We brought our foundation herd of female llamas home last night unexpectedly.
We had been in an intensive training session with all four llamas on Sunday and when we went back over yesterday, they had learned so much during that session that we made the decision to take them home.
We had bad weather coming in that may not have been forecasted for a lot of snow, but seemed like it could be nasty for driving on mountain curve roads with a trailer full of llamas. It just didn’t seem like such a good idea to chance it.
Charlie went back to Alba Ranch and changed out the Land Rover for the Suburban and trailer while Brenda Vance from Split Rock Ranch and I kept working with the girls.
Jeff Rucker, Stage Stop Llamas, came home and we did all the paper work, contract, payment and registrations and were back down and ready when Charlie got back with the trailer.
We loaded up the girls and were home before it was dark. We got them settled and were inside the rest of the night. I watched them in the monitors but did not go out and bug them anymore. I thought they might like to explore their pens without any interference.
Very interesting to see the girls reaction to the Live Stock Guardian dogs, as they are not accustomed to dogs of any kind.
Once their initial freak out was over, they stood at the fence touching noses almost with the dogs through the wires. They were just fascinated with the dogs and could not take their eyes off them.
Our intensive training the week before included an obstacle course with tires on the ground, lumber on the ground, fences with rails down here and there, a hanging weave course, going over bridges, into porta potties, under bridges, over streams, into the liquor store and weaving the gas station poles amongst other training techniques as well. It was fun walking with the llamas and seeing what all they could do. I never thought of them as doing all that. Like Agility for dogs, but with llamas instead. ahah
I got mostly colors for my foundation herd that I can not dye easily. White and Black being two that were very important. The fiber types that I chose were either Dual Fine coats or a Silky Coat. I really got some beautiful fiber girls with loft, crimp and utter softness. It will be nice having llamas that are so fine I do not have to separate the guard hair or send the fleeces out to dehair.
We are expecting babies with the three older girls later this summer and fall. The baby, Enchantment, is only 6 months old right now.
The males they are bred to are stunning males, with exotic fiber and colors. I am excited to see what the girls have in the spring.
We are going to be resting our mountain pasture this year and reseeding all the grass parts. The girls might be seen down in the wild pasture later in the fall once that grass has taken hold.