CCNF at the 2022 Futurity: To Kansas City, With Love

That was fun. Well, parts of it anyways. Look, we make no bones about the fact that we were intent on returning to the Futurity Show in Kansas City, MO, for the first time since 2019 (aka, the before Covid times), specifically to pursue the Large Breeder of the Year honors, as we have done on several previous occasions. This time around, we were getting to show in KC with some of our best friends from our years in the alpaca business along for the ride, which was a huge bonus. It meant that regardless of any actual show results, we were at least going to get the chance to spend the better part of a week with some of our favorite peeps. After the traumas of the past several years, those are the things that we have come to value even more so. Dave Serino took on the responsibility of driving one of our trucks and trailers from Vermont (more on that, um, below), giving up eight days of his life to support the team and then Bari Padgett, Sue Monat, Ryen and Isabella Munro, and Dell Rodman all flew in to join the crazy starting on Friday. The two trucks and trailers brought a team that was 47 animals deep, including one lovely young male of Dell’s (Colonial Arcani, CCNF Dorianna x CCNF Magnar) and our three females we had consigned to the Saturday Futurity auction. We were a legitimate host unto ourselves: care and feeding of a small army indeed. As the person tasked with the logistics of team management, never have I been more grateful for apps like Resy, OpenTable, and Uber.

There is a powerful argument that perhaps some people never learn, as I’m guessing anecdotally that the next largest show team at the Futurity had no more than 20ish animals if that? Or we missed a memo somewhere along the line? Though with the announcement of the Futurity being forced to shift its dates to the end of April for both the 2023 and 2024 editions — and thus putting our participation in those years in real peril — there was something to be said for legitimately going nuts on what happened to be both the Futurity Show’s and CCNF’s 25th anniversary year. Let it ride.

Of course, nothing truly worthwhile is ever, you know, easy. Past trophies, banners, and titles aside, we unfortunately also have a somewhat sordid history involving the Futurity and what, for lack of greater detail — and because it frankly makes my head hurt to write about too much — I will refer to as “truck drama.” Whether it was myself and our then-teenage son, driving through lightning storms with active tornado warnings en route to the American Royal to take actual shelter inside the building with our then single truck and trailer around 11 PM late on a Wednesday night. Or that same truck, a year or two later in 2015, breaking down twice (again with my favorite future commercial pilot riding shotgun) before then deciding to trade it in for a new one on the spot, so that we could make it to the show in time for a late Friday check-in – we thought we had seen it all. Ha!

This year, when we took our EBY trailer off of that same tan truck (the one which was infamously acquired on the fly in 2015) and started to drive off to get some lunch after Jen, Dave, and I had spent all of Thursday morning working furiously to get the 4-legged show team checked-in and settled with bedding, hay, water, and show fans, we almost lost a wheel on the rear driver-side, due to what I will only call a catastrophic failure of either that wheel’s lug nuts (to be specific, 3 of the 8) or perhaps the very studs themselves the lug nuts screw on to. What failed first, is really of little consequence as anyway you cut it, it was no bueno. Generally, if a wheel is gyrating like someone’s hips when they’re using a hula hoop, nothing good is going to come of it, and at the very least, it’s going to be expensive. To say we were not amused would be an understatement. The stream of expletives that came out of my mouth after I safely pulled the truck over to the side of the road could have curdled milk on the spot. Thanks to all-around good guy, Mike Cates, for dropping everything to come and pick up Jen so that she could fetch the other (unbroken) truck, while Dave and I stayed and arranged for a car hauler. The obvious good news was that no one was hurt. Contemplating what could have happened under different circumstances and scenarios (Dave and 20+ males with a 30′ trailer driving 70 MPH cross-country for 23 hours) didn’t make us feel any better; it frankly only served to bring on repeated waves of terror. No bones about it: we were fortunate nothing more serious occurred. Guardian angels and all of that stuff.

A huge thank you to both our local GMC shop (Springfield Buick GMC) here at home in Vermont and to the truly amazing folks at Cable Dahmer Buick GMC in nearby Independence, MO, to whom our local service department referred us. Cable Dahmer took our broken truck in with open arms and good cheer and, after chasing down parts and having to rebuild the brake assembly (among other things) on that quadrant, had our truck safely back to us and in working order in just over 24 hours’ time. If you are ever in need of a new truck or car and are from a nearby area, please consider either of those businesses. As in the alpaca world – anybody can sell you something: it’s how they behave when things go sideways that separates the hay from the chaff. Boo for truck drama. Yay for fantastic service departments and customer service!

I won’t cover the Saturday auction here in any great detail, though suffice it to say, the sale was generally very strong both for us and the other consignors as well. We managed to sell two of our three lots with Truly Devine (lot #14) not quite making her reserve. Though, as we might have guessed already months prior, she did win her class on Monday, beating three other members of our show team no less (who placed 2nd, 3rd, and 4th). Horses to water and all of that. Meh.

As for the rest of the show and how that outrageously-sized group of animals did? As we usually do nowadays, whenever we show up in numbers, we held our own. Of course, we didn’t win everything we might have hoped for, but that’s first and foremost a nod to the depth of some of the other breeding programs and the quality that they are producing, and not in any way, shape, or form a comment on the caliber of the judging which, from where I stood, was truly excellent, even when I was being handed something pink, yellow, or green. You win some, and you lose some: breed and show great alpacas and stick around. We gave as good as we got and that’s all we could hope for.

We went into this spring well aware that the female half (numbering 25 animals) of our Futurity show team, comprised of a mix of juveniles and yearlings, possessed more depth and quality than their male counterparts (whose side of 21 animals also had a couple of token 2-year-olds). To some extent, the totality of our placings reflects that, though unless you nerd out and check the official results elsewhere, you wouldn’t be aware of the number of our own animals we were often beating when winning a class, results that won’t appear here.

First and foremost, this Futurity team reflected the direction of our white/light breeding program, which has been decidedly centered for the past few cycles on the sons of CCNF Elixir, with Bataclan and, to a lesser extent, his brothers Declan and Spittfire leading the way. Having lost Snowmass Matrix Majesty last July, this team also carried the last generation of his kids ever born, including Dominion’s full baby sister, Alabanza, who was indeed the very last cria our old friend ever sired. Also, a big shout out to our dear friends and partners at Happy Hounds Alpaca Ranch in Sisters, OR. Laurie and Dillon brought our co-owned female, H2R & CCNF Golden Girl (Majestic Meadows Awethum x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) out to KC — it was, in fact, our first time seeing her in person in these Covidy times — and as you’ll see below, GG as she is known, did just fine!

We also had a couple of juvi kids sired by CCNF Dark Storm (CCNF Love Dove x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) on the team, with each of them winning their respective classes. Likewise for Dark Storm’s own full kid brother, Love’s Grandeur. Their middle brother, CCNF Love Rules, wasn’t present, though only because he is in USDA quarantine, starting his long journey to his new home at Alpaca Brammelo in the Netherlands. More on him in another post coming soon to this space. Having unfortunately also just lost the beloved dam of all of those males, CCNF Love Dove, I will admit that it felt a little bittersweet. That family line is thankfully safe in our breeding program though, and we press on.

So 25 years into this 3-ring circus of ours and after a 3-year absence both from either the AOA National halter show or the Futurity, we are happy to report that it seems we are still apparently at least vaguely competent alpaca breeders. As ever, it probably wasn’t a fluke. 😉 CCNF First place finishes and Championships at the 2022 Futurity are listed below…

CCNF Championships & 1st Place Finishes at the 2022 Futurity, Kansas City, MO

CCNF Kimiko (CCNF Khiara x CCNF Bataclan) – Judge’s Choice Huacaya Female

CCNF Bataclan (CCNF Bolivar, CCNF Kimiko, CCNF Solaris) – 1st Place, Light Huacaya Get of Sire

CCNF Rosanna (CCNF Rosalva x CCNF Sucrose) – Best Bred & Owned Huacaya Female

H2R & CCNF Golden Girl (Majestic Meadows Awethum x Snowmass Matric Majesty) – Champion Fawn Huacaya Female

CCNF Amadea (CCNF Amalthea x Irish Meadow’s Elite Max) – Champion Light Female Huacaya

CCNF Veracity (CCNF Reina x CCNF Bataclan) – Champion Light Male Huacaya

CCNF Kimiko (CCNF Khiara x CCNF Bataclan) – Champion White Female Huacaya

CCNF Triumvirate (CCNF Luna Majesty x CCNF Elixir) – Reserve Champion Fawn Male Huacaya

CCNF Solaris (CCNF Marisol x CCNF Bataclan) – Reserve Champion White Male Huacaya

CCNF Lilah’s Storm Front (CCNF Lilah x CCNF Dark Storm) – 1st Place, Brown Juvenile Huacaya Males

CCNF Dark Storm’s Trendsetter (CCNF Couture x CCNF Dark Storm) – 1st Place, Medium Brown Juvenile Huacaya Females

CCNF Love’s Grandeur (CCNF Love Dove x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) – 1st Place, Light Brown Juvenile Huacaya Males

CCNF Alabanza Majesty (CCNF Delilah x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) – 1st Place, Dark Fawn Juvenile Huacaya Females

H2R & CCNF Golden Girl (Majestic Meadows Awethum x Snowmass Matrix Majesty) – 1st Place, Fawn Yearling Huacaya Females

CCNF Emiliana (CCNF Eliza x CCNF Bataclan) – 1st Place, Light Fawn Juvenile Huacaya Females

CNF Amadea (CCNF Amalthea x Irish Meadow’s Elite Max) – 1st Place, Light Fawn Yearling Huacaya Females

CCNF Premislas (CCNF Prestige x CCNF Bataclan) – 1st Place, Light Juvenile Huacaya Males

CCNF Truly Devine (CCNF True Divination x CCNF Snow King) – 1st Place, Beige Juvenile Huacaya Females

CCNF Veracity (CCNF Reina x CCNF Bataclan) – 1st Place, Light 2 Year Old Huacaya Males

CCNF Kimiko (CCNF Khiara x CCNF Bataclan) – 1st Place, White Juvenile Huacaya Females

CCNF Solaris (CCNF Marisol x CCNF Bataclan) – 1st Place, White Juvenile Huacaya Males

CCNF Sundance (CCNF Sunstarlight x CCNF Elixir) – 1st Place, White 2 Year Old Huacaya Males

CCNF Indomitable (CCNF Insatiable x CCNF Snow King) – 1st Place, Bred & Owned Light Juvenile Huacaya Male

CCNF Rosanna (CCNF Rosalva x CCNF Sucrose) – 1st Place, Bred & Owned Light Juvenile Huacaya Females

CCNF Diadema (CCNF Bellicosa x CCNF Bataclan) – 1st Place, Bred & Owned Light Yearling Huacaya Females

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