianna x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) – 1st Place, Dark Fawn Juvenile Females

CCNF Dark Storm (CCNF Love Dove x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) – 1st Place, Medium Fawn Juvenile Males

CCNF Claire de Lune (CCNF Moonlight x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) – 1st Place, Medium Fawn Yearling Females

CCNF Dreadnought (CCNF Prima Majesty x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, Fawn 2+ Year Old Males

CCNF Lucretia (Delicate Lace x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, Light Fawn Juvenile Females

CCNF Magnar (CCNF Magdalena x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, Light Fawn Yearling Males

CCNF Isola (CCNF Ascension x CCNF Defiance) – 1st Place, Light Fawn Yearling Females

CCNF Idris (CCNF Mechlin x CCNF Centurion) – 1st Place, Beige Juvenile Males

CCNF Amalthea (CCNF Capella x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, Beige Juvenile Females

CCNF Tristan (Chatham Lancaster’s La Boheme x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, Beige Yearling Males

CCNF Oriflamme (CCNF La Vie en Rose x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, Beige Yearling Females

CCNF True Infatuation (Truly Scrumptious x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, White Juvenile Males

CCNF Valyria (CCNF Moonbeam x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, White Juvenile Females

CCNF Rainbow Pulse (CCNF Couture x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) – 1st Place, White Yearling Females

CCNF Nyaden (CCNF Nymph x CCNF Centurion) – 1st Place, Patterned Juvenile Males

CCNF En Vogue (FRE Elixir’s Fashionably Late x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) – 1st Place, Bred & Owned Dark Juvenile Females

CCNF When Doves Cry (TGF Morning Dove x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) – 1st Place, Bred & Owned Light Juvenile Females

CCNF Angiolo (CCNF Bellisima x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) – 1st Place, Bred & Owned Light Yearling Males

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