We had some suspicions about this young fellow when he first hit the ground. 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, he 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. We are looking forward to seeing his first crias on the ground this coming summer...