Our beautiful Spots passed away in March 23 after a lengthy period of paralysis. We have many of his spotted offspring on the farm but his gentle nature will be missed. In my search for an appaloosa, I came to find that finding one on the East Coast (that wasn't related to the girls I wanted to use him on) was not an easy task. Last fall, I found Spots at Rare Gem Alpacas and his track record for throwing spots was "spot" on. Spots arrived in Pennsylvania in the Fall of 2019 and we put him to work immediately. He has an easygoing personality, gets the job done quickly and efficiently and the fleece - well, I don't know that I've had one this dense ever. His shearing this year produced nearly 50% more fiber than anyone else. As you can see from the pictures, the spots are apparent right after shearing but blend in once the fleece grows in. Of the 6 cria he's had on our farm, 4 out of 6 are well spotted. Contact us to put spots in front of your eyes! For a little bit of his history, his previous owner wrote: "Spots" is a new comer to the appaloosa alpaca scene. Spots' appaloosa gene comes from NGG Lional-- a known appaloosa carrier that has been well-proven in Canada but is rather rare in the United States. In the past... in the United States... the appy program has been focused on achieving the spots which required certain genetic combinations, but unfortunately... not always best known for outstanding fleece qualities. What is so special about Spots from an appaloosa breeder program 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. 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 dense and fine and FULL of crimp! Expect lasting fineness from this guy-- his sire, Sai-Hoji, was 21 micron at 11 years old! Spots dam is a beautiful Snowmass XXXtreme daughter. Spots' first offspring arrived 10/17/18... a beautiful appaloosa male. Looks just like daddy... with even more spots! The dam, Faith, is a vicuna brown non-appaloosa gene carrier... so dad is responsible for the patterning. Way to go Spots! Skin Biopsy Results by Norm Evans: Density 69.75 follicles SQ MM, glandular presence 4 of 4, Avg. SP 12.7 to 1. Micron variation 11.3 with an AFD of 20.68. UPDATE / June 2019: Spot's now has 3 offspring on the ground. Two are classic appaloosa and one is a reverse appaloosa. All are exquisite in their own way and we couldn't be more pleased with this fabulous progeny beginning.

This girl gets her tall beauty from her mother. All the animals that she has produced have had the most exquisite soft buttery fleece and Shirl is no different. Even the fiber that came off her neck on her Juvie shearing was absolutely amazing. I can't wait to work with it! Shirl has remained a favorite. Her first cria in the fall of 2021 proved to be just as lovely as herself. Our one and only female cria out of our beloved Magic Mike that we lost in 2021. Both girls are absolutely what I am breeding for in fleece. Shirl's second cria, the last out of our Spotted boy XXXtreme Spots was a solid girl with the crimpiest fleece this year.

We were trying for a harlequin when we bred our Black Warrior (Black Epic line) to a friend's harlequin female. While he didn't come out a harlequin, he is a smoky bay black which leads me to believe that he will gray out like his mother was. We also think there is a good chance he could pass on his mother's harlequin genes. We can't wait to try. His cria fleece was nearly 5" long so it was hard to tell how much structure he will have in his next fleece, but what was next to the skin was pretty impressive. This is one really lovely boy! Spring of 2023 - he bred his first female so we are looking forward to next spring to see what he can produce for us. Update - Spring 2024 - we got the cutest little Appy girl! Not expected but very happy about the results.