LANA Llama Luau! 2007 By Meagan Browne-age 15 Golden Browne Llamas Phelan, CA This story is about a conference/show called LANA Expo. Before I begin my review of the happenings and wonders of this particular conference/show, I want everyone to know that this story is/was being written during the show! I can’t give great detail about the performance classes, as I’m leaving for a month to go to a wilderness camp at Loon Lake on the last day of the show which disables me from showing in performance classes. But I can tell you about youth judging and youth showmanship …Well…Showmanship and the amazing classes LANA offers! On June 20, 2007, we drove our car to a quaint little town called Plymouth. It is an old mine town, with historical significance. During the day, it is a very cute town with old buildings from the original town built years ago. I actually rather liked it, though at night it was like a ghost townJ. And so were the surrounding towns at night as we found out when we went out to dinner very late on Wednesday night. There weren’t any classes on the first day, but there was what was called a CSI youth icebreaker. I don’t know what the adults did, but the kids, me included, went to a fun little meeting where we all introduced ourselves and played some fun games. I met a lot of really neat people that day, which I was glad of, since I only knew a couple of other youth there. Kathy Nichols made it really fun for all of us and so did the other adults that helped with the youth. The next two days were really fun. We had different classes about llamas and showing. I can’t remember what order they came in but I do remember the names of some of the classes. I learned some valuable tips about showmanship and performance from two different judges plus getting my llamas ready for shows! I also took a class on the digestive system of the llama as well as nutrition. A skilled vet taught both. One class I took was on pack. An experienced packer, Charlie, who has written a hilarious book about his adventures, and misadventures, on the trail, taught this class. I hope he comes back next year! It would be really fun to get to go on a pack trip with him. I got to make a cool lead rope and felt some things with llama fiber too. The classes were very thorough and I learned a lot of valuable information. During that time there was one class (an actual judged class) called Youth Judging. During the actual class I had a brain freeze when I had to give the judge my oral reasons and grants! I thought I did really horrible because of that but as it turned out I got 2nd place in Intermediate Youth Judging! On Thursday night, there was a fun program for the youth called CSI. Now when I first heard about it I was sure it was about the show CSI, which would have been really neat. Needless to say, it wasn’t, but it was really awesome nonetheless. The youth were split up into teams and played a variety of fun games. The team, who won the most points when the games were over, was the winner, and the team I was on won!!!! It was really fun and we got some cool prizes. The next day the show began. They started with all the halter classes, which I wasn’t showing in. During the halter classes I went shopping with my parents in a little town called Sutter Creek. It was really neat, especially since they were having Black Bart Day in the town, a festival of sorts with lots to do with Black Bart. That was fun, and when we came back, it was time for Youth Showmanship! I didn’t bring my llama, Checkers, with me since I wasn’t showing in youth performance classes because I was going to summer wilderness camp on Sunday. It would be rather hard for my parents to get him home with having to find a hotel that takes llamas after dropping me off at camp! Because I couldn’t bring Checkers, Eileen Ditsler was so nice to let me use one of her llamas, Iceman. Iceman is a really neat llama and I enjoyed showing him. Thank you Eileen! We did really well in showmanship, and though there were some rough spots, I handled those situations really well! Since it was a double show, there were two judges judging. The first judge gave me first place, and the second judge gave me second place! It was really neat. They also announced the placings for Youth Judging, and even though I thought I didn’t do very well, the judge must have liked it, because I placed second! I really had fun at the Hawaiian dinners too especially at the raffles and auction. I got to get several of the things I wanted a whole lot! So that really concludes my account of LANA Expo, and I really encourage everyone to come to the show in 2008 and to join LANA. I also want to thank LANA for putting together this show and for me getting a youth scholarship to come this year for winning the youth essay contest. I had an amazing time. |
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