Vivanno is a big, tall, assertive male with amazing presence. He is the herd leader, independent and confident. He is outgoing and gentle with other males and with humans, and is a highly intelligent alpaca. Vivanno is an own son of AML Legacy's El Duro (AKA "Pedro"), who was a fawn son of the legendary Accoyo Peruvian Legacy. El Duro was renowned in his lifetime for his exceptional prepotency -- he stamped his get with impeccable conformation and terrific density, and a very high proportion of his offspring were show winners and champions. El Duro is sadly now deceased, making his exceptional genetics somewhat of a rarity, with less than 60 offspring total. Vivanno is one of the only grey sons of El Duro, and, to our knowledge, the only classic grey son who is currently standing at stud. True to his sire's legacy, Vivanno's conformation is faultlessly correct. He is tall, with solid, thick bone, a strong, blocky head, and an ideal topline with a low tailset. He moves fluidly and powerfully. Proving again the prepotency of El Duro, Vivanno is possessed of a very dense fiber with a terrific staple length, even at six years of age. His juvenile fleece was exceptionally fine, with an AFD of 16.4 and a comfort factor of 99.4% at his first shearing. While an ultra-fine first fleece is great, the true value is in fineness over time, and Vivanno has not disappointed in this regard. His 2014 shearing -- that's his SIXTH fleece -- was still mighty fine, with an AFD of 22.8 and a comfort factor of 91.6%. That's finer than a lot of greys have on their first fleece! Vivanno now has seven cria on the ground, and wow -- these are some seriously nice ones. He is making beautiful heads, perfect conformation (even in dams with less-than-perfect conformation), big bone, and full coverage (again, even if the dam is lacking). The big deal, though, is the fleeces. Vivanno consistently imparts amazing brightness, excellent fineness, and terrific density to his offspring. Thus far, more than half have inherited his rose grey coloring, and the remaining are maroon or black.

Pepper is an alpha female who has more than earned her status. She is our eldest foundation female -- acquired at age nine (two years older than my cutoff for foundation), she was a girl that I was willing to bend the rules for because of the harlequin cria at her side. So far, so thrilled with that snap decision! Pepper's lineage is pretty unique. She is a granddaughter of renowned import grey The Silversmith on her sire's side, and of NWD, Ltd. Abraham (son of Accoyo Felix) on her dam's side. This combination of Chilean color and Accoyo genetics resulted in a solidly built, squarely framed female with full fiber coverage -- even at age nine. She has an excellent spring of rib and great heartgirth, and great circumference of bone. Although clearly black, Pepper has the most excellent propensity to produce grey. This may simply be due to good luck (all of the sires have been grey, naturally), but two things intrigue me. One is that her latest cria, 2014 son Logan, is a harlequin grey, a particularly rare color that is not often associated with blacks (his sire is a "modern" who has produced no other harlequins or appaloosas). Two, Pepper's eyes are a beautiful shade of slate blue. I had yet to see a blue-eyed black of any species before bringing Pepper home, let alone a blue-eyed black alpaca! Pepper's production record of grey goes beyond color, however. Her first son, Pronto, is pictured -- solid and gorgeous. Her 2009 son, Prometheus, won multiple blue ribbons and two championships at Ohio alpaca shows, and is now standing stud (check out his daughter, Stone Mountain's Eos! Wow!). Her 2014 son, Logan, is a harlequin grey knockout who is looking as though he, too, will be herdsire material. Pepper is a knockout dam, with an abundant supply of milk and fantastic mothering abilities. Her crias grow ridiculously fast. She is wonderful with humans -- the best behaved alpaca I have ever encountered on a halter, hands down -- and understands that they mean only good for her cria, while continuing to nurture and protect him. She is the alpha of alphas, but she has most assuredly earned that right. In 2016, Pepper finally broke her 5-cria boy streak with a stunning, truly-true black GIRL. She has matured into a GORGEOUS yearling with massive bone substance and perfect conformation. Unfortunately, Pepper went back to boys in 2017 with a white (how did that happen?) male, sired by our rock star boy Riddler. He is very nice, but -- white?! What the heck? Pepper will be bred back to our Legacy's El Duro son, Vivanno, for 2018. She would make an AMAZING starter dam for a new farm.