The Delphi Resumé
Linda Bat
Ava, Linda, Appeline, and Rus. Ava and Appeline are both National Champion Avatar Daughters.
Avatar
Ike
Lailah - Avatar's most recent National Champion; She is the 2012 National Grey Fleece Champion.
Delphi Resumé -
(Well it is a little like applying for the job, of working with you . . . )
I (Linda) graduated from Bel-rea Institute of Animal Technology in 1983, enjoyed an externship at the Denver Zoo, and then worked for ten years as a Certified Veterinary Technician at small animal practices in Colorado and in New Jersey.
From 1989 thru 1991, I was the Veterinary Assistant program instructor at Denver’s Pima Medical Institute, while employed with Colorado Veterinary Laboratory in Broomfield, CO; as a Veterinary Laboratory Technician, with a focus on hematology and microbiology.
After discovering alpacas in 1991, I found my way to the 1993 AOBA conference, fell in love, and later that year brought home our first 3 alpacas.
In 1998 I quit my "day job" - and for the most part since then, have been a full time alpaca breeder. Raising alpacas is what we do for a living.
Delphi has been home to nearly 200 births, and our alpacas have taught us so much along the way. We also have nearly 100 shows under our belts. Alpaca shows are great opportunities to learn and to spend time with our alpaca friends.
Delphi’s chosen veterinarian and our good friend, Dr. Leslie Harrison, moved to our area over 12 years ago. Before then, Leslie was the primary veterinarian for a large farm of about 100 alpacas. Leslie has done about 150 ultrasounds for us, & she is available to offer experienced camelid care to all of the alpacas at Delphi. Dr. Pamela Rose, another camelid expert, is also available and we feel extraordinarily blessed to be working with two such phenomenal camelid vets.
Rus and I found each other in 2006, and it’s a perfect fit. His previous occupations included crop dusting, airline pilot, and commercial jet pilot instructor. While the sound of every plane overhead will still make him stop in his tracks, Rus loves life with alpacas - and who could blame him! ;^)
Together we manage the Delphi Alpaca herd, and, with the significant assistance of 2 totally excellent guard dogs named Spark & Bela, Delphi is now home to one of the highest quality colorful herds in the country.
The past 20 years have been an amazing ride. Delphi has improved and evolved with the industry - and along the way we became a bit obsessed over creating the very slickest, softest, finest, shiniest colored fleeces in the U.S.
While we have had the pleasure of managing some of the best herdsires in the country in every color - our discovery of Avatar in 2001 (when he wasn't even a week old) - turned out to indelibly shape our future. Avatar taught us very early on that we didn't need to settle for less in fleece quality to have wonderful color. Avatar was giving us crias of extraordinary bright, fine, softness and uniformity, with a bonus lack of guard hair, before I knew enough to appreciate it's rarity. What I did know was that most of the other colored alpacas I saw (especially in those days) didn't have the qualities that his kids had. In time we learned to not only appreciate how very rare Avatar is, but to select the rest of our herd with his qualities as our benchmark.
Avatar gave us the priceless gift of showing us just how high we could set our expectations. He truly is the king of Delphi.
Delphi is now "going greyer - in more ways than one!"
We have focused on grey since 2001 - but have also enjoyed dabbling in many colors along the way.
Most recently we have narrowed our scope, to what we do best, and love most.
We have painstakingly created and acquired an extraordinary lineup of grey females to match with Avatar (along with a few very select, absolutely exquisite black and brown females), and have also acquired a new grey herdsire, Ike, to cross with our Avatar genetics.
Again - with Avatar as our Benchmark - Ike had a lot to measure up to.
We are incredibly excited to see the next generations.
The 2014 Litter of crias will be the result of 20 years of refined selection and focus.
We are eager to share our genetics and our experiences with you -
don't hesitate to give us a call or zip us an email.
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