[Mammyshaz]

Sounds like you had a busy day. Well done to Archie too  he will need his own trophy cabinet if he continues like this 
What did the judge mean, he didn't know what to do with them!  he just doesn't know a proper sheep when he sees one       

Well done on your home crafts. Id love to judge your cheesecake 

[suziequeue]

FANTASTIC!!! So SO WELL DONE :-)))


Delighted. Well done. that takes guts :-))

[Backinwellies]

well done Archie.   

[zarzar]

Well done im glad if we decide to show our portlands they like to see them in their work wear

[Fleecewife]

Suffolks are highly commercial sheep and for them to be competing against your Ryelands makes for a very difficult class to judge.  If the judge was a commercial man then he would go for the Suffolks any time.  We have had the opposite when our Soay have been competing against Ryelands, and the Ryelands win hands down every time - I suppose the judge has to go with what he knows and will be impressed with size.  Don't be put off Sally, next time in a different class, at a different show and with a different judge you could come out on top.
I would say you had a pretty successful day all round    Well done - I'm really impressed with your successes 

[Brucklay]

Well done Sally and Archie of course - slice of cheesecake here to just feeling a bit hungry - hope you had a fun day 

[ZaktheLad]

Well done on having a go with the sheep - it's all good experience and at the end of the day one what win one week may come well down the line the next.  From your pics of your lambs shown on one of your other posts, I think you should be very proud of your stock - they look lovely and you have done an excellent job with them.  If showing is something you really want to do with them, then practise makes perfect - those people with the Suffolk's have probably been showing for years.  As with dog showing (often the wrong end of the lead getting judged) and with showing horses (often the rider not the horse that wins the prize)  , it may be that at times other types of animal showing is the same  I know this is not always the case and the majority do win on their own merit, but there also is a lot of who you know in the showing world. 

Very well done on your other successes though - excellent results.

[SallyintNorth]

Wow that's quite a haul!  Well done!      Getting placed with handicrafts and baking in a local show, let alone getting 1sts, is some achievement if it's anything like up here.   

Re: the sheep, on the plus side it sounds as though it wouldn't have made any difference if you had spent loads of time and effort washing and primping them!    Keep at it, the judges will go away and look up info about Ryelands  , and who knows, maybe they'll even introduce classes for traditional/native sheep in some future year... (which is what we have up here.)

Respect 

Edited to add congrats and a hug to Archie. 

[Simon O]

Well done anyway, it is pretty good just to have got them there and shown. I agree with you about the colour.

[ladyK]

That's an impressive list of successes, well done! 
Personally, having to inflict all this show coiffure on a poor sheep would put me off showing, so well done for daring to show them as they are meant to be!

[feldar]

Well done Sally.
I know what you mean about the colour, some of the Beltex breeders dye their's an awful orange/ yellow. Apparently it's part traditional to colour them and also the pearl dip tightens the fleece and makes the whole sheep feel better     we show our hamps in their natural colour, much nicer, although some do colour them as well   
Well done you had a productive day. And as said, don't get too hung up on the judging. I had one judge say to me once when i was put down the line." i don't know much about your breed!!" to which i said " why are you judging them then?"    I got no reply.

[SallyintNorth]

I had one judge say to me once when i was put down the line." i don't know much about your breed!!" to which i said " why are you judging them then?"    I got no reply.

Which was your chance to educate him/her... 

[feldar]

I had one judge say to me once when i was put down the line." i don't know much about your breed!!" to which i said " why are you judging them then?"    I got no reply.

Which was your chance to educate him/her... 
Your quite right Sally, i would have done, but in the heat of the moment  in the middle of a show ring it's maybe not the place to start that conversation.
I had one judge just this year get quite intimidating towards me in a show ring berating me for bringing what he considered to be a poor quality animal in the ring. After taking his nonsense for a while i just walked on back to the tent having said to him that it was his judgement but i didn't have to agree with him.
Other classes were waiting to come in the ring and he was holding them up trying to " educate " me. If he didn't like my sheep that's fine, but he didn't have to be so rude about it.
The same sheep has gone on to win other classes at other shows and was placed at our national show and sale so i know he's not rubbish. He's just not an overstuffed, poor on his legs show sheep, he's aTraditional Hampshire tup who will go on to do his job, without needing vast amounts of grub to do it. I just wish i'd had the balls (excuse the pun) to tell that judge that.  

[SallyintNorth]

Wow, I wish you'd educated that second judge too!

I'm wondering about suggesting a Hampshire Down to BH for our next experiment... but it would maybe make for too many breeds in the mix.  They do sound good though.

[feldar]

I can always think of what to say to people afterwards, but at the time i'm so dumbstruck on how rude someone can be that i don't react quickly enough. I am glad he said it to me and not my other half or we may have needed to sustitute the judge, i'm sure hubby would have hit him
Anyway do try a Hamp Sally there are some good ones about. We are going to put a tup accross some Lleyns this year and see what happens