We think this boy is the darkest 'silky' type we have seen! His fiber is slick and shiny that it looks and almost feels wet! Even judge Tim Lavan commented that his fiber looked almost like it was wet! He has LOTS of fiber on him, and with a really long staple so that it droops somewhat when he is at his peak length. But don't be fooled by this and think that he is not dense... he has a lot of fiber packed on him! He has white fibers in his blanket but not consistently enough to classify him as a grey in the shows. This was his initial 'hiccup' in the show ring, when they placed him in the brown classes so that he had to endure the disapproval of the judges. We attempted to show him in Bred and Owned but did not find the consistent competition at that time that we desired for him. But, we luckily become more observant of Major's several, easily discernible light spots in his blanket that classifies him as an appaloosa pattern. Shown in the right class and Major ROCKS! His fiber was finally evaluated purely on its exceptional qualities rather than on how it did not fit in the class. From the beginning in the show ring, he was hard to categorized but well appreciated. At his first show, while he was criticized for his white fibers in brown class, he also caught the judge's eye as "so shiny he looked wet". At the 2014 Futurity while showing in the combined multi class, he was brought to the Reserve Champion position, behind the Snowmass Color Champion and before the other exemplary alpacas from farms such as Crescent Moon and Marquam Hill. With the caliber of competition of this show we were proudly aware of Major's placing at the head of the pack clearly recognizing his herdsire material! We absolutely love Major for his easy personality, great looks and fantastic fiber. Being a small farm with very limited breedings each year, Major has had to elbow his way into the breeding program and hasn't had the exposure that he should have. He has darkened the color of the offspring over its dam in every case. When bred to fawns he has made a MF to DB crias. Bred to grey dams he produced grey crias 60% of the time and true black in the remaining 40%. Their fiber have all been fine with long staple and good crimp. His last two crias by fawn dams have been grouped into our show / jr. herdsire category. Since we have decided to keep his son, Gentry, in our herdsire row, Major is available at a very 'nice price' to help him move to another breeding program. He has genetics that could be used in any grey or spotted program. As we have sold Imitation, our last appaloosa dam, we no long have need for a male that could straddle the line of grey and spotted colorations and he really deserves more consideration.

AutumnSun's Fresca, daughter of 12x champion Red Granites Mr Ben Franklin (son of Snowmass Matrix Rose and half brother to many 10x Judges Choice Red Granites Val d LSere) gathered her first place and Color Champion wins at her first show. She went on to garner judges' favor for her long staple, fineness & uniformity, and crimp uniformity throughout her many shows. From those showings, she brought home a Color or Reserve Color Champion ribbon / banner 3x! No small thing with how competitive fawn classes are nowadays. Her 2020 cria was a fawn girl by an outside male but was a 'failure to thrive' loss, never standing on her own or trying to nurse and was lost the same day. Fresca was then bred to our multiple champion and sire of champions, Dark Secret for her 2021 cria. We thought she had not successfully grafted to this beautiful TB male she produced and in our zeal to 'save' him, we intervened to bottle feed him -- however, data from watching more patiently of her interactions with her 2022 girl, we realize that she is shy and doesn't like people watching her crias nurse. Well, we are glad we gave her another try. Not only is she an excellent mom to her 2022 LF girl by our Major General, Champagne Bubbles, a little girl that is very nice and a sweetheart to boon. Always an easy keeper, we know now that Fresca is a really "hands off" girl -- as in she doesn't want you anywhere near her or the cria after it is born. She will eye you suspiciously and refuse to nurse if she can even see you. With a little covert spying were able to witness her doting care, with her clucking and nuzzling and even making the cria get up to nurse. To soothe ourselves, we left her with a buddy and their crias in a pen to ensure close contact, but was able to let them out in only a few days, the girl going on to grow well due to a solid mothering bond. Her 2024 cria is another fantastic true black male that we are excited to watch while he develops.