Violet - Rich

Pike Hill Violet (S25080, 3/07) is a grey katmoget, but displays no spotting whatsoever. I will say that she may well be carrying both the modifier and spotting genes. Violet has a very nice fleece that is quite dense. It still looks tan in spite of her black legs and markings. This is a nice fleece. Violet’s markings remain very well defined and she carries herself in a way that attracts the eye. She stands out in the pasture, which is saying something, given my obsession with spots! She is bred to our yuglet sokket katmoget White Pine (S24374). We’ll see what she throws! We’ll likely repeat that breeding next year. Violet also has a very nice conformation

Tinkerbelle - Rich

Minawae Tinkerbelle (S24923,3/07), is a very nice grey yuglet flekket HST ewe. I’ve been looking for one for a while and she is just what I had hoped for. I wanted to breed her to Cihat this year, but I felt she was too small. We weighed her just before November and she came in at about 45 pounds. I went with my gut feel here and didn’t breed her. She didn’t look that heavy to me and I felt the extra year would do her good!

Myrtle - Rich

This old girl is Lofty Pines Molly (we call her Myrtle) (S11881, 3/01). Lofty Pines? Myrtle was a ewe from our original flock in 2001. Although she is only seven, she has always been the old woman of our flock. She definitely recognizes that she has seniority out there, and expects to be fed separately from the rest of the ewes. She has a nice, medium-colored grey fleece that spins up nicely. Myrtle also had the best conformation of our starter flock, which is why she’s still here. She didn’t have lambs her first two years with us, which made me think she was infertile. I even called her infertile Myrtle. I tried to sell her cheap back in 2004, because I thought she couldn’t have lambs. Then in the spring of 2004, lo and behold, out popped a nice black ram. Then in 2005, she had a nice ewe, then a nice ram again in 2006. Do you see a pattern here? All singles! But each lamb was very nice! More importantly, the rams all had very nice horns! So, we kept her and last year she had two very nice grey lambs! Her first twins! And, sure enough, the ram had exquisite horns! She is bred to Cihat this year because he has one of the nicest conformation you’ll ever see in a Shetland! Plus she carries spots (which I didn’t know until last year). She may not have spots this year, but the lambs should be quite nice. Myrtle is also a heavy milker, so her lambs sometimes go through a bout with yellow poop, but (knock on wood), we’ve always managed to make it go away quickly. Last year wasn’t so bad, but I think it’s because she finally had two lambs to share the milk. She produces enough milk for three lambs, to be honest.

Jasmine - Jen

We elected not to breed Twin Springs Jasmine (S25784, 4/07), a moorit yuglet HST ewe. When we did our weigh in this fall, she was underweight for breeding, so she and Tinkerbelle spent breeding season in a nice cozy isolation pen with no stinky boys. Jasmine has a nice soft wavy fleece with strong markings. She has a very sweet personality that befits her impish stature and is very playful. She is good to excellent in all characteristics Rich thinks are important (Conformation, health, markings, fleece quality), and he is quite critical of our flock. She is very striking and we are looking forward to breeding her to our katmoget ram next fall!

Seraphim - Rich

Minawae Seraphim (s24924, 4/07) gives us something we don’t currently have! In addition to being an HST yuglet, she has those cool brown markings on her feet and pasterns. I like that and none of our other ewes have that. She is musket and is bred to Cihat. I thought about breeding her to our HST katmoget ram, but I’m not really looking for an ag katmoget lamb, and I may well have gotten one. I might go that way next year, however. She also has a nice look about her!

Zabrina - Rich

Bluff Country Zabrina (S19235, 4/05) is our biggest ewe (around 90 pounds). She is Shetland black. When we bought her from a picture, we were told that she was shaela, but I was skeptical. I’m not an expert on sheep color, but she looks black to me. She has a nice conformation and is quite square. She’s not our friendliest ewe, but sometimes it takes a while with a new sheep. I believe she is spotted, but I know she has had spotted lambs in the past. She is bred to White Pine (S24374). I still don’t have a good feel for her fleece. It feels soft, but I don’t think it is as uniform as one would like. It’s tough because she came from an area of the country that was hit by drought pretty hard and they were having a hay shortage. She was on the thin side when we got her and I think her fleece isn’t what it will be next year. I think she has really filled out nicely since we've gotten her! I don’t know what to expect in her lambs, but I’m looking forward to it! White Pine is a very nice ram and we don’t know what he’ll produce either!

HST - Jen

Rich refers to HST a lot when he describes our sheep. HST means the sheep has markings on its head, socks and tail. HST can be expressed in varying degrees, perhaps a ewe only has three socks and one solid leg, or just the very tip of the tail is a contrasting color. HST is nice to have because you get markings that make the animal stand out, but you also get a nice uniform color fleece for spinning. Kind of a best of both worlds. That said, spotted bodies also spin up nicely, with a pleasing variegated appearance. The best way to breed for HST lambs is to have HST parents. It is possible to routinely get HST lambs but you need to breed for it. HST is not a NASSA approved marking, but many shetland breeders use the term to describe the occurance.
The photo above is a nice lineup of a few of our ewes that exhibit HST markings. From the left are Fantasia, Peony, Buttercup, Rose and Southern Belle.