Magic in March By Meagan Browne-age 15 Golden Browne Llamas Phelan, CA
On a slightly foggy weekend in March, at the LA County Fairgrounds llama people from California and neighboring states brought their llamas to show at the March Magic double show. It was the first time the March Magic show had ever been held, and it turned out to be really neat! Since the theme of the show was a green Saint Patrick’s Day theme, everybody was wearing green, and the llama, Bandit, was even wearing a really neat costume to match the theme of the show!!! Since there were two judges, we had to do all the performance classes twice! We only had to do Youth Showmanship once, but both judges judged at the same time.
On Friday, several people came and set up their pens and stuff, because the show was starting early the next morning. My parents couldn’t come to stay at the show this time, but since I really wanted to go, I was able to go with Sharon and Neal Wiesenberger and Sharon’s FFA group. I got to stay in my own tent. That was great!
On Saturday, Saint Patrick’s Day, most of the halter classes were held and then most of the performance classes. I had thought that the performance was going to be first, but they did halter first instead, so I spent half of the day watching the show and hanging out with friends. After lunch, they started the performance classes with Pack, which us unusual considering that pack is usually the last class at shows, at least the ones I’ve been to. Checkers, my llama, and I did really well, and ended up placing first, which I was really happy about! The second class was PR, and they had some really difficult obstacles. One was putting this strange little thing on their heads that didn’t fasten very securely, so the llamas could shake it off easily, which was, of course the point, they weren’t supposed to shake their heads at all. I was kind of nervous when I got to that obstacle, but Checkers did it ok and for once in that entire class, I was able to breathe! There was also a really difficult bridge that had really sharp turns on it like they do in advanced classes, but Checkers did it well too, and after the whole class was done, I placed first! The third class was Obstacle, and I am not very fond of that class. The two things I had trouble with were the change of pace and the jumps, since Checkers is a hulk and doesn’t like putting that much effort into moving his massive self around! He didn’t really run much, he was being kinda lazy, and he stepped over a couple of the jumps, even though they were tall!!! Anyhow, I still got third place, so it didn’t turn out that bad after all! I thought that we were going to do the three performance classes again the next day, but they had us do pack again that afternoon! Checkers was tired and so was I, so we didn’t do as well. It was all the same obstacles, just switched around a bit! We got second place, which was really good considering how tired we both were!
That night after the show Tracey Wallace and some others did a really cool dinner thing with great food, the hotdogs were the best I’ve ever had!!!! I hung out with my friends till ten thirty at night, and then went back to my tent, and fell to sleep pretty quickly, since I was so tired!!!
On the third day, they finished the halter classes and then did Showmanship. There was no Junior Showmanship, so they started with Intermediate Youth Showmanship. When they called for us to get ready to go in, I was in a hurry because I couldn’t find my show halter and lead rope!!!! It was back in my suitcase. I ended up borrowing a halter and racing to get to the arena just in time. I was really tired in the class because I stayed up late, and as we walked around the arena, I wanted to just go to sleep. I barely heard a thing the judge said, but I was alert enough to hear the question she asked me and remember the answer. I almost forgot to back up four steps like she told us, but I managed to do it, and I managed to see when she snuck her hand down Checkers back so that I could smooth his wool out. Both judges judged at the same time luckily, so we didn’t have to do Showmanship twice!!! The judges both placed me in first place. I was really surprised because I thought I hadn’t done very well since I was so tired! I had really wanted to get first place in Showmanship though because now I only need to get two more firsts in Showmanship to get my ALSA Ultimate Award!
Later they had the rest of the performance classes. They did obstacle first, and I did ok, but not even close to as well as I had the day before, and I think I made the same mistakes. I ended up placing fourth in that class, which was better than last! I deserved the place I got though, because I thought over it afterwards and realized my mistakes, so that I can practice at home so that I don’t make them again. They did the novice and advanced classes after that. PR was the last class for the youth, and I think I did ok! I didn’t do the hard narrow bridge with the sharp turns as well this time and I got third place in that class. They have never had a bridge like that in youth classes before so that’s one I will have to learn how to do.
I had a great time at the show and really want to go next year!!! J
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