sagephoto

Lost Creek Sagehopper

 

ILR # 285352

female  b. 6-10-2012

Lost Creek Credo x Rocky Mountain Dazzle

 

 

 

Sage has that wonderful standard-length, sheds-with-just-a-slicker-brush Classic coat and all the key physical attributes we like to see in a packer. Her movement is strong and athletic, she's active by nature, she's light on her feet, and her gaits are excellent — a strong four-beat walk and a natural trot. Channelled properly, Sage's grit and determination would have been a valuable attribute on the trail as well. Unfortunately, Sage acquired a mild lameness in one foreleg and we don't think it's humane (or smart!) to ask her to do hard work.

Sage entered our breeding program on probation due to multiple concerns — so many, in fact, that we would typically NOT breed a llama with so many "question marks". However, the rest of her "package" was much, much too close to what we are breeding for (and the Classic llama gene pool increasingly too bottlenecked) to take her out of production outright. After evaluating Sage's maternal traits, we were glad that we did not sell Sage as a nonbreeder.

However, Sage's bloodlines are no longer underutilized nor uncommon, so — as much as we appreciate her ancestry and her physical talents — we are retiring her from breeding so we can concentrate on preserving the remaining unusual working bloodlines that are in our custody.

Sage's coat is very reminiscent of sagebrush — grey-brown and coarse — and of the wide open spaces of the Great Basin sagebrush country. There was no such thing as a "sagehopper" ... until now. Sagehopper is active, not planted in place! And, to paraphrase, young Sagehopper also had much to learn.

Meet Sage's offspring: