SHIP: the great ah-hah!
by Linda Kondris
“ I learned so much, it was like light bulbs popping on, one after another.” The Suri Network’s Suri Herd Improvement Program, SHIP, is receiving rave reviews across the country. This innovative, hands-on educational program is designed to offer Suri breeders the skills and knowledge necessary to truly understand desired Suri qualities and to measure each of their own animals against the Suri Breed Standard. Highly trained, experienced classifiers guide breeders in understanding conformation and fleece characteristics Classifiers Mary Lou Clingan and Cheryl Gehly meet to review at the farm, in a very interactive manner. SHIP procedures. The classifier scores each animal on eight conformation traits and eight fleece traits, from a high score of five to a low of one. While the breeder will receive individual scores for each animal, the strength of the program lies in the interaction and dialog between the classifier and the breeder as each Suri is examined. The conformation areas scored include • Type • Movement and tracking • Front legs • Hind legs • Head • Strength of frame • Tail • Genitalia Classifiers meet annually to calibrate their scoring to ensure accuracy. surinetwork.org
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