Avenger’s first cria at CCNF

While we were off last weekend walking in circles at the Green Mountain Show, our four year old Herdsire, CCNF Avenger, very quietly wrote his name in the annals of our breeding program.  Avenger is a son of Archangel and CPeruvian Stacey, a rather grumpy but nonetheless highly valued member of our foundation herd that’s been here with us since the fall of 2002. It’s been quite a reversal of fortune for this guy. Quite honestly Avenger came within a month or two of being gelded back when he was 2 years of age. He was one of those males whom we had initially rated quite highly as a juvenile only to have him flatline a bit in his development as a yearling. It wasn’t until we were picking out our show string a year and a half ago for the 2010 North American that we realized exactly what we had in him. Though he has had to compete for the attentions of the fairer sex with various members of his paternal line, his place in the CCNF Stud Barn has been safe ever since. While he does not posses a marquee show record (his best finish was a 1st at the AOBA National Fleece Show) he has certainly competed at the highest of levels, winning amongst other ribbons a 4th place out of 10 at the 2010 Futurity. He also finished 2nd behind his paternal brother, King of the Ladies, at the NAAS that year, the eventual Champion and Judges Choice Winner as well as that year’s white Futurity Champion. By coincidence there was Avenger again this past Sunday taking another 2nd place ribbon, though this time to Snowshoe Aristides, the impressive Herdsire owned by our friends Ron and Terry Miller of Snowshoe Farm Alpacas. I can hear my dear friend Dave Serino from here, “always a bridesmaid, never a bride!” Shut. It. Perhaps Avenger will ultimately have to make his boldest statements through his offspring?

Though Avenger did already have two crias on the ground elsewhere from earlier this year — both of whom are reported to be quite impressive by their respective owners — this was his first one born here at home. What was different about our little girl here though was that both her dam, Concordia (CCNF Man in Black’s full sister), and ultimately herself are of dark color. This is significant because it marks the first time that we have personally bred a member of the Archangel line to a colored female. Call it the curse of the big farm, or just call it stupid and shortsighted: when you have a a plethora of high end white Herdsires you tend to generally breed them with your high end white females. All of which is rather odd since we’ve been well aware for at least 3 or 4 years that Arch himself was more than capable of throwing rather dynamic colored offspring. Other’s, namely our friend Pat Badger, had even done the work for us proving that theory out. Well way to get with the program Lutzs. Better late than never I suppose!

In any case we can certainly start to hypothesize that after throwing three solid colored cria (2 beige, 1 brown) that the oh-so-scandalous fawn spot Avenger has on the right side of his neck is probably not the liability it could have been. Needless to say the birth of his daughter over the weekend did absolutely nothing to hurt his stock in our eyes. If anything his breeding list for 2012 just got considerably more interesting. For now we await his next (and final) cria of 2011 due later this month out of some random Ring of Fire kid named Orange Blossom. No pressure to produce there at all. Based upon early returns though we can’t help but feel cautiously optimistic…