dazzle photo

Rocky Mountain Dazzle

 

ILR # 222315

female  b. 9-3-1998 . . . d. 11.13.2021

Bett’s Greyfeather x Rocky Mountain Puzzle

 

 

 

Dazzle stood 44.25" at the withers and finally settled into the 325lb range during her prime.

Dazzle came from a huge herd, so she was of the opinion that humans are not capable of relationships. We let her take it at her speed, but she never really changed that early-ingrained opinion. She did really impress us with her tendency to think things through, and to advance us trust (on lead) rather than assuming the worst (as so many llamas do nowadays).

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. On that trip, however, we had already selected two other female llamas 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. In the summer of 2007, a transportation opportunity arose and we longingly remembered how much we really, really liked Dazzle ... and decided we ought to avail ourselves of the opportunity. 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 high-performance traits that are getting increasingly difficult to find as aesthetic-driven evaluators cause people to reject llamas with these traits before ever proving (or disproving) their theories (and the animals) on the trail. Between these and Dazzle's excellent natural trot (which she did pass on), we were very pleased to have her in our breeding herd.

Due to unusual discomfort during pregnancy, Dazzle was retired from breeding after producing daughter Sage as a replacement. Dazzle lived out the rest of her days with us, enjoying being "granny" to many babies, including several of her own grandchildren.

We don’t really know the inspiration for Dazzle’s name, although it may have been intended to sound similar to her dam, Puzzle. In any case, her gaits sure dazzled Gwen out of a pasture full of 70+ females.

Dazzle's offspring born at Lost Creek:

(Dazzle also produced a female in 2005 for Rocky Mountain Llamas)