Tag: Choc-ice

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Cheer!

I thought I would write a blog to celebrate Cheer the reindeer.

She has a very distinctive white patchy face and often reindeer with white noses or faces stand out from the herd and get lots of attention. But in general I would say Cheer has avoided the spot-light for most of her life as naturally she is quite shy around people, preferring to keep her distance, and she’s not super dominant towards other reindeer either. On Hill Trips she’ll often be more in the distance and definitely not muscling her way in for the hand feed amongst the greediest of reindeer.

Cheer in September 2021 looking beautiful.

Cheer will turn 14 in the spring so definitely falls into the ‘old girl’ category and has been retired from breeding after her last calf was born in 2024. This means she now can spend the vast majority of her year out free ranging enjoying a peaceful life.

I don’t really remember encountering Cheer when I first came to be a herder for around 10 months in 2017 – 2018 (sorry, Cheer!). However, when I returned to reindeer herding in 2021 I got to know her much better. She had a calf in 2022 (Choc-ice), 2023 (Shannon) and 2024 (Chai) which meant Cheer spent a bit more time in our hill enclosure (as opposed to free ranging out in the mountains) during the calving season in the spring and again in the autumn so she was around more.

I’ve now got a real soft spot for her. She is greedy and does love feeding from the hand feed bag but only if there’s no pushy reindeer around and she’s confident that we herders don’t want to ‘do anything’ to her! Then her shy and suspicious nature kicks in.

So here’s just lots of photos of her, and her offspring, taken over the past few years. Enjoy.

2021

One of my first photos of Cheer, when I bumped into her on the free range in August 2021. She’s the one in the background looking a bit suspicious of me! Addax is closest to camera.
Cheer back in the enclosure for the rut in October 2021. Still an uncertain look in her eye.
December 2021 – Cheer is back out free ranging and curious to know what’s in the feed bag!

2022

Cheer and her calf Choc-ice out free ranging in August 2022. Unfortunately they didn’t want anything to do with me! Still nice to see them looking good and enjoying themselves in their mountain home. She grew small antlers over the summer as she diverted more energy into her son.
As soon as we brought Choc-ice and Cheer back into the enclosure in September 2022 it became apparent Choc-ice had not inherited Cheer’s shy character! He has a naturally tame and bold personality.

2023

September 2023 – Cheer back in the enclosure and clearly has been in the feed bag looking at the crumbs on her nose!
Shannon and mum Cheer in November 2023.

2024

March 2024 – Shannon and Cheer free ranging together.
Cheer and daughter Chai – October 2024. Both are back in the hill enclosure after free ranging all summer.
Cheer (and Chai just behind) in December 2024. Clearly not feeling shy today!

2025

Shannon in March 2025. It appears she has inherited Cheer’s shyer characteristics, but she’s also greedy so she’s becoming more and more confident the more we gently work with her.
Cheer and Chai in May 2025, as Chai turned from calf to yearling.
Chai and Cheer in August 2025 – the pair have remained bonded and are often seen together whilst out free ranging.
I bumped into Chai and Cheer again in September 2025, free ranging together, but today Cheer was feeling suspicious of me! and perfectly happy to be left in peace.
Choc-ice stripping the velvet from his antlers in September 2025. He was one of our main breeding bulls in the rut the following month, so fingers crossed he’ll have passed on his and Cheer’s genes to the next generation of reindeer calves, greatly expanding Cheer’s dynasty.
Chai enjoying the snow in November 2025.

Ruth

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Photo Blog: October 2025

Where has October gone?! It was a pretty hectic month here with the rut in full swing, halter training the calves, free ranging reindeer keeping us busy, and three weeks of October holidays. But it’s been very fun and hopefully a successful rut – we’ll find out in the spring! The big news was that we managed to open the Exhibition! We did a very ‘soft opening’ just letting the October holiday makers have a look around to test things out. The best place to find up to date information regarding our Paddocks and Exhibition is still our website, or feel free to give us a call.

1st of October: Torch looking mega – she’s in great condition and looks particularly super for 13 year old.
6th of October: Cowboy investing the bags – “any more food for me?!”
6th of October: The gorgeous Winnie, she’s now 2.5 years old so was running with a bull this autumn. We’re so proud of our little hand-reared calf!
7th of October: Handsome Jester.
7th of October: Choc-ice has been one of our breeding bulls this year. He certainly knows where the lichen comes from – this was the face that met us most mornings.
9th of October: Kernel looking for food. Kulfi and Christie are behind.
10th of October: Reindeer on the skyline.
11th of October: Mother and daughter – Sunflower and Fika.
11th of October: Zoom will be trained to pull a sleigh this autumn.
18th of October: Feeding the herd on a glorious morning.
20th of October: Dr Seuss posing beautifully.
20th of October: Wonderful Emm walking off Orinoco and Suebi – they’d be running with Jimmy the bull but after a few weeks Jimmy seemed to be done with the rut, so these girls got to go back out on the free range.
21st of October: Bordeaux and calf.
21st of October: Beret and calf – he has super cool face markings.
22nd of October: Jester and Kernel chewing the cud together.
23rd of October: Dante and her beautiful dark calf.
29th of October: Feeding the calves out of the bag. It’s turned them all into absolute monsters!
29th of October: Tap and calf. Two of the darkest reindeer in the entire herd.
30th of October: Pinto and her son.

Ruth

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Photo Blog: August 2025

August has been a busy and fun month. We’ve had lots of visitors and three sold out Hill Trips almost everyday. Lots of people have also been coming into the Paddocks to see the reindeer on display there, and very excitingly the Exhibition is nearly ready. It’s looking super! You’ll definitely hear to social media and our website when we’re open.

We’ve also been having lots of free range action which every herder loves! Generally we start to see the free ranging females more as they come down in altitude as the weather gets cooler and the mushrooms appear on the side of the hills. We start bringing in the mums and their calves back into the enclosure any time in August. They spend June through to August/early September out roaming the hills learning how to be little wild reindeer and enjoying all the best grazing, but when the autumn rolls around it’s time for them to learn what a feed bag is and in time, how to walk on a halter etc. The following photos are a small snapshot of what’s been occurring this month…

1st of August: Limpopo looking super! Lovely tall antlers and in his dark summer coat.
2nd of August: The morning of the storm! Sadly in the afternoon we had to cancel our Hill Trips as the wind was so strong.
3rd of August: Scoop and Elbe are full brothers. Their mum is Suebi and their dad is Morse. They’re both very handsome!
5th of August: Yukon looking as cheeky as ever! He’s such a lovely lad.
6th of August: Found Marple and calf on the free range. Fiona and I brought them back into the hill enclosure. The first calf born back in April and the first calf back in the enclosure after the summer out free ranging.
8th of August: Kernel looking very handsome, coming in for a close up!
9th of August: All of my human colleagues abandoned me in the office for an afternoon on various free range missions! Ginger snuck in to keep me company!
9th of August: Marple’s calf already very comfortable in the enclosure.
12th of August: Lovely boys waiting for food! From L to R we have Kulfi, Rocket, Limpopo and Adzuki.
12th of August: Cicero posing beautifully!
13th of August: Bordeaux’s wee male calf hanging out with the big boys!
14th of August: Choc-ice wandering down the food line looking for the best pile of food.
15th of August: Zap found the perfect tussock to rest his chin on.
18th of August: Butter posing beautifully. As a 5 year old bull he’s grown nice big antlers this summer.
20th of August: Macchiato wandering over for food. He is Marple’s (see above) calf from 2024.
25th of August: Turtle and calf are back in the hill enclosure after the summer out free ranging.
25th of August: Three-year-olds, Zoom and Iskrem standing together. I thought this was a nice photo until I noticed Iskrem hadn’t changed his position after taking a pee!
26th of August: Trilby and calf are back in the enclosure.
27th of August: Merida brought herself back into the enclosure, she’s looking fantastic, especially for 13 years old.
28th of August: Sundae and calf looking great!
28th of August: I wanted to try to take some photos of the gorgeous calves, but Zoom had other ideas, everywhere I turned, there he was!

Ruth

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Photo Blog: June 2025

June is the scruffy reindeer month! Perhaps, not their most photogenic season but still a wonderful time of year and I still managed to take lots of photos of course to fill the monthly photo blog . The cows and calves are all free ranging in the hills and we have around half our males in our hill enclosure here, growing lovely antlers and meeting our visitors.

1st of June: Elbe still with almost a full winter coat, but you can see the short summer coat around his eyes and on his nose. The ears back look is very common in Elbe’s family. His twin sister Alba also often has the same ears back rather grumpy expression!
3rd of June: Dr Seuss with his pink nose! Every June his old winter coat falls out completely before his summer coat grows through.
6th of June: Bond looking majestic! Sadly the very next day he had broken his antler and now looks a little less majestic.
8th of June: No reindeer, but a lovely view from the side of Silver Mount looking down towards Glenmore and Loch Morlich with the lovely cotton grass in the foreground.
9th of June: 99 sporting his yellow sun block!
9th of June: The handsome Akubra coming to say hello.
11th of June: On a warm day the boys can go back to the gate and cause a bit of a road blockage for our visitors wanting to leave!
11th of June: Trying to get a decent photo for social media to announce the arrive of our 2026 calendar. This is me showing Amur his page in the calendar.
14th of June: Choc-ice finding a good chin rest for a snooze.
14th of June: After a rainy night, Lupin looks incredibly shaggy – his winter coat is coming off in big dreadlocks!
14th of June: What a motley crew. From R-L we have 99, Rocket and Dr Seuss.
17th of April: Druid doing his best ‘wooing’ face after the Hill Trip. He’s quite a shy reindeer but after a Hill Trip he comes looking for the white bag and wins the hearts of our visitors!
18th of June: Scoop is looking very smart in his short summer coat.
18th of June: Busby lying down and looking very handsome after a Hill Trip.
19th of June: Harness training with some of our male reindeer.
20th of June: A sunny Hill Trip!
25th of June: Butter, one of last year’s breeding bulls, growing a lovely set of antlers.
25th of June: Morse has also been a breeding bull in his day, but is now one of ‘Christmas reindeer’ trained to harness.
26th of June: Ärta looking very scruffy.
26th of June: Paddock swap day! Taking the Paddock boys back up the hill.

Ruth

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Photo Blog: May 2025

The start of May was a whirlwind! The first calf of the year was born on the 25th of April, then the cows left us in suspense for a whole week until the 2nd of May until the next one came along. It was then a flurry of calves being born all over the place – we had 19 within one week! Calving then slowed down and things became a bit calmer with the last one found on the 28th. In general we’ve had a very successful month and the vast majority of the calves and their mums are already out free roaming in the hills – I can’t wait to head out to see them over the summer.

On top of this we’ve also had two Hill Trips a day and all the usual business in the office. So I’ll leave it there and just let you enjoy the cute pictures…

As a reminder, we won’t reveal the names of the new mothers until after we’ve let our adopters know in the June newsletter so I’ve tried to be deliberately vague.

1st of May: Brew bored of me talking on a Hill Trip and finding a comfy seat on my rucksack! I’m sure a lot of visitors would empathise with her – I do tend to go on a bit.
1st of May: Sisters Zambezi and Juniper hanging out together.
6th of May: A gorgeous newborn male calf.
6th of May: Bordeaux and Turtle wondering what I’m up to on another beautiful day. I’m starting to forget what rain feels like!
7th of May: Amazon looking beautiful whilst out free ranging in the hills!
7th of May: Druid is a shy boy and doesn’t handfeed but he loves eating from the white bag at the end of the visit, as you can tell from the crumbs on his nose!
9th of May: Choc-ice is a bold and rather cheeky fella!
12th of May: This gorgeous wee one is just over a week old and already very settled around us, so long as mum isn’t too far away!
12th of May: A beutiful female calf.
12th of May: Cameron walking a calf into the ‘nursery’ area of our enclosure, the mum is just ahead, off camera and this wee one is less than 12 hours old.
13th of May: Andi feeding the main herd in the enclosure. Look at the size of Sherlock’s antlers next to everyone else! Busby closest to camera.
13th of May: A beautiful calf chilling out in a bog!
14th of May: Another gorgeous calf!
14th of May: Three ‘normal coloured’ calves in the wrong place on the other side of a fence to their (unconcerned) mums! Who do you belong to?!
14th of May: Another calf cooling down in a bog. Look at that row of bottom teeth!
17th of May: Spartan tapping his antlers encouraging their growth.
18th of May: The first batch of calves getting walked out! Here’s Cameron walking with a mother and her calf following on behind.
18th of May: Free ranging mother and calf! A beautiful evening waving them off!
18th of May: Another calf now free ranging in the hills for the summer. Good luck wee one!
19th of May: Kuksa yawning after a Hill Trip. Tiring work being this cute!
21st of May: A really funky coloured calf! What a cutie.
23rd of May: One year old Chai having a suckle from mum Cheer. Usually the calves stop suckling long before this but Cheer and Chai remain closely bonded.
27th of May: How Jimmy spent the majority of my Hill Trip – at my side giving me the puppy dog eyes!
28th of May: Another reindeer calf just for good measure!
28th of May: Elbe, the twin brother to his more famous sister Alba, looking great.
29th of May: Some of our gorgeous boys – Jester, Kulfi, Busby, Mivvi and Olmec.

Ruth

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A free range mission…

A lot of our work focuses on our herd here on Cairngorm, but a lot of you will know that we have a secondary site, and it is always lovely to get out that way to help Tilly! Recently Sheena and I went on a free-range mission to move a group of reindeer that were just out of our boundary line. The group of reindeer we were moving included some older girls and three young bulls, I have compiled some pictures of the outing for the reindeer’s wonderful adopters. The group were initially grazing in two separate groups but once we had called them, the reindeer joined up and made their way up hill towards us.

Distant girls coming to our call.
The young bulls – Nile, Amur, and Choc-ice.
Jenga with two of our more cautious girls behind, Ladybird and Silk.

Once the group of reindeer were level with us, we had time for a little catch up and some close-up pics…

Jenga and Lace looking good and enjoying a peaceful winter.
The lovely Diamond, one of the sweetest reindeer in the herd.
Gazelle will be 17 in the spring – she’s looking good for an old girl!
14-year-old Caterpillar and 2-year-old Amur.
Choc-ice will be three in the spring so as a maturing bull has already cast his antlers.

We soon moved the small herd to where they were meant to be – time definitely got away from us!

Amy hard at work with 16-year-old Ibex on a halter and 14-year-old Lace in the background. Look at all that yummy lichen to keep them happy!

Amy

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A Reindeer Herder and Artist

Sheena counting reindeer. Lace is the dark reindeer with her head up and antlers visible.

My involvement  with the reindeer goes  back 30 years when Tilly and Alan were my neighbours and Alex and Fiona where still very wee.

I came up to the Highlands to work at Badaguish Outdoor Centre for people with additional needs before I was due to start a nursing degree . I never left – I fell in love with the mountains, and then a reindeer herder!! And now the reindeer.

Sheena catching up with the free rangers out in the hills.
Sheena bringing back Ochil and her calf Vanilla to the enclosure after they spent the summer free roaming.

My wonderful friendly golden retriever Rosie used to end up at Reindeer House after following any walker passing by my house down at Badaguish. Tilly would phone me and I would often end up there socialising, helping out, then for dinner and end up walking home with Rosie after a wee whisky or two!

 I eventually went  to university but not to study nursing. I did a Honors Fine Art degree in 2004.

Sheena drawing on the hill!

Over the years I have kept in touch with Tilly and the  reindeer, volunteering, an extras pair of hands or legs walking out onto the mountains to help herd in the girls for calving or just going up to spy the herd in the summer months on the mountain.

Several years ago,  I got a call to work with the team and use my artistic talents for ‘Christmas Fun’ (weekends in December when Santa visits the Paddocks). By this time Fiona was all grown up and coordinating all things Christmas and the herd on Cairngorm along with her mum and the team. Now I am just a regular part-timer in the team.

Sheena doing some harness training with the male reindeer.
Sheena and Choc-ice chilling out together.
Sheena driving the Christmas lorry!

So, when I am not a reindeer herder you might find me working in my studio at home as an artist, working on some colorful wild abstract paintings. These days I also work on some reindeer crafts, inspired from my trip to Jokkmokk, Sweden in 2020 with fellow reindeer herders Fiona, Joe, and Olly where we stayed with friend Sofia, Mikel Utsi’s great niece. Inspiration for art was everywhere. The snow, visiting herds of reindeer, northern lights, traditional cloths, and traditional food.

That part of Sweden is the capital of Sami culture in Sweden holding the Sami winter festival, which involve reindeer racing, reindeer parades, and all things Sami culture. And I had a wonderful time in the Sami Museum viewing the traditional arts on show. This was very much my inspiration for small reindeer art and crafts for the shop.

The Jokkmokk crew with borrowed dogs! Fiona, Sheena, Olly and Joe.
Jokkmokk winter market.
Beautiful Sami colours.
Some of Sheena’s wonderful things we sell in the shop!
Sheena’s lovely dogs – Ginger and her mum Elsie on top of our local hill.
Sheena and Oatcake!

Sheena

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Photo blog: January 2023

This year I will endeavor to make the last blog of the month a photo blog with a collection of pictures taken over the month. So here’s some highlights from January! A month when the Centre shuts and we crack on with lots of office work and general maintenance tasks such as painting the Exhibition floor and oiling the Christmas harness. But inevitably, I don’t take any photos of that stuff, so instead it’s just lots of lovely pics of reindeer!

1st of January – the Centre is closed for the day but the reindeer in the enclosure still need feeding so we recruit lots of friends to help carry the load!
2nd of January – Sheena and Choc-ice chilling out together after a Hill Trip.
7th of January – Arta looking handsome on the winter free range. With older brother Dr Seuss and younger brother Mr Whippy, Arta sometimes gets out-shined by his charismatic siblings but here he is looking fab!
7th of January – talking of the charismatic Dr Seuss, here he is getting bored waiting for his free lunch and using the quadbike as a chin rest!
12th of January – Hopscotch (closest to camera) and Pumpkin (on the left) are often the first over each time we call them for lunch.
14th of January – Beanie looking gorgeous!
14th of January – Amy and Lotti defending the feed bags from the older reindeer. Only calves are invited in to the bags for a wee bit of preferential feeding!
January 15th – Sheena calling the herd over in very wintry conditions.
15th of January- Morven and her calf Mochi looking beautiful in the snow.
16th of January – more free range fun for Lisette and Lotti. Holy Moley making her presence known right by the feed bags!
16th of January – the four gorgeous Reindeer House dogs – Fraoch, Dug, Tiree and Sookie. They accompany us on most free-range feeding outings, and are trained to lie-down and stay far away so as the reindeer do not see them, until we return to them.
20th of January -two of my favourite things- reindeer and skiing! Fly and Lace leading the whole herd and following in our ski tracks. Nice to see some blue sky.
24th of January – no skis required anymore! Mel waiting for the herd to come over – and yes, it’s Hopscotch leading the way again!
24th of January- Pip and Turtle – two of our ‘lockdown calves’ from 2020. Hard to believe they’ll be turning three in the spring!
24th of January – Marple teaching her daughter Viennetta the art of cheekiness.
27th of January -and finally, to prove we actually do some “proper” work in January here’s Hen cleaning the shop walls ready for a lick of paint!

Ruth

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