Rocky Mountain Dazzle
ILR # 222315
female b. 9-3-1998
Bett’s Greyfeather x Rocky Mountain Puzzle
click on the photo to see more pictures of Dazzle on flickr®
Dazzle stands 44.25" at the withers and arrived ... ah, obese ... luckily for her, our scale wasn't working so the whole world will never know what that exact figure was!
Dazzle came from a huge herd, so she's of the opinion that humans are not capable of relationships. We’re letting her take it at her speed, but don't really expect her to change that early-ingrained opinion. So far she has really impressed us with her tendency to think things through, however..
In the summer of 2003, we were visiting our long-time friend, Bobra Goldsmith (Rocky Mountain Llamas). Dazzle’s stupendous gaits caught our eye. Llamas with a strong natural trot are rare, and that trait is not only ideal for harness work, but is tightly linked with a strong, even four-beated walk, which is ideal for packing and particularly powerful performance when going up inclines — so you can understand why our interest was piqued immediately. We also appreciated Dazzle’s conformation, muscling, and (just as a bonus, understand!) striking color pattern ... and her geneology: Her sire is an excellent Classic working pack llama who is a 3/4 sib to our Greymist, a half sib to Sunshine, and a full sib to Legacy; her dam’s 100% Classic lines include several fine classic llamas we’d admired over the years. On that trip, however, we had already selected two other female llamas (of which Sunshine was one) and couldn’t afford (or justify) a third at the time. Before we left, we let Bobra know that we really wanted Dazzle, and Bobra agreed that she would sell her to us at some time in the future, and not to anyone else. When Niki Kuklenski (JNK Llamas) called us in the summer of 2007 to say she had just purchased Legacy, we longingly remembered how much we really, really liked Dazzle ... and abruptly decided we ought to avail ourselves of the transportation opportunity that presented. The future had finally arrived, and were we ever glad! Even the transporter remarked that Dazzle seemed to think this was the place she was meant to live when she stepped off the trailer.
Dazzle’s strong scalenes, appropriate neck length, and functionally desirable moderate size are considered negative traits by the “in crowd” (translation — those with time and money to promote non-working ideals that happen to be what they have for sale), but that’s OK. We’d rather be makin’ tracks on the trail (where most showring judges and NACA screeners would be left in the dust!).
We don’t really know the inspiration for Dazzle’s name, although it may be intended to sound similar to her dam, Puzzle. However, her gaits sure dazzled Gwen out of a pasture full of 70+ females, and they still dazzle us here on our farm.
Dazzle produced one offspring for Rocky Mountain Llamas in 2005, but has not produced for us despite multiple attempts with two proven studs.