[lachlanandmarcus]

We went to Banchory show on Saturday with our Shetlands. Normally we wouldn't consider it as our sheep are unregistered and fairly average we think.  However the lady who lent us a ram last autumn wouldn't take a fee but instead asked us to enter as she had persuaded the show organisers to run a Northern Short tailed breeds clutch of classes for the very first time; prior to this year we would have been in with the '-anything but texel and suffolk melee of a class'.


We took Coco, an aged ewe but lovely character, black with white tummy, plus two lambs, Pingu, one of Cocos twins and Tiramisu, gorgeous fawn lamb.


I nearly collapsed in shock when Coco got 4th in the ewe class.....


...and basically did when Pingu WON the ewe lamb class,  against not just Shetlands but all the other primitive type ewe lambs there. !!!!!!!!!!!!!


What makes it even nicer is that Pingu is the friendliest lamb you could ever hope to meet, a real special girl.


The judge even said he would buy her if she were ever for sale and that she would have been a contender for the championship if she was bigger (we only lambed in May).


Now because they aren't registered it wouldn't feel proper to do a lot of showing with them so we will probably just stick to an annual outing to this show, but the moral of the story is, even if you think your livestock are nothing special and are worried about being laughed out of the show ring, put that to one side and have a go, they will only run rare and primitive breed classes if we enter them and you never know....you might even win!

[ScotsGirl]

Wow great news. Gives me some incentive to show my black welsh.

[in the hills]

   Hey, well done

[Rosemary]

Well done! And it's really good fun too.

Will we see you at the Festival, then?

[ZaktheLad]

Congratulations to you, Coco and Pingu.  Excellent news. 

[lachlanandmarcus]

Well done! And it's really good fun too.

Will we see you at the Festival, then?

I don't think OH will be up for travelling that far (he's the driver), tho if there's one nearer when it's our turn in the cycle that would be great. 


Altho they aren't registered/registerable so I'm not sure that they send out the 'right' message re breeds conservation :-(( neither are the Herdwicks we just got :-(( , but would come to spectate.

[Fleecewife]

That was a fun show lachlanandmarcus.   The judge was Mr Fleecewife who is very happy with the placings he made.   At a show like that which is not an official RBST show, then it doesn't matter that some of the stock was unregistered.  They were competing purely on their qualities as sheep, not on the finer points of any breed standard.  In fact even at pedigree shows the lambs are not always registered by the time of the show.
I fell in love with the little black lamb too, especially her fleece, which is promising to stay good as an adult.  A total cutey      (I was the annoying woman with the camera    - might even have some pics somewhere...)

[Brucklay]

Looking forward to seeing you there next year - lets just hope the weather is as good    Your lamb is a real cutie, Mortimer my Castlemilk Moorit ram really seemed to enjoy posing

[lachlanandmarcus]

That was a fun show lachlanandmarcus.   The judge was Mr Fleecewife who is very happy with the placings he made.   At a show like that which is not an official RBST show, then it doesn't matter that some of the stock was unregistered.  They were competing purely on their qualities as sheep, not on the finer points of any breed standard.  In fact even at pedigree shows the lambs are not always registered by the time of the show.
I fell in love with the little black lamb too, especially her fleece, which is promising to stay good as an adult.  A total cutey      (I was the annoying woman with the camera    - might even have some pics somewhere...)

Oh wow!!! I had no idea the lovely judge was Mr Fleecewife (or should that be Fleecehusband) !
I have to say, breed standard aside, I think he has excellent judgement as she is as nice a personality as I've ever met in a lamb, she just loves to be with you and will happily have her chin and head scratched for hours!

[lachlanandmarcus]

Looking forward to seeing you there next year - lets just hope the weather is as good    Your lamb is a real cutie, Mortimer my Castlemilk Moorit ram really seemed to enjoy posing

I think I might have seen a photo of him and commented to Lachlan, he was a wow!!

[Fleecewife]

Looking forward to seeing you there next year - lets just hope the weather is as good    Your lamb is a real cutie, Mortimer my Castlemilk Moorit ram really seemed to enjoy posing

....and he posed to very good effect      Mortimer was Champ - I do have pics of that.

[SteveHants]

Well done! And it's really good fun too.

Will we see you at the Festival, then?

I don't think OH will be up for travelling that far (he's the driver), tho if there's one nearer when it's our turn in the cycle that would be great. 


Altho they aren't registered/registerable so I'm not sure that they send out the 'right' message re breeds conservation :-(( neither are the Herdwicks we just got :-(( , but would come to spectate.

I think it sends out a very good message - that there is plenty of rare breed conservation going on without the interference of breed societies - which is exactly how the breeds originated/continued for aeons.


As much as I dislike showing, I did like this story - keep it up! 

[lachlanandmarcus]

Looking forward to seeing you there next year - lets just hope the weather is as good    Your lamb is a real cutie, Mortimer my Castlemilk Moorit ram really seemed to enjoy posing

....and he posed to very good effect      Mortimer was Champ - I do have pics of that.

He definitely deserved it, he was stunning!!! Love his name too!!

[Mammyshaz]

Congratulations LachlanandMarcus and Brucklay 
Sounds like all the sheep had a fab day out

[sabrina]

Didn't you do well !!