Thirty Years With Llamas by Lisa Dreggors Sunshine State Llamas • Silver Springs FL It’s hard to believe, when I look back, that thirty years have passed. I have had many memorable experiences with our llamas. Tried to teach others and share my knowledge. Our journey began in August 1987. I was raising sight hounds (afghans, borzoi or Russian wolfhounds, saluki, and whippets). We had land that was given to me and my sisters from our mother. Looking for a grazing animal that would not be eaten, my sister, Margie Hendon, suggested llamas. So started Sunshine State Llamas Pick a Pak Llama Ranch. Later we changed our name to Sunshine State Llamas only. Llamas were very uncommon in the South and information was hard to come by. There was the International Llama Association (ILA) and Llama Association of North America (LANA). Both were based out west. We didn’t have computers to share knowledge. It was written word or phone. Upon searching we found a new association for llamas in the south. Sunshine State Llama Association, it was renamed Southern States Llama Association in 1990 or SSLA. SSLA was new, exciting and it’s members were eager for knowledge. We were a group of 30-40 who met as often as possible. Myra Freeman wrote many observations and articles about llamas. We attended workshops with Dr. David Pugh at Nancy and Randal Greene’s farm. It really was llamas 101, for we were all beginners. In our first decade we experienced many hard knocks. We didn’t know how to go in and reposition a dystocia thus many a sad loss. Ultrasounds were done internally and loss of life from torn rectums occurred. We were learning about deworming and treated every month needed or not. Heat stress in the south was way too common. Vicious fire ants would attack any down animal. As we now know llamas red blood cells are irregular in shape but lab values and this simple knowledge were just being developed. Each time an animal was hospitalized at 6 • Discover Llamas
a vet school we gained more baseline normal and abnormal labs. Our first show with SSLA was at the Alphareta Horse Park in Georgia. We had halter, showmanship and obstacle classes. Our stud Larry competed in the obstacle class. He was about fifteen. We had purchased him six months earlier. It took six adults and a lasso to catch him. This shows the ability for llamas to learn at any age. At this show we met a couple from Georgia. She was all dressed up in a pretty dress and had heals that made it hard to walk in the sand. But she was interested in learning all she could and had love for our llamas. That’s where we met Tracy Pearson. The rest is history. Llama prices were high. Females usually only sold with a male. Searching for quality animals I traveled to Bend and Sisters Oregon. The llama capital of the US. I visited 20 plus farms one of which was Patterson Farms which had hundreds of llamas. A wonderful memory was going into a large warm barn with over fifty moms and babies. Touching all those soft beautiful babies was life altering for me. Then the barn doors were opened to happy pronging babies running all around. I WAS HOOKED!!!! What hooked you? SSLA grew and we had new members joining all the time. Llamas 101 I pray will always be needed to teach new owners. In our second decade we grew. Our farm had over 120 llamas. So I must tell you a story. There were many sales going on to liquidate herds in the early 2000’s. My sister, Margie and I bought a Jr. Herd sire. He looked just like his sire. We sent DNA to the International Llama Registry (ILR) to register him. The ILR corresponded that his sire was not as listed. They did determine he had one of three sires in the database. Further testing needed to be done. We received a letter that his sire had been identified. However his dam
