I’m on a roll with writing blogs about some of our lovely older lassies born in 2012. This time it’s time to put Diamond in the spot light!
Diamond is well known to be one of the sweetest-natured reindeer in the entire herd. She gets a wee name check in a couple of blogs for being so lovely – see here and here!
She’s only had one calf in her entire life, a notoriously bossy reindeer, called Pagan who was born in 2016. Pagan was the exact opposite to Diamond, in both character and looks! Diamond is a beautiful silvery coloured reindeer, and Pagan was ‘normal coloured’ with big bulging eyes and tones of attitude!
Diamond was found on the free range in April 2019 with an incredibly lame left fore. Vets diagnosed nerve damage and it’s left her with a permanent limp. She’s in no pain and gets around incredibly well, using her leg like a crutch. For this reason we have never run Diamond with a bull again as we don’t want her to carry any unnecessary weight on her leg.
Pagan sadly passed away very suddenly in spring 2023, however she has several calves herself and therefore Diamond’s legacy continues with her grandcalves – Pumpkin (6), Zap (4) and Winnie (3) and great-grandcalf Lapsang (2). Hopefully there will be several new additions to the family line this spring too – exciting!
This blog is full of photos of encounters I’ve had with Diamond over the last 5 or so years, including one rescue mission! Some members of her family also feature.
2021
2022
On one memorable occasion Harry and I were eating breakfast at Reindeer House before work and got a phone call from the lovely staff on Cairngorm Mountain reporting a reindeer with netting stuck in their antlers. We jumped in the Land Rover and drove up to Mid Station where we were directed to the reindeer in question. All the way up we were talking about the reindeer we would least like it to be – Sod’s law it would be one of the small number of fiesty or uncatchable girls we have in the herd! We both breathed a huge sigh of relief when we saw it was the lovely Diamond. She was very pleased to see us, came straight over, ate out of the hand feed bag whilst we were able to cut her free. She had damaged her velvet a little bit so we put some antibiotic blue spray on any potential sore bits, gave her a good pile of food and left her to it! Thankfully things like this happen very rarely.
2023
Another story I have of finding Diamond on the free range is from July 2023. Cameron and I went up to see if we could find any reindeer. We did, just one, the beautiful Diamond! She was by herself which is slightly unusual for a reindeer as they are a herd animal but she seemed absolutely fine. As an older reindeer who knows the hills incredibly well Cameron and I were in no way worried about her and instead just enjoyed her company. We offered her a little bit of food and as soon as she realised we were reindeer herders she joined us on our walk. We were on our way back home so she followed us for a good couple of miles. We got some funny looks as we strolled past hill walkers who were doing double takes at our four-legged friend! When we were close to home and the footpath was getting busier with people and potentially dogs, we wandered to a nice quiet spot and left her to it with a big pile of food. What a sweetie! It is probably one of my favourite free range reindeer moments ever.
2024
Shockingly, I don’t seem to have many photos of Diamond that I have taken myself over the last two years. So these are some I’ve nicked from other herders, and more that I’ve taken of her family members.
2025
2026
Ruth