Sandhills Suri Alpacas, LLC

Description

Sandusky is truly in a class of his own. I don't know how many alpacas have a show career spanning two decades, if there are any others, but it's a fitting feat for this special boy. At almost 20 years old, Sandusky is adding to his ribbon resume, receiving first place at the 2022 CALPACA Autumn Fleece Extravaganza and second place at the 2022 PNAA IFA fleece show, in Grade 4 class. Yes -- at almost 20 years old -- Sandusky has maintained a Grade 4 micron range in his fleece, averaging 28.7 microns. Sandusky earned the honor of being the oldest alpaca shown at the PNAA IFA fleece show, and I'm also just going to guess he was likely the oldest at CALPACA as well.

They say age is just a number and Sandusky is living proof of that old adage. The quality of his fleece has not diminished with age, as he is still able to compete with animals less than half his age, boasting an overall score of 66/100. Sandusky's luster score was still quite high for his age as well, at 14/20. He placed second out of four entries in the Grade 4 category at the PNAA IFA fleece show, placing behind our own Penny's Coal Front who took first.

Judges' commentary included: "Excellent relocking for age, with uniformity within the micron" and "Maintaining style within lock for age. Good length for growing period. Very usable fiber. Exceptional to see at this age"

Sandusky truly is exceptional.

Strong Suri phenotype in medium brown vicuna. Sandusky wowed the judges in the show ring as a youngster, but his real test began with his breeding career. He has not disappointed us. Every cria he has sired has been absolutely spectacular with a strong Suri phenotype. His trademark has been a beautiful head with eyes outlined in black and a black wave above the eye. The foundation females he has been bred to were also highly selected, so one cannot discount this factor. Sandusky is grand sire to many grays. His cria, Liam, is shown. Liam is bay black, has folded skin, and fine twisted locks. The fineness of Liam's locks is expressed in ropes of fine twists.

Sandusky, our very first cria, is almost 20 years old, and you certainly wouldn't know it. He still has a show-himself personality and grand-champion lock structure.