Wes,
Having two Black Thunder sons is a pleasant experience. They have such mellow personalities and are so easily trained, I plan to keep both as packers and perhaps as studs.

The older boy (20 months) acted like an experienced packer on his first long trip. The younger (6 months) did my obstacle course on the first try with a loose lead. I'm anxious to see how he behaves on the trail.

They are like computers that came with built-in software programmed for packing.

Bob Schimpf

Wes talks about his favorite llama, Black Thunder...

Shortly after I started the Classic 2000, a man named Jim Rogers called me from Montana to tell me he thought he had something really special. He had bought Black Thunder to use as a pack llama. After he heard of the Classic 2000 he started looking at Black Thunder a little more closely. Jim called me and we decided he must list him in the directory.

After I saw a picture of Black Thunder I knew I had to have him. (He was 47.5 inches at two and one-half years old). The problem was Jim knew I wanted him real bad and eventually he cost me about five thousand dollars in trade of llamas and goods; a female llama, a trained packer, a full setup of new packing equipment, and two free breedings to Thunder per year. I have no regrets. Black Thunder made me more than that last year in sales of offspring and breeding fees.

After I bought Thunder I still knew he had to be proven as a stud and a packer. As soon as I got Thunder home I wanted to take him on a pack trip to see if he had the grit. Soon he was with me in the Bear Tooth Mountains. For a test, I took Thunder with me on a day hike to pack the lunch for the Yellowstone Institute Flower Identification Class. I also took an older trained llama to pack a child that was along on the trip. The course involved a very challenging route through boulder fields, then scaling a mountain with granite cliffs and shale.

I took one llama at a time up through the cliffs because it was very steep and difficult weaving our way however we could around the straight up and down shale slides and boulder outcroppings. I took Thunder up first, carrying about fifty pounds of lunch items. He was hesitant at first, but soon got the idea and attacked the steep chutes with me like an experienced packer. After I finally reached the top with Thunder I was gasping for breath while he was hardly breathing. Then I went down after the experienced packer. I brought him up empty, and still he and I huffedand puffed to retrieve our breath at the top while Thunder looked at us like "What's the big deal, ya wooses?