Llama Biography #21: Autumn Hill's Inali

I have to admit it, Inali was one of my favorite llamas.  If only he had been a girl I would've been set for life!

Fuzzy boy!

When we got our new herdsire, Randallama's Cherokee, in 2004, we bred him to a bunch of our females that fall.  Alder Crest April Showers was one of those females.  April is pretty much my favorite llama, so I was excited to have another baby from her.

April, Inali's dam.

Cherokee, Inali's sire.

When the fall of 2005 came around, we had two Cherokee crias (Trillium and Catastrophie) born in late September.  Just three days after Catastrophie was born, I came home to find a baby running around with April.  As I was walking from the house out to the barn I kept hoping that it was a girl, but of course it turned out to be a boy!  But he was adorable!  April has a good track record of throwing babies with big bone and heavy fiber, and Inali got all of it!  He is built just like her.

Just a few hours old.

Mom and baby.

Fuzzy boy growing up!

Such a ham!

Trillium sold right after her first show in 2006, so Inali became my show boy for the year.  He didn't do great in halter because he was pretty small (although he did get a few 3rd places in large classes at the Indy Open and Llama Showcase), but by the time the 4-H fair came around he was doing great in performance!  We won Grand Champion Senior Performance, Grand Champion Showmanship, and Grand Champion Costume at the Shelby County Fair.  Unfortunately our show season was cut short, as Inali sold at the Llama Showcase show and went to his new home in northern Indiana shortly after the 4-H fair.

Shortly after being shorn.

Inali has a wonderful home where he is loved and spoiled.  He actually lives with a bunch of horses.  I went back a year after I sold him to shear him, and it was scary how much he looked like his mom!

Inali (now affectionally called Chewy) with his horse buddy.

Llama Biography # 19: Autumn Hill's Trillium

This is another semi-sad biography, but not until the very end...

The next llama to join our herd was Autumn Hill's Trillium.

Autumn Hill's Trillium at about a month old.

Once we got Randallama's Cherokee to be our main herdsire, we quickly let him get to work breeding our females.  Little May Flowers was one of those females, and she was bred to Cherokee in the fall of 2004.

Randallama's Cherokee, Trillium's sire.

Little May Flowers, Trillium's dam.  May was pregnant with Trillium in this picture.

In September 2005, I came home from school one afternoon to find May looking very uncomfortable.  It soon became clear that May definitely was in labor, so I grabbed the neonatal book and birthing kit and camped out in the barn for awhile.  A little while later May delivered a gorgeous true black female cria.  With May's first baby, it took her awhile to figure out that she was responsible for it, so we were careful not to intervene too much with her second baby.  Luckily May was a great mom!

May and Trillium...twins!

I love true black llamas, so this little girl quickly became a favorite.  She also had amazing presence and the most gorgeous fiber.  

Goofy baby!

A very dusty Trillium at 3 months old.  Her half-brother (same sire) Inali is behind her.

Trillium at 4 months old.

Trillium went to her first show in the spring of 2006, the Western Ohio Triple Crown.  Even with not behaving well, she placed 6th in a huge class of Medium Wool Juvenile females.  Friends of ours saw her at the show, and decided that she needed to join their farm.  I was sad to see her go, but was glad she was going to a great home.

Trillium at 7 months old.

Several months after Trillium left the farm, I found out that she had contracted a parasite and died.  It was a huge loss, for both myself and the other farm.  Her legacy does live on though...May was rebred to Cherokee a few years later and had another stunning cria!

May with Trillium's full brother.  He is now a breeding male in Kentucky.

Llama Biography #18: Randallama's Cherokee

Well I made my first chronological mistake...I forgot Cherokee!

Cherokee.

Randallama's Cherokee was purchased from Mark Smith Farms in the summer of 2004.  Our then young herdsire, Navarro, hadn't been able to settle a female, so we needed another male.  Cherokee had been purchased by Mark Smith Farms several years before and used as a breeding male until they acquired the famous Tuna Catcher.  We were happy to add him to our farm!

Cherokee was 3rd at the ALSA Nationals.

Cherokee was a great breeding male for our farm.  He was easy to handle but an aggressive breeder.

Cherokee had great presence and bone.

Cherokee and Navarro never did get along...they fought quite aggressively at first, and anytime one of them got "lucky" after that.  It was always a bit scary to watch them fight...

Cherokee got to work pretty quick after we bought him.  We bred him with 3 females in the fall of 2004, and the crias were born in 2005.  Trillium (May's daughter), Catastrophie (Cattera's daughter), and Inali (April's son) were all quite impressive.

Cherokee's crias, Trillium, Catastrophie, Inali (L to R).

We bred Cherokee to Cattera again in 2006, and Catallegre was born in 2007.  We also bred May to him in 2006, but she was sold before the cria was born.  Surprisingly the baby looked exactly like Catallegre!

Catallegre.

May and her cria, Picasso.

We decided to keep Catastrophie as a breeding female, so Cherokee went to a new home in the spring of 2007.  He's still breeding on a farm down south.