New Arrivals

We've been waiting with great anticipation for the first cria of 2011 to arrive.  They're finally here!  At least the first few.  So if you've been following and read any of the Due Soonests or Who'll Go First blog posts you know a few of the moms we've been waiting on.  Knock Out  delivered first on Tuesday, June 14th and then apparently inspired one of our maidens, Moonshadow's Late Nite Out, to deliver also.

Knock Out's new cria, a very bright white handsome boy~

Late Nite Out's new cria, a cute fawn boy~

People are always asking us how we come up with names for all the new cria, we have had around 90 cria born since we started with our first 5 pregnant females.  Sometimes it is amazingly easy and a name just pops and suits them.  Sometimes it is more challenging, we have some themes we use, sometimes we like to incorporate the name of the Sire or Dam, some times it's just kind of random or from something significant that happened in the beginning of the cria's life.  So to explain Late Nite Out, which my son came up with, she was the first cria we ever had born after dark.  She is just under 3 years old, so at the time we had still had a lot of babies born within common parameters.  Statistically, close to 90% of cria will be born between 6 am and 2 pm, and for us this has pretty much held true.  Just felt the need to clarify she was not a party girl staying out late that earned her the name.  ;-)

To follow up the excitement of the two new cria on Tuesday, Moonshadow's Evening Staar went into labor on Wednesday and delivered her cria.  So going back to the 2 blog posts talking about our impending new cria I highlighted 4 of the 6 moms that were due this month.  I won't admit that was intended as a guess in who would deliver first, we know they stick to their own schedule.  A couple of the other moms we are waiting on are now over 350 days pregnant!

Here is Evening Staar with her new white, extremely dense fleeced little boy~

Evening Staar's boy and Knock Out's boy are half brothers from our Herdsire, Snowmass Golden Victory

We love seeing the babies begin to arrive after months of waiting to see what the pairing of Sire and Dam produces.  Color is often a surprise, but our primary focus is on high quality fiber regardless of the color.  Some ranches specialize in particular colors, we truly love them all and appreciate having a range of colored fleeces.  Have to admit we generally would prefer girls over boys, but producing boys with stud potential is always a top consideration in selecting breeding pairs.  In the end, we are always thrilled to have easy deliveries, good moms with plenty of milk and motherly instincts and strong healthy cria.  New cria arrivals is definitely one of the most exciting times of the year!

To see more photos of the new cria, check out our Flickr set on 2011 Cria.