CONGRATULATIONS to Lindsey Betz and the Betz Family Farm on the purchase of Vintage Cashmere's U-Taupe-ia. Taupie will be greatly missed at Rare Gem Alpacas but he leaves behind a number of lovely offspring to grace our herd for years to come! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Taupie is a striking appaloosa harlequin male that is on a roll for throwing spotted and harlequin offspring. He has sired 53 offspring and 74 percent are either appaloosa or harlequin! While dam selection has a significant influence on such outcomes, it should be noted that the majority of the dams Taupie has been bred to have no genetic influence on this outcome. So for those that don't have existing foundation girls with appy / harlequin lineage-- Taupie has proven to be capable of passing along his appy genetics and produce desired results. So how does this happen? Only part of that story is known, but what we DO know is that certain lines of known appy gene carriers are much more "expressive" than others. Taupie just happens to be one of those. His heritage boasts appaloosa genetics on both sides of his lineage with Aussie Rockford out of Hannahruh on his sire's side and Chiquita Import on his dam's side. In April 2016, Taupie's progeny debuted in the show ring taking a blue in walking fleece and the blue in halter at the California Classic. This first boy was then followed by another appaloosa female and then another appy male-- both very similar to the first. The fourth cria, however, is something extra special! This little girl has expressed every color on the chart, not one pattern-- just speckles and spots from nose to toes-- Rare Gem U-Taupe-ia's Appletini! The unique coloring of this cria looks as though the color from Taupie's Grand Dam, Chiquita Import, is coming through and producing the rarest of rare gems-- her beautiful color seems to morph before your eyes! As much fun as it is to talk about Taupie's progeny... more about him! Taupie has a spotted face, spotted belly, spotted legs, and a beautiful solid platinum-taupe blanket. His top line is a nice medium silver grey, then blending into light silver grey down the sides. UPDATE: 2/2019 Leoopard appaloosa offspring, Sleepy Acres App-solutely Adorable "Dorie", takes Reserve Color Champion at Txolan! Congratulations!!

10/17/18 - Faith throws a handsome appaloosa cria. Faith likes to throw fully baked cria in record time. This little guy was born 15 lbs. at 323 days gestation. This makes 3 cria for Faith in 2 years!! And all three are harlequin / appaloosas. Faith has now proven that even though she has no appaloosa-harlequin gene carriers in her pedigree, when bred to the right boy... she can reliably produce exactly what is hoped for! As tempting as it was to breed Faith to Taupie again (the sire of the first two cria), new to the team XXXtreme Spots was selected for Faith's third pairing. Spots' appy gene comes from NGG Lional-- a known appy carrier that has been well-proven in Canada but is rather rare in the United States. What is so special about Spots from an appy breeder perspective is that he carries elite-fleeced heavy hitter lines in his pedigree such as Legacy, El Nino, and XXXtreme (out of Hemingway) ALONG WITH the expressed appy gene! These elite-fleeced alpacas are known for their lasting-fineness and density. Norm Evan's skin biopsy stats are available on Spots' page. Not only does Spots sport a sweet, easy-to-handle disposition... his fleece is exactly what you would expect from such a stellar pedigree. He is super-dense and fine and FULL of crimp! Expect lasting fineness from this guy-- his sire, Sai-Hoji, was 21 micron at 11 years old! 9/22/17 - Faith throws a beautiful little harlequin female. Born at just 311 days gestation, she weighed in at 13 lbs. Faith's maternal instinct is strong and milk production is robust. At just 7 weeks of age, this 13 pound girl weighed in at 38 pounds AND it was already apparent that her fleece was characteristic of traits we hope for. This young girl's first fleece was entered in 3 shows in 2018 (where she showed as rose grey) and she held her own in competitive classes including the AOA National Fleece Show. 9/25/16 - Faith delivered her first cria (at just 310 days gestation!)-- a beautiful uniquely colored harlequin - appaloosa girl sired by Vintage Cashmere U-Taupe-ia. The result of this pairing is a true Rare Gem named Appletini! I loved the result of this pairing so much, that on 10/31/16, I repeated the breeding. Faith "took" on that first breeding and just 10.5 months later, delivered another girl! ... a beautiful "classic" appaloosa named "SPOTlight". So talk about productive... two beautiful harlequin girls and one handsome appaloosa boy... in less than two years-- and only bred one time each pregnancy! Faith has earned herself the title of the highest performing production dam on the ranch. :-) Faith is a super sweet girl. She has nice genetics in her lineage—Quijote, Danko and Lanark’s Silver Charm. Faith was shown three times 2014 / 2015 before starting her breeding career. She placed 2nd each time in competitive classes. Her 5th year (2018) histogram... Faith is still sporting a low 20's AFD, 4.2 SD and a CV of 18.4%. Gotta love this girl!!