July was insane! It broke down into 1.) Getting ready for Nationals and cramming in Saddle Club and a horse show. 2.) Going to Nationals in Loveland and cramming in Saddle Club in Rye (these things are a good 3+ hours apart). 3.) Recovering from Nationals and catching up with more Saddle Club.

Because of the driving distance and the fact that I had to keep traveling back and forth, Nationals was an exhausting experience despite the fact that I only brought one goat. Actually, by the end we had two up there… more details on that later. It was a BLAST though! I think there were about 2,500 goats, which is more than I could possibly have imagined! This is a view of about half of one of the three big barns, plus they had three big tents set up outside for yet more goats. It was amazing!

The lighting wasn’t good, so I didn’t get very many photos. I didn’t even get a photo of my favorite goat at the whole show. She belonged to Olentangy Alpines from Tacoma, WA. I wanted her so badly I almost cried when we had to leave without her. But she was also the owner’s favorite and he wouldn’t part with her. She’s not in this photo, but this was her herd:

I probably made a nuisance of myself, hanging around their pen the way I did.

There were so many cute babies it was almost unbearable not to climb into their pens and cuddle with them. I especially loved this pile of Nubians:

I had a friend of mine show Nibbles since I’d never even watched a goat show and she knew what she was doing. Also, I didn’t have any white clothes and she did. I took a video but it didn’t come out very well, so not worth posting. Nibbles did not behave very well for my friend. She kept trying to turn and bash the goat behind her in line and then wouldn’t stand still. She didn’t place, but I had a lot of fun watching and I learned a lot. Nibbles also got a lot of compliments from people as we walked around the show grounds. She’s a very flashy little thing, even if she didn’t win any ribbons. My “favorite goat at the whole show” didn’t win any ribbons either, but her twin sister won 1st place. They were both in Nibbles’ class. Too bad the one that didn’t win is the one that both me and her owner are in love with. I hoped he would change his mind about selling after the results of the show, but there was no convincing him.

As Nibbles’ shaved show coat began to grow out she got this funny little whirligig on her head: