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 Nubin
SydneyILR # 57096 gelding b.1-15-86 Deacon's Rhett Butler x Violet (photo by Diana Pyle) However, even too much of a fun thing gets boring eventually, and when Sydney's performances became stale more and more often, we made the decision to retire him from the show ring before he made the decision for us, possibly under less-than-politically-convenient circumstances. Sydney has drawn packing duty in the past for various reasons, but was a mediocre packer at best (he points out that "pack," "hill," and "work" are all four-letter words). Actually, Sydney has a conformational defect that makes packing uphill difficult for him, and so we minimized his loads and distances. Sydney also drove, but we had to be unusually cautious to train him in a way that did not risk promoting physical problems. Sydney's lumbosacral defect finally began to catch up with him in early 1999, and so he is no longer driving, and he is semi-retired as a packer as well. He continued to show in pack classes after that, however, because the class demands are very minimal and caused him no discomfort. Syd still uses his many years of skill to teach rookie humans about packing and ground driving, and although he has lost some muscle mass to aging, he has not lost any of his curiosity. Sydney likes children, teasing other llamas, finding things that annoy adult humans, and being recognized as a star. Meet more of our llama family Return to Lost Creek Llamas home page |