Our herdsire - Enchantment's Prince Regent
We had a special birthday over the weekend. Our herdsire Enchantment’s Prince Regent turned 10 on Halloween (October 31).
We don’t make it a habit to celebrate all of the alpacas birthdays, with as many alpacas as we have we would be doing a lot of celebrating if we did that, but it is nice to remember significant events such as Regent’s 10th birthday.
Enchantment’s Prince Regent was our very first cria, his dam Enchantment’s Peruvian Jennifer was our first alpaca purchase. We purchased Jenny in June of 1999, she was already pregnant by PPPeruvian Yupanqui and we were excited to see what our first cria would be like.
Of course Jenny went past her due date and we anxiously awaited the phone call from the farm where she was boarded telling us that Jenny was in labor. We lived about three hours away from the boarding farm, Enchantment Farm Alpacas in Ruidoso, New Mexico and so we knew that we had little chance of seeing our first cria being born, but we wanted to get to see our cria as soon as we could.
Fortunately it was a Saturday morning when Jenny went into labor, Ann Evans from Enchantment Farm Alpacas called me to give me the news. At the time of Ann’s call I was on my way to volunteer at a local animal shelter but that plan soon changed and after returning home to collect Ric we were on our way to Ruidoso. To this day Ann Evans teases us about the speed in which we made that journey, she could not believe how fast we made it to the farm.
Arriving at Enchantment Farms we could see Jenny and her cria penned in the pasture. Ann and her husband Rick met us at the pasture and took us in to see our new arrival, a little white male cria who we called Enchantment’s Prince Regent. Initially we were a little disappointed that Regent was a boy, but when Rick and Ann suggested that perhaps we would like to sell him to them we realized this was not just any little boy cria, he was something special. While we were grateful for Rick and Ann’s offer we decided to keep Regent and have been so happy we did so.
Rosemary and Regent the day Regent was born
Regent was undeniable cute as a cria, Ann nick named him Little Monkey Face because of his round face, but as time passed by Little Monkey Face soon became an alpaca with a beautiful sought after head. We have had people book breedings to Regent just because they liked his head style.
Regent has shown us many aspects of alpaca management during his life. It was with Regent that we first learned how to bottle feed a cria, Jenny did not have enough milk for him and so Regent received supplemental feedings. I can still remember being in the pasture with Ann’s daughter Thea during one of our visits to see Regent. Thea (who I think was then about 9 or 10) instructed me in how to hold onto Regent and get the bottle in his mouth at the same time. It was quite the challenge to me, but Thea had it down to a fine art!
We experienced our first alpaca show with Regent along with our female gray alpaca Ma Cushla in Estes Park Colorado. That was to be the first of many alpaca shows for Regent and for us, and during Regent’s show career he won many ribbons and gave us our first Reserve Color Champion.
Enchantment's Prince Regent wins his first Reserve Color Championship
Regent has been responsible for bringing income to the farm in the form of breeding fees and the sale of his offspring. His offspring have done well in the show ring and he has several color champion offspring to his name.
At 10 years old Regent is still looking good and still getting bookings for breeding. His correct confirmation, dense fleece that has held its fineness, heavy bone and of course that beautiful head make him a herdsire that is still sought after – and he is more than happy to continue to have dates with beautiful alpaca girls. As a herdsire he is easy to manage, all you need to say is “girls” and he will stand still and allow himself to be caught and haltered. He is well mannered with the ladies and if a girl says no, while he is undoubtedly disappointed, he will allow himself to be led out of the pen with just a little grumbling.
There is a saying that just because an alpaca is male does not mean he deserves to be a herdsire – a saying that is very true. With Regent though he truly does deserve to be a herdsire and how fortunate we are to have been blessed with such a wonderful herdsire as our first cria.
So on Regent’s birthday I sang him Happy Birthday, told him how much he means to us – and then had to apologize to him as I didn’t have a breeding arranged for him for that day. Oh well that’s all part of life as a successful herdsire and Regent was quite happy to receive hay and feed as a birthday treat instead. Happy Birthday Regent!
A Taste of Life at Windrush Alpacas 