September is a beautiful time of year. We’ve had the first snow on the plateau and lovely autumnal sunny days. The odd soggy day too, of course! The reindeer look fantastic with fully grown antlers and fresh winter coats growing through.
We’ve been doing lots of free range missions to bring in the cows and their calves which is always fun. The bulls and cows have been stripping the velvet and getting a wee bit more feisty and hormonal in preparation for the upcoming rut. We split the first bull, Choc-ice, with a small group of girls on the 22nd – exciting times!
The calves have also been given a name but as always we don’t post any names online until our adopters have their newsletters. Maybe by next month’s photo blog!
1st of September: Cheer and her daughter Chai in the background. 1st of September: The time of year when the bulls start stripping the velvet. Here is two-year-old Limpopo looking very handsome. 3rd of September: Emmental and her calf back in the enclosure after a summer of free ranging. 3rd of September: A family portrait! Irish, his wee sister, and his mum, Helsinki. Since Helsinki has been back in our enclosure, one-year-old Irish has become rather attached to his mum again! Helsinki is very tolerant and shares her pile of food with her teenage son. 4th of September: Bordeaux and her son. These two didn’t come in for their breakfast so I got a lovely walk up Silver Mount to find them and return them to the herd. Both were completely fine and clearly just having a lie-in. 4th of September: Elbe, a twin, is looking phenomenal! He’s two years old and has a really lovely nature! We’re all very fond of him. 4th of September: Peanut’s male calf is looking great and is already quite tame. 4th of September: Two freckly white noses trying to get into the hand feed bag. Sundae on the left and Beanie on the right. 9th of September: The calves in the enclosure have quickly learnt what’s in the bags! They get allowed to feed directly from the bags which encourages them to be tamer and so they can get some extra mouthfuls without a bigger reindeer stealing it from them. Zoom and Choc-ice are circling the bags like piranhas! 10th of September: One of our gorgeous calves. This wee one belongs to Hopscotch. 10th of September: Glacée and her daughter. She’s done so well as a first time mum!11th of September: Lotti and Kate feeding the herd. 11th of September: Moving some of our free rangers from outside the cafe on Cairngorm Mountain! Sunflower, Fika and Solero are the three closest to camera. Fika and Solero are stripping the velvet from their antlers. 15th of September: Old girl Ryvita on a very soggy day. She’s now back out free ranging but came into the enclosure for a few days for a health check and vaccination. She’s looking great for 16!16th of September: Brie posing beautifully on a lovely autumnal morning. 16th of September: The calves are allowed to feed from the bags before we put it out on the ground for everyone else. You can see the older reindeer lurking around the edge and Cameron and Kate on guard duty!17th of September: Amazon is now two years old. Her mum Dante is just behind. 17th of September: Christie has done it again! She looks phenomenal and has produced yet another lovely, chilled-out wee dude!18th of September: Jimmy looking very handsome.22nd of September: Winnie looking gorgeous in the beautiful autumnal light! She was hand reared in 2023 and has come back into the hill enclosure after almost a year out free ranging looking amazing!23rd of September: Morven and her calf. Both have ridiculous antlers!24th of September: Marple and calf. Her calf has turned into a greedy food monster!26th of September: After a week in our Paddocks Dr Seuss is now back in the hill enclosure ready for the 11am Hill Trip and hand feeding!
As most readers know, we name reindeer on a theme each year. For example, in recent years we’ve had ‘Teas and Coffees’, ‘Rivers of the World’, and ‘Ice Creams and Lollies’ to name just a few. This old blog goes into the themes themselves a lot more.
The majority of the time the calves are given a name within the given theme more or less at random. There’s hundreds of examples of this but to give you one – in 2022 Caterpillar (‘Bugs and Beasties’) had a female calf that we called Popsicle (‘Ice Creams and Lollies’) for no reason other than it fitted the theme and we thought it a suitable name for a sweet female calf.
But sometimes we try to be a bit clever, linking names within the theme to their mother or other family member. This can help us remember who is related to who… or just confuse us completely!
Often, we use an alliteration, for example Brie (‘Cheeses’), had a calf who we named Beret (‘Hats’), who went on to have a calf called Brew (‘Teas and Coffees’). You’ll also notice a French link between Brie and Beret!
Beret and her mum Brie free ranging on Cairngorm. An alliteration and a French link.Beret in 2024, with her daughter who we later named Brew.
Gazelle (‘Horned and Antlered Animals’), now aged 17, is long retired from breeding. She has three surviving sons whose names all begin with an ‘A’ – Aztec (‘Ancient Civilisations’), Athens (‘European Places’), and Adzuki (‘Seeds, Peas, and Beans’).
Aztec – one of the greediest reindeer in the herd. A trait inherited from his mum Gazelle. He tends to grow quite small antlers. Athens, also very greedy, who tends to grow very wide antlers.Adzuki, perhaps the least food-obsessed of the three brothers, who tends to grow very tall antlers.
Emmental (‘Cheeses’) has been a great breeding female over the years – all her offspring have names beginning with vowels just like her – for example Olmec (‘Ancient Civilisations’), Iskrem (‘Ice Creams and Lollies’), and Ob (‘Rivers of the World’).
Emmental and her son Iskrem enjoying the free range.Ob and older brother Iskrem, both with matching white noses.
Sadly, we lost old girl Ibex (‘Horned and Antlered Animals’) in the spring at a grand old age of nearly 17. She had a female calf in 2020 who we named Flax (‘Seeds, Peas, and Beans’) as both their names ended with the letter ‘x’.
Ibex and Flax, mother and daughter, out free ranging together.
Flax has gone on to have three calves so far, her first in 2023 we named Nile (‘Rivers of the World’), the second in 2024 we named Camomile (‘Teas and Coffees’) and the third was another male born this spring. All going well, he’ll get named in early September, so we’ll see if we select a name that rhymes with his older siblings!
Flax and Camomile.Nile, big brother to Camomile.
Pagan (‘Ancient Civilisations’) was a notorious reindeer in our herd who sadly died very suddenly and unexpectedly in 2023. We were all incredibly fond of her despite her bossiness – she was a real character. We managed to name all of her offspring on a Halloween/witchy theme as best we could. Pumpkin (‘Seeds, Beans, and Peas’), Witch (‘Hats’), Zap (‘Ice Creams and Lollies’), and we named Pagan’s last calf who we hand-reared Winnie. Winnie’s name doesn’t fit the theme that year because she had to be named before the theme was even selected but we went for Winnie (or Winifred), after the witch.
Zap – Pagan’s son looking a bit scruffy during the moult. This was the most ‘witchy’ ice cream name we could come up with. We imagined a witch’s wand might make a zapping sound when used!Winnie’s gorgeous nose.
Sometimes the link can be a little more intellectual, surprising I know! Suebi (‘Ancient Civilisations’) had twins in 2023. Her female twin was hand-reared from the age of just three days old (alongside Winnie) and therefore was given the name Alba long before the theme was even chosen. However, the male twin was named in the ‘River of the Worlds’ theme. The Suebi people were a large and powerful group in the Roman era. They originated on the river Elbe, in what is now north east Germany – so this was the perfect name for Suebi’s son. We think the names Alba and Elbe also go very well together.
Suebi and her twins – May 2023.
And finally, sometimes the link is just a bit silly! Hobnob (‘Cakes, Biscuits, and Biscuits’) had a calf in 2020 when the theme was ‘Seeds, Peas, and Beans’. We named her female calf Mushy, after mushy peas. Why did we select the name Mushy for Hobnob’s calf you may ask? Simply because if you dunk a hobnob into a cup of tea, it goes mushy.
Every reindeer herder looks forward to May – it’s pretty much the best month of the year for us with calving time for the reindeer dominating it. But May is also one of my absolute favourite months for other reasons too, the trees are coming into leaf, the plants in my garden are growing like mad, the weather is generally fairly amenable, and the migrant birds are back.
May looks like THIS to reindeer herders!
Mention May to any reindeer herder and calving is – I guarantee – the first thing that pops into their head. Reindeer are very seasonal with their breeding, and whilst the occasional calf might be born in the last few days of April, the vast majority arrive in May every year. Calving is a wonderful time of year for us – who can resist the cuteness of a a newborn reindeer? – though it comes with a fair amount of stress too, as we do our best to keep everyone happy and healthy. You’ll find lots of blogs about calving if you use the search function on the blog page here (only visible on a laptop/desktop) if you’d like to know more. Plus lots of lovely photos – of course!
Calves Gelato and Zoom at couple of weeks old
But I have other connotations for the month of May. The second one are the cuckoos. We’re lucky enough to still get plenty of cuckoos in this area, although nationwide they have declined by about 65% since the early 1980s. Even the least ‘birdy’ person in the UK surely knows their iconic call, and I associate them so much with May. They call from the forest below the reindeer’s hill enclosure all through the month, and the far-carrying sound is so reminiscent of all the early mornings over the years that I have trudged about on the hill side looking for cows with their newborn calves. Cuckoos seem to stop calling earlier than some species, I’ve noticed, and already as I write (early June) I realise that I’m barely hearing them any more. Such a short season, and yet they are utterly ingrained into our conscious in spring! Read more about other migrant species who are summer visitors to us in one of my previous blogs here.
The third thing I really associate with May here in the Cairngorms is the cotton-grass (Hare’s-tail Cotton-grass, to be precise), which grows on acidic moorland and is familiar to many, with it’s bobbing cotton-wool like flower heads.
Hare’s-tail cotton-grassFab as a calf
It’s not actually a grass but a sedge, and some years give particularly good displays, where it can almost look like it has snowed. It comes into flower in May, and grows particularly well in the bottom of our hill enclosure on the flatter areas there, which tends to be where the cows and their calves hang out during the month.
Calving in the cotton-grass… A very grumpy looking Brie with her grey calf Latte, and Peanut and her calf Kuksa in between.
So there we are – the three ‘c’s that are incredibly strongly associated with May to me. The fourth would be ‘chaos’, but that’s part and parcel with calving so can be combined into one!
We’re already into calving season 2025, but I’m still finding it hard to believe last year’s calves are already turning into yearlings! In this photo blog you can see Latte grow up from a newborn to a one year old.
Latte was born to mum Brie on the 7th of May 2024. This is them on the 11th of May, Latte is just 4 days old and aleady quite brave coming to say hello.On the 3rd of June we opened the gates and Latte went off to free roam for the summer with her mum, in a herd of other mothers and calves. Latte is in the middle of this photo.On the 19th of June I was lucky enough to bump into Brie and Latte whilst they were out free ranging in the hills. They both looked great, although Brie looked rather scruffy as she’s starting the moult.Another photo from the 19th of June – what a cutie!Andi’s photo from an adventure out on to the free range in mid July – Brie now looking much scruffier but her darker summer coat more visible underneath and larger velvet antlers than her last appearance in this blog. Latte is also moulting her calf coat.Latte and big sister, Beret, on the 11th of September, both now back in the hill enclosure after a summer of free ranging. Both girls have lovely matching white noses, just like their mum.Latte and Brie in October 2024 both growing in their beautiful fresh winter coats.Just a silly photo of Latte from November.Latte out on a local Christmas event at Landmark in December 2024. As a female Latte won’t do any other Christmas work in the future but getting her out a wee bit with a team of big boys means she’s de-senitised to many things, very tame and used to being on a halter, and therefore super easy to work with whilst back home in the mountains.Latte on a sunny day in February 2025 – she’s been back out free ranging since the end of the Christmas holidays.Brie and Latte (with a mouthful of lichen!) in March 2025. She’s recently cast an antler. Latte on a glorious day in early April 2025, now with no antlers!23rd of April – Brie and Latte in the hill enclouse. Latte is just beginning to grow her second set of antlers.Brie and Latte on the 6th of May – the day before her first birthday! Well done Brie for rearing such a lovely lass!
It’s well known that I have soft spots for a lot of reindeer, often if I have worked closely with them during free range missions or out on Christmas tours etc. However, one cohort I’m particularly fond of is the ‘hats’- reindeer born in spring 2021. In May 2021, I returned to reindeer herding after three years of trying out something different. My return was wonderful, and I instantly got stuck into the busy calving season. Just like the reindeer born in 2017 (the Authors and Poets) which was my first ever calving season, I’m very fond of the 2021 cohort, particularly as it was a relatively small calving. The three remaining females, Beanie, Beret, and Trilby are all different in both looks and personality.
In spring 2024 all three of them had their own calves – another generation to become attached to! They’ve all done so well, especially as first-time mums. This blog is just an excuse to show lots of lovely photos of them!
Beanie and Beret together in March 2024.Beanie, Maisy wearing a beanie, and Trilby together in December 2024.
Beanie
Beanie was born on the 19th of May 2021 to mum Gloriana. She has an older brother called Butter and a younger brother called Rocket. When she was a bit younger and still finding her place in the herd Beanie would often be found towards the back and would get pushed around a bit by the older cows. For that reason I think some herders (not mentioning any names…) would spoil her with extra handfeed as we’d feel a little sorry for her! Beanie has now grown up to be a very friendly and greedy lass and is often found lurking behind after a Hill Trip fluttering her eyelashes for extra feed, ever hopeful. I have to use all my resolve not to cave – she definitely doesn’t need it! Beanie had her first calf in 2024, a large male who we named Coffee. He’s grown into one of the biggest calves of the year.
Beanie as a new born calf in May 2021. What a cutie! Beanie and her mum Gloriana in early 2022 free ranging in the hills.Beanie growing a new set of antlers and up to her usual antics – trying to break into a feed bag but looking like butter wouldn’t melt!In May 2024 Beanie had her first calf. A handsome lad called who we later named Coffee and who has grown into one of the biggest calves of the year – go Beanie! Beanie in November 2024 with her usual pleading eyes! It’s hard not to give in…
Beret
Beret is a great character! Her mum Brie is probably the smallest cow in the herd, but she has been a highly successful breeding female over the years so Beret has several siblings including Cicero, Sorbet, and Latte. Whilst Beret was growing up, herders would often come back from a Hill Trip reporting that “she doesn’t know how to be a reindeer”! It took her a while to learn how to hand feed from visitors and there was one memorable winter season where she would jump on visitors for no reason. It was always in a harmless and innocent way but understandably could be intimidating for our visitors! She’s now learnt “how to reindeer” and has matured into a lovely, friendly, dependable lass. In May 2024 she became a mother for the first time – a big female calf who we named Brew who has the tendency to be rather opinionated about everything!
Beret is a firm favourite of herder Lisette and has her own blog here.
Beret and her mum Brie free ranging in early August 2021.Beret and Brie looking very similar with their matching white noses – January 2023.Beret and her younger sister Sorbet behind in August 2023.Beret and her newborn calf Brew in May 2024.Brew a few months later in August looking beautiful amongst the heather!
Trilby
Trilby is a lovely lass! Her mum was a reindeer called Screel who sadly died very unexpectantly in November 2021, leaving Trilby as an orphan. However, by 6 months old Trilby was big and strong enough to not require any special care from us, so she remained in the hills with the herd. We obviously looked out for her and spoilt her where we could! She perhaps doesn’t stand out as much as Beanie and Beret, maybe it’s because she is ‘normal coloured’ and for a while didn’t have a particularly strong personality. But now she’s almost 4 years old her family genetics are kicking in and she’s becoming more confident. Last winter was often at the front of the herd – so I’m hoping she’ll be a future leader! She’s friendly and greedy so we can always catch her out making her easy to work with. Her big sister Scully has serious attitude so maybe Trilby will follow in Scully’s footsteps! This year Trilby had a wee female calf who we named Tetley, so far Tetley is generally sweet-natured but I think has some attitude lurking fairly close to the surface!
Trilby as a calf in October 2021.Trilby free ranging in March 2023.January 2024 – Trilby on the right leading the herd, alongside old girl Okapi. Trilby and her calf who we later named Tetley in June 2024.Trilby and Tetley a few months later in August 2024. Tetley’s antlers didn’t get much bigger than these tiny bumps, but she’s in good condition and I’m sure as a yearling will grow a bigger pair.
February has been a great month as we moved into our NEW Reindeer Centre. We opened the doors to the public on the 8th of February for the very first time – hoorah!
The Hill Trips have been running as normal every day (apart from one where we had to cancel due to wild weather!) and we’ve been taking visitors to the free ranging herd here on Cairngorm. We’ve also had reindeer on display in the Paddocks for the February half-term holidays. The entire herd is now back out free ranging in the hills, split between two locations. I love this time of year – getting out to see the reindeer in their mountain home every day is an absolute privilege.
Here’s a selection of photos just taken on my phone over the last month.
7th of February: Feeding the herd with Sheena and Hen, look at that lovely blue sky. We took four reindeer down off the hill and into our Paddocks where they stayed for a few days for the start of the February half-term.8th of February: A big occasion – Tilly cutting the red ribbon opening our brand-new Reindeer Centre. 8th of February: Helsinki and her son Irish relaxing.11th of February: Gorgeous Fern! The oldest reindeer in the entire herd. She’ll turn 18 in the spring and definitely deserves spoiling. You can see the evidence on her nose!11th of February: A lovely pic of Fern and Andi. 12th of February: Moving the herd in to position ready for a Hill Trip. Emmental and Borlotti at the front. 13th of February: Trilby looking beautiful on a sunny day!14th of February: Holy Moley posing for a photo whilst the others eat on the line. On Hill Trips, she often justs waits for the handfeed and doesn’t bother with the food on the ground!14th of February: Vanilla coming in to see if there’s any more food on offer.17th of February: Helsinki and her son Irish… again. They’re a very sweet pair!18th of February: Emmental leading the herd to the Hill Trip location.19th of February: Macchiato and a beautiful sky behind!20th of February: Alba, one of our hand-reared calves from 2023, out free ranging and doing incredibly well! We’re very proud of her!20th of February: Moving ther herd on a very windy and wild day!23rd of February: The Hill trip was cancelleld as the weather was WILD! So here’s a pic from the Paddocks. Dr Seuss looking very relaxed.25th of February: The lovely Winnie, like Alba, she was hand-reared in 2023. 26th of February: Lolly.26th of February: These two are aleays stuck together like glue, Florence and her wee boy Cuppa.27th of February: Latte and her mum Brie.28th of February: Emm at the back of the herd doing a super job getting them moving.
In January the entire herd is out free roaming and they don’t need us. They can find all their own food and they generally don’t have any health issues in the winter – they’re in their element! However, we do of course like to keep an eye on them, plus us herders would go a bit stir-crazy if we were completley office-bound for the whole of January so we tend to go up to see the herd every 2 or 3 days and give them some extra food.
On the days we don’t see the reindeer, photos of us working in the office would be very dull, so instead you’re getting photos of the dogs! Reindeer and dogs – what’s not to love?!
I was also away for the first half of the month, so the photos begin on the 15th. To see the snowy start to the month check out Lotti’s photo blog here. Sadly I missed all that lovely snow!
15th of January: Florence and her calf Cuppa are always side by side.16th of January: Dante looking awesome! She will be 8 years old in the spring and looks fantastic – in excellent condition and with a cracking set of antlers.17th of January: No reindeer to see today so the lovely Elsie is the chosen dog! Although she was promptly banished from the office for too much of a distraction. 19th of January: Tiree keeping us company in the office.20th of January: Winnie and Alba were hand-reared in 2023 so will be two years old in the spring. We’re incredibly proud of them as they’re spending the winter out free roaming in the hills with the herd.20th of January: What a beautiful office!! Chickpea and Morven looking at the camera.20th of January: Zambezi is the biggest female yearling. She’ll be two in the spring and is in fantastic condition.21st of January: Dug and his famously long tongue.24th of January: Confined to the office thanks to the storm outside, thank goodness for the dogs to get our animal fix! Fraoch doesn’t sit still for long, hench the blurry pic!25th of January: Amy, Hen, and Andi calling the herd.25th of January: Oatcake, Suebi, and Brie were some of the first reindeer to us.25th of January: Suebi fighting her way through a snow storm.29th of January: A trip to see the boys at our second site. Here’s Jester looking epic – although you can cast those heavy antlers now Jester, Christmas is over!30th of January: Look at the hills!! Feeding the herd in the late afternoon.
Calving season May 2021 was my first month being a reindeer herder.
Later that year at Christmas time, I wanted to adopt a reindeer for my nephew Daley and for my niece Joelle in the Netherlands, but who to choose from all those hundred and fifty nice reindeer in the Cairngorms?
Mum Brie was my calving bet that year and she gave birth to a female calf, who we called Beret. Beret was a lovely light-colored reindeer calf, very sweet. As Joelle likes brie (as in the cheese) I thought it would be nice to adopt Brie’s daughter Beret for Joelle, both having a French name as well. Last week was all about Cowboy, my chosen reindeer for my nephew Daley; see that blog by clicking here.
The chosen reindeer! Beret on the left and Cowboy on the right.
Beret spent a lot of time roaming freely on the Cairngorm mountains. She likes to stay around her family, often grazing close to her mum Brie and her younger sisters Sorbet (born 2022) and Danube (born unexpectedly in 2023 on the free range).
The times she was in our hill enclosure, Beret wasn’t quite sure how to behave as a reindeer. Last year she was jumping on top of people to ask for handfeed!
She ran with one of our bulls in Autumn breeding season 2023 and in May (after a winter of free ranging, enjoying her freedom and eating lots of lichen) she gave birth for the first time! She had a big dark colored beautiful female calf and she also got a new baby sister in May this year. All have been out free ranging on the mountains again for the summer months and in September they came back to the hill enclosure so we could halter train the calves.
This Autumn 2024 Beret is behaving a bit more like an adult meeting visitors from our Hill Trips, she is a mum now after all. Her calf and little sister both look great.
Here’s some lovely photos of Beret growing up:
Brie and her calf Beret out free ranging in the hills – July 2021. Beret back in the hill enclosure – August 2021. What a cutie!Beret now growing in her lovely winter coat – September 2021.Beret with her thick winter coat – December 2021.Beret having a rest, most likely after eating lots of food – February 2022.Beret after recently casting an antler – April 2022.Beret beginning to grow her new set of antlers – May 2022.Beret moulting her old winter coat but still looking very cute – June 2022.Beret – January 2023 enjoying the snow!Beret beginning to grow a new set of antlers – April 2023.Beret looking very smart in her summer coat – August 2023.A recent picture of Beret from last month in the middle of stripping her velvet – September 2024.Beret’s lovely calf! She’s done such a good job especially as first time mum.This is Beret and her wee sister. Beret’s mum Brie had another calf this year adding to the family! Beret and the new addition have lovely matching white noses.Granny Brie with her new calf.
Hopefully, when Daley and Joelle are a bit older, they will be able to come up and meet Cowboy and Beret in Scotland.
This is a very silly blog, full of photos of the wonderful Brie!
Brie in September 2020. She is a pretty, pint-sized lass who usually grows petite antlers like above.
Brie is now 11 years old and is probably the smallest breeding female in the herd. But what she doesn’t have in size she certainly makes up for in attitude! She is very feisty to other cows and won’t take any messin’. The famous quote ‘Though she be but little, she is fierce!‘ perfectly sums her up!
She’s great fun to work with, and has reared some wonderful calves during her life. Cicero born in 2020 is one of the tallest reindeer in the herd, Beret born in 2021 is now a mum herself making Brie a granny, Sorbet born in 2022, Danube born in 2023, and now she has another wee female calf born this May and yet to be named. We did try to give Brie a year off motherhood in autumn 2022, but Brie had other ideas and Danube was a big surprise for us when they were found out free roaming in the hills together!
Anyway, I’ve noticed over recent years that I’ve built up a wee collection of Brie sticking her bottom lip out. I’ve not really noticed other reindeer doing this so I think it’s a Brie specialty! She certainly pulls off the “give me food, I’m sooooo hungry” look very well.
Brie in January 2022 with just a wee bottom lip visible.Brie hoping for food – August 2022.Brie with her calf Sorbet behind. Crumbs on her nose reveal she’s already been eating from the white bag! August 2022.Brie looking very scruffy in July 2023 whilst out free roaming in the hills. She’s mid way through the moult and has the tell tale crumbs on her nose again. Brie in August 2023 looking much smarter after moulting most of her winter coat out.A very soggy Brie asking for a tasty snack! Brie doing her very best “I’m sooooo cold, give me more food” face in March 2024. Sorry Brie, you’re not fooling us, just look at that thick winter coat.Brie in August 2024 with her bottom lip and tongue on show yet again.August 2024 with her new wee calf!Every single reindeer in the herd has a folder on our computer system full of photos of them over the years. As I was flicking through Brie’s folder I noticed her bottom lip had even made it on to several adopt photos. This one taken in October 2022 by Hen.
Visitors often ask how on earth we tell apart the 150-strong herd of reindeer. Whilst there is variation in colour, markings and antler shape, one of the biggest distinguishing features is actually character. Just like people, reindeer come in every shade of cheeky, shy, friendly, stand-offish, bolshy, greedy, intelligent, daft… I thought I might mention a few stand out character types, past and present!
Overexcited Labrador
Aztec leading the herd – look at that expectant face
Step up, Aztec! Always the first to be involved, always wanting to “help”, very friendly, lovable, and not a manner to be seen if there is a mere sniff of food… Fun, but a bit of a liability.
Also falling into this category: Kipling, Bumble, Eco
The Thinker
Olmec paying careful consideration to all potential outcomes
Reserved and steady, not always the easiest to catch but utterly dependable when out on tour. Olmec, I’m looking at you.
Also applies to: Dragonfly
TV Diva
Holy Moley with her adoring fan Lotti
Introducing the one and only Holy Moley… who knows full well that she basically had her own TV documentary and hence feels that every visitor is there to see her and her alone.
Also: Dr Seuss appears to feel that his minor starring role in the same show entitles him to extra food portions every single day too.
Sweet as Pie, Wouldn’t Hurt a Fly
Sweet Diamond, with Hopper in the background
Beautiful light-coloured Diamond has to be one of the gentlest souls in the herd. She walks with a slight limp after an injury back in her younger days, which of course means we all (needlessly) slip her extra bits of feed.
Also: Amber, Esme, Sunflower
Loyal and True
Okapi in her usual position – right in the footsteps of the herder
Certain reindeer can always be relied upon when we’re moving the free-range herd – they’ll be near the front, they willingly have a headcollar put on, they trustingly plod behind you whilst the rest of the herd debate whether your bribe is worth coming for. Okapi, you’re the star here.
Also: Olympic
The Boy Band Pin-Up
Sherlock, admired by all!
Sherlock has to be one of the most impressive looking reindeer in the herd today, and he also knows how to work it. Some reindeer naturally prick their ears for a photo, and seem to offer their best side!
Also: Elvis, of whom there was never a bad photo taken!
Grumpy Old Men (and Women)
That look in Pony’s eye which was the precursor to antlers being aimed at you! We were always grateful when she cast her antlers each year, though she would then resort to using her front feet!
Bond may only be 5 years old, but he definitely ticks every box for “grouchy” – you only need to look at him and he rolls his eyes at the thought that you might try to interact with him. Likewise, walking too near Lace or Turtle is likely to extract a swing of the antlers and a snap of the mouth as a warning. Turtle is Pony’s daughter, who was perhaps the grumpiest reindeer we’ve ever had in the herd, so it’s definitely inherited!
Also: Addja once implanted his antlers into my leg when in a bad mood, only to cast one, which definitely didn’t make him any more cheery (though it did make me chuckle at the instant karma).
Big Friendly Giant
Scrabble, our very own BFG!
One of the tallest, heftiest reindeer in the herd, Scrabble was a bit of a liability in his youth as he was just so keen to meet everyone, and somewhat unaware of his sheer size. It almost seemed that his bum was so far away from his brain that he couldn’t keep track of the children he was wiping out as he turned around… Now he’s an old fella so a bit steadier, but just as friendly and enormous!
Also: Comet
Don’t Mess With…
Brie acting like butter wouldn’t melt… until she disagrees with the program
Brie may look little and cute, but her first instinct if she doesn’t like something is to beat it/them with her antlers, and whilst she both she and her antlers may be small, she is ANGRY. As Mel once found out when leading Brie, and Brie decided she did NOT want to be there…
Also: Spy. If Spy has calved, it usually takes about four herders, all hiding behind gates/fences to move her where we want her to be.
