Kate and Bob Montgomery were dedicated to the preservation and conservation of the rare and special Soay sheep breed. They raised high quality, registered Soay sheep and enjoyed promoting the breed as a unique and beautiful link to the past. Both their American and British Soay sheep carried the flock prefix "Blue Mountain Soay Sheep."

Kate thought she had some of the absolute best Soay in North America. [Weavers' note: we heartily agree!] She bred with care and thought, and worked diligently for more than a decade to perfect her distinctive flock. She believed that conserving the breed by not propagating cross breds maintains the value of the investment in Soay. Throughout her career as one of the earliest Soay breeders in the U.S., she added new RBST ram lineage to her flock periodically and continued to select for sheep that were healthy, hardy, sturdy and self-sufficient. She acquired some Alberta stock from Rimridge Soay in July 2002 to expand the diversity of her flock. The Blue Mountain foundation flock included RBST and North American heritage from the Westood, Phalen, Green Pastures, and Rimridge (Canadian) lines.

Kate constantly sought to perfect her Blue Mountain line and maintain a mix of genetics for her customers to choose from. Many of her animals passed on finer fleece characteristics without departing too much from the unique and delightful characteristics of the Soay on St. Kilda. A number of her ewes were polled and Blue Mountain ewes remain one of the few sources of polled Soay sheep in North America, the polled animals being less common as horns are genetically dominant in ewes. Kate also strived to maintain the shedding and disease resistant qualities of this breed that are so compelling.

Kate's final lamb crop in 2008 and the final group of adults she sold through the summer came in all colors — blacks, mahoganies, chocolates and various shades of mouflon. The spring 2008 lambs reflected her long and successful breeding experience.

Blue Mountain sheep were bred for conformation, fine wool, complete shedding, beauty and hardiness.  In 2007, Kate was the first breeder (as far as anyone knows) to produce self-colored light phase (chocolate) Soay lambs in North America. She also enjoyed producing auburn-red mouflon sheep that remain unique and popular. [Weavers' note: Kate still has a thing for redheads. Just look at her new project — red poodles.]

Kate recognized the importance of retaining as much genetic diversity as possible and strived to select sons and daughters from the rams her customers most admired, in order to build good diverse starter flocks or add new bloodlines to existing flocks.

The concept of having older ewes serve as role models also figured into Kate's recommendations for starter flocks. The combination of maiden and adult ewes allows the mature girls to teach the young ewes what being a mother is all about and act as an "auntie babysitter" — which is typical of the social structure of this breed.