IAOBA - Rail Splitter Alpaca Show

Judge Trainer Halter

Certifications

Huacaya Halter, Suri Halter, Fleece, Performance

Committed to the alpaca industry, Kevin has served on various AOBA committees including the Affiliate, the Nominating, the National Conference Planning, and the Judge Advisory Committee.

Kevin is one of the founding members and President of N. E. Alpaca Tours, a non-profit corporation that organizes the North American Alpaca Show. To date, N.E.A.T. has donated over a quarter of a million dollars to alpaca research and education.

Having successfully completed the AOBA Judge Training Program in 2004, Kevin received certification in halter, fleece, and performance judging for both Suri and Huacaya alpacas.

Kevin is currently judging alpaca shows throughout the country and is involved in speaking, consulting, and in the organization of alpaca shows and auctions.

Certifications

Huacaya Halter, Suri Halter, Fleece

Beverly and her husband Jason, along with their 2 children, Christian and Julia, reside in the beautiful Southern Oregon Rogue Valley.

She has been an airport concessionaire since 2005 and currently owns and operates Sky House Bar & Grill inside the Medford Airport. This business experience has helped develop and create her desire to become an AOA Certified Alpaca Judge and to develop a herd with advanced suri fleece traits.

Beverly and her family started their alpaca adventure in 2009, with 12 suri alpacas. Their herd has since grown to more than 50 suri alpacas, and Beverly’s daughter, Julia, has her own small herd of 3 huacaya alpacas. Their journey began out of necessity, as Beverly’s son, Christian, was limited to excessive activities like sports because of a health condition. So their interest in livestock was a natural choice as both Beverly and her husband Jason were 4H participants as young adults.

Since 2009, Beverly and Jason have built a Nationally recognized quality suri herd, Rogue Suri Alpacas. Beverly enjoys all the wonderful things that the alpaca fiber allows her to create, from spinning to roving, yarn to crochet. She has also volunteered for various show positions such as Show Management, Herdsire auction coordinator, Gatekeeper, Ring Steward, Scribe and Fleece Room volunteer.

Certification

Fleece

Heather Thordarson is originally from Portland, Oregon but now resides in beautiful Central Oregon with her husband Kristian and two sons, Kolbe and Hunter.

Heather has an extensive background in animal care and training that began with managing a large-scale boarding and training facility for dogs. After that, she worked her way up the ranks at Guide Dogs for the Blind in Boring, Oregon, before a recurring injury forced her to step away from a fulfilling career training both the dogs and visually-impaired clients. After marrying her husband in 2013, they opened a 30-stall boarding and training facility for horses on their property and shortly thereafter, purchased their first five alpacas. Heather quickly realized that raising alpacas aligned much better with her family’s lifestyle after having her sons in 2015 and 2018 and they began to pursue building an alpaca herd that would be competitive at a national level. While taking a deep dive into everything alpaca-related, Heather realized she had a knack for parsing out individual traits and selecting and breeding high quality animals. This led her to start pursuing an apprenticeship in the AOA Judge’s Certification Training and she was accepted into the program in 2023.

When Heather isn’t working on the farm or at shows, she enjoys travel, reading, and cooking for her family and friends. She has also volunteered at several dog rescues as an adoption coordinator, went to China to rescue dogs from slaughterhouses and has fostered and adopted several rescue dogs with challenging personalities. She also loves anything to do with fiber arts.