German
Modena’s at the Great Western 2014
This
year’s Great Western was the largest show they have had since the early 1980’s
with 1,925 entries. This show had the largest showing of German Modena’s in the
country and I encourage you all to try and make this early show. It is a two
day show so you have to plan on staying for the weekend. The location is great
with plenty to check out in the area. The show hall is only minutes from Santa
Cruz, Monterey and other nice beach communities, with great food and some of
the most amazing sights to see along the beautiful Northern California coast. One
other place to mention is a local apple
farm that makes amazing fresh baked pies. It’s only 5 minutes from the show and
worth taking a quick break from the show to check out. It’s called Gizdich
Ranch. They also let you pick
your own apples
and berries. Ask me for directions when you come to the show next year.
We had a
great turn out of German’s, with 65 entries from 6 exhibitors. I believe this
was the largest showing of German Modena’s in the country to date. There was a
nice variety of colors with quite a few Dilutes, Grizzles, Bronze and new to
the Great Western this year, we had Blue White Bar’s shown by two exhibitors.
Our judge
this year was Rick Barker. Rick did a great job going through the birds and I
think we all learned something from his remarks on the birds. A big thank you
to Rick for doing a great job. This year’s Champion and Best Schietti was a
beautiful Red Check young hen bred by Russ Angulo. She showed real well and was
always on her toes. Reserve Champion was a real nice Blue Check young hen bred
by Jesse Quesada. She also showed real well and had good confirmation. Best
Gazzi went to Adrian and Pepe Carrera with a beautiful Andalusian Gazzi old
cock. I believe this cock was a winner at the National a few years ago.
New to our
show this year were Blue White Bar Argents. We decided to give them their own
award as they are such a rare and difficult color to breed. This year’s winner
was Lane Gardner. Lane showed about six and Tim Heidrich had one. It was a very
nice group of birds and the winner was very nice as you can see from the
picture below.
Congratulations
to all our winners this year. Overall it looks like we are improving the
quality and the variety of colors is growing. It was a great show with good
competition and nice variety of colors of German’s to look at. We had a few
people show interest in getting into showing German’s and one in particular has
already contacted me to secure some birds for next year. Kay Kast from Pasa
Robles and her partner have already got a few birds from Jesse Quesada and want
to increase their stud for next year. Thanks for contacting us Kate and we look
forward to you joining us at the shows.
This
year’s Great Western was a big success and we hope to see more of you at this
show season’s kick off show next year. Even if you can’t make it to the show
think about supporting the German Modena Club by sending some birds to me. I
live only 30 minutes from the show hall and am one of the Show Managers. I’ll
make sure your birds are handled with care. Hope to see you all at the National
this year.
