Meet Our Girls - Rushmere Alpacas

Treacle was born in September 2005, the product of the Garyeannna herd and produced her first cria with us in 2010 – a little dark brown boy, Damoclese, born on August 15. Since then she has produced a consistantly high standard of offspring. In 2011 she produced another black, but a female, Electra who did well in shows. We didn’t mate her the following year so that we could bring the mating time forward to the spring . Subsequently she’s produced two superb grey cria, Gregorius, who has won many prizes and is our main grey stud and Hirse who has been sold. In 2017 she produced Karsten who did win one rosette but we sold him as a pet to someone who lives nearby to keep another pet male company. We did not mate her in 2017 as Karsten was born quite late in the season. In 2018 we mated her with our new stud, Fowberry Lucien and she produced a lovely fawn male who has since been sold. This year we have mated her with Tim Hey’s grey stud as she is the mother of our own one.

She has won several prizes inlcuding 2nd prize in the junior black female in 2006 at both the South of England and the East of England shows and in 2010 her fleece came 2nd in the adult black class for the Heart of England show.

She was a little shy and unused to being handled when we first got her but has gained confidence with the herd. She does tend to be easier to handle after she has had her cria and will take food from our hands provided there are no stronger members of the herd around. She’s an excellent mother and was very protective of her cria. She also tends to be the herd watch out.

Desi, (as she is known) is one of three animals we bought from Anzac Alpacas when they were closing down. She is the daughter of Viracocha Prophecy and Viracocha Witchcraft and was born in 2010.

She placed well in a number of shows including third in the 2011 National Show, repeating that result in 2012 at the Futurity and at Heart of England Fiesta.

A quiet girl, easy to handle and a little self effacing she has given us a beautiful cria in Guinevere who followed in her mother’s footsteps, being placed 2nd in the Spring Alpaca Fiesta and 3rd in the National Show in 2015. She developed a tooth problem, since resolved so we didn’t mate her for a couple of years but in 2018 she produced a lovely black male, Laertes from Herts Alpacas ‘Nigel’ and followed on with another black male in 2019, both of which have been sold. This year she has been mated with one of the black INca studs which we hope will produce something rather special.

Houghton Hall Miss Congeniality, to give her her full title (Genie for short) is an absolutely gorgeous light brown girl who was born in 2013 and came to us in 2014 from Houghton Hall. To prove her quality she gained reserve champion at the Heart of England halter show in 2015 and Champion in the Heart of England fleece show the same year. This is not surprising as she has a very fine dense well organised fleece and excellent substance of bone.

The daughter of Neptune of Houghton and Fleur de Lys Mystique, she clearly considers herself to be special, although she is very gentle and good natured. She is very friendly and loves to come up to talk to us, particularly if we bring presnets of carror sticks! Something of a gourmet she is a very selective eater in that it has to be food, the type isn’t that important….

Her very first cria has produced some controversy as he won several prizes as a modern grey and has inherited her superb fleece. His fleece has gone on to win a colour championship and came 4th in the National Champion of Champions show. Last year’s was a brown from our own apaloosa, Luna and he had a really superb fleece. Sadly due to Covid 19 we were not able to show him and he has since been sold. This year she produced a gorgeous appaloosa male from the same mating and she has been mated with Limestone Rio.

We saw Clara at the 2017 National Show and fell in love with her immediately. We asked her owner, Roger Mount of Snowshill Alpacas, if she was for sale and he agreed to sell her, although he had turned down offers for her from other people. I’m not surpised they loved her, with her cute brown nose and a fabulous 13 micron fleece. She came to us mated to one of Roger’s superb brown stud males and produced a beautiful little girl the perfect image of herself, who we named Lyra and who has since been sold.

She has come first in every show she has been shown in but with her fine, dense and highly organised fleece that is not surprising. Her sire is Snowshill Remus. She is a little bit shy but that may just be that she’s the youngest in the herd. She is certainly very easy to lead and a lovely character. Last year we mated her to our own stud Luna and sure enough we have a gorgeous appaloosa female who weighed in at 10.3 kg and who is doing extremely well. She is due to be mated to Koo Wee Rup, a very high quality brown male.

Little Fleur is the daughter of our oldest alpaca, Camilla who sadly has now passed away. We took a bit of a gamble and mated black Camilla with our champion white stud, Jay and in June 2012 out popped a lovely toffee coloured girl who seems to have inherited her Dad’s excellent fleece quality and her mother’s laid back character. She has turned out a little sweetie and has picked up a string of rosettes at shows as a junior, intermediate and adult at major shows including first prize at the Heart of England Spring Alpaca Fiesta and their fleece show. Her first fleece was very fine – 17 micron but she has density as well. She also has superb conformation with a lovely head.

She has produced a number of beautiful cria in a variety of colours including light brown, fawn and black, all of which have done well at shows. In 2018 we mated her with our new stud Fowberry Lucien and produced a lovely light fawn male who has since been sold. We did not mate her last year as she had soem tooth problems but these have since been resolved and we’ve just mated her to our own stud, Luna.

Guinevere was born in 2013 to Anzac Designer Girl and Anzac Czar. A very sweet black female, she was born a little too late to be shown in 2014, but has been shown in 2015 when she did very well, gaining 2nd at the Heart of England show and 3rd in the National show.

While not one of our more determined alapacas at feeding time she contrives to be near the front of the queue when food is around. Not exactly a waif, she has what the judges call good substance of bone, but what we tend to refer to as being a solid citizen…..

We had some problems mating her but she produced a huge white cria last year from our own stud Lucien and has been mated with one of Inca’s black studs which we hope will produce another lovely cria.