The American Blue Morrit Sheep was more or less an accident. If you really want to go back to the beginning it all started with trailer load of rescued, registered, Navajo Churro sheep. Some had never been shorn their entire lives.
Jausonne Spencer was a cowboy (girl) who had nothing to do with sheep her whole life. She grew up in a pulling horse family and spent her first 45yrs working cattle, as well as breeding/training Spanish horses.
A series of events left the ranch empty. To try and ease her heart, her then husband bought a trailer load of registered Navajo Churro. Thats how this all got started.
Jausonne had worked in rare breeds before so understanding breeding principles and how to safely create unrelated breeding groups with small numbers wasn’t something new. Nor was line breeding to lock in traits. Her first breeding experience was a pair of Dutch rabbits her father brought home when she was 7yrs. Rabbits were a valuable lesson in both pray behavior and genetics. There has never been a time since there wasn’t rabbits in her barn. She currently raises blue agouti and sable French Angora for spinning.
After cleaning up the flock I went on to try and make something of them. I sent samples of fleece all over the US and samples of biil (bale) the soft under coat, as far away as Holland and Italy. All at my expense to try and create a market. The whole time screaming, ” Im not that domesticated, you cant make me” After giving it my best effort I found the sheep wild and unfit for a small non open range situation. The fleeces were just not going to sell, period. I was giving them away for use in neighbors gardens. It may have been different if I would have surcome to weaving, it didn’t happen.
There were 2 things that had to happen immediately. The crazy had to go, and the double coat needed to be reduced. All other aspects of the breed I admired. Those two issues were major road blocks.
The first thing I did was remove all the Churro rams and replace them with a high luster, extremely manageable Cormo x Romney ram named Buzz. He was white, had an 8′ staple of some of the highest luster wool Ive ever seen. He was as kind as a wether. Buzz was a game changer in replacing crazy ewes with workable ones. Un sellable fleeces were replaced with extremely nice middle of the market fleeces. I was pretty darn happy, but was about to get happier.
It was the next ram I can honestly say was the foundation sire of the breed. It was totally by accident. I had bought a ram lamb that was supposed to be brown from a local ( 6 hour round trip), and world renowned Cormo breeder. I never did decide if he was brown, or black. After his first sheering I called the breeder and told her the wool was either brown, or black depending on the light, or shade. The Alexandrite effect had been discovered only I didn’t understand it yet. The first year he was used he produced a funny little ram that started out black and changed colors for the next 2yrs. This was Rumpelstiltskin.
My life was crazy. With divorce in the air, I was left with more bills than money and sheep were not my biggest problem. I made 2 of the worst dissensions I could have made that year, With no help. No way to get the sheep in. No help getting them on the sheering stand. I was mentally and physically overwhelmed. I sold both that Cormo Ram and his lavender son. A choice that eats at me to this day. I had two sons, Rumpelstiltskin II, and Richard Black Wolf. I didn’t know the flock was already becoming an entity unto themselves. Yes I knew there were great colors, but I was so deep in to a drawn out divorce I wasn’t seeing the big picture.
With Rumpelstiltskin II, on Old Devil daughters, colors started showing up that never had. Blue was now very consistent not hit and miss. The rainbow of colors just kept coming. What’s more my wool customers started noticing the color changing effect. They started posting photos of the light and shaded colors. It was dubbed “The Alexandrite Effect” . Although Rumple II wasn’t the true foundation of the breed, he was certainly the Ram to lock it all in and insure a strong future. 98% of his get, possess not only the Alexandrite effect, but are turquoise blue, slate blue, or lavender ( a mix of Morrit and blue fibers) he really is turning hay into gold.
Today when one looks out over the flock scattered about the pasture it is clear they all have a unique phenotype. Rumple himself is the only wooled breed ram to sport an odd tom turkey like beard. In the blink of an eye ( ok a decade and a half) They were doing something magically wonderful. Did I plan it? No. However I’m certainly glad it happened.