Admittedly, when we bred Invictus’ dam Opal with his sire, Precocious, we were hoping for something a little darker than beige. Though Precocious is a white Futurity Champion he comes from a paternal line (Jeremiah/Jericho) just as renowned for it’s colored genetics as its light, so crossing him with Opal — who is black and likewise has not one but two of those nifty Futurity trophies of her own — wasn’t really over-reaching that much. So while we were perhaps put off a bit by the lack of darker fleece color in their resulting young boy, Invictus also showed that he had IT almost immediately. So what do we see in Invictus that makes him stand out? Simply put, he hits that nexus of fleece density and fineness, carrying his fleece uniformity way down into his lower belly and legs. On top of displaying the fleece characteristics of an elite light colored animal, let’s also not forget that he comes from dark colored genetics and that may, in the end, really be the clincher. Then combine that with his undeniable presence when you walk into the barn or out into his feed group’s paddock on the farm. He is simply one of those alpacas that makes people stand up and notice him. We often ask ourselves a very simple question when rating potential Herdsires: do we look at a given male and say “we’d like to have 10 more of those standing in our pasture?” The answer in this case is an unequivocal, yes. 2013 was quite a year for our now three year old Herdsire! Along with winning the Light Huacaya Male Championship at the 2013 AOBA National Fleece Show, Invictus also became a proven Herdsire, having had several crias born throughout this past summer. Perhaps more importantly, he has thrown color out of virtually every colored female he was bred to. In one case, he even sired a brown female out of a fawn dam. You can be sure that that got our attention in a hurry. So: a proven Herdsire with an elite light colored fleece that is capable of throwing colored offspring. We think we might just be able to find some work for him!