4 Generations of Llama Owners starting in 1980
"When my family first got llamas their was relatively little known about the animals compared to what we know today. There was no handbooks, no registry, no associations, not even llama halters (Can you imagine?). Nearly all of my memories of my grandpa James L Mumford remind me of his "can-do" attitude that you could literally do anything, you just had to think things through and have the proper tools. Hiring someone to build a fence, or a barn, or to fix a car just did not happen at his house. In the early 1980's grandpa modified a calf halter, bought leather crafting equipment and starting manufacturing the first llama halters from leather. The manufactures of nylon halters bought leather halters from my grandpa and used his halters as a pattern. I still talk to "old time" llama and alpaca owners who still have grandpa's halters, and some are even still in use (the last ones made by him were made nearly 20 years ago). Grandpa was also a co-founder of LOWS (Llama Owners of Washington State), The ORIGIONAL Southwest Washington Llama group, and was a past board member of ILA (International Llama Association) and LANA (Llama Association of North America).
My Dad trained llamas like nobody else I have ever seen. His llama "Wally" is surly one of the greatest carting llama ever, in my mind he was THE greatest. I remember if my dad would bring his cart out of the barn, Wally would run to the gate wanting to pull it! He would trot with the cart regal and proud with his ears up and alert. In years since I have seen many GOOD carting llamas, but the best I have seen seem to just tolerate the cart, not truly love it like Wally did!
For many years my Mom ran the llama portion of the 10 days of the Clark County fair, including a large 4-H club. Under her direction the open show at the county fair was one of the largest regional llama shows in the 1980s with exhibitors traveling from hundreds of miles away to attend. Mom started the "Llama Busters" 4-H club in the 1980s, the club later got changed to "Woolly Amigos", which is still around today 25+ years later! To my knowledge it is the longest running llama 4-H club in the USA. Today the Club is ran by Meggan and family friend Danielle Casper.
I met my wife in the 1990's showing llamas. Her family used llamas as sheep guards on their sheep ranch.
As you can tell, we have experience in just about all the differnt uses of llamas over the years.
Our early involvement with llamas had a lot to do with nursing home and hospital visits, school and summer camp programs, 4-H, fun shows, day hikes, carting, etc, etc. We find many of those are the same things that keep us loving our life with llamas all these years later.
We have built our knowledge from a foundation of experience with more traditional livestock and have added to it with 30+ years of REAL WORLD, PRACTICAL LLAMA EXPERENCE. People say we should write a book, and maybe one day one of us will, for now please feel free to give us a call and schedule a visit, we love to share our llama knowledge." - - - Jacob Mumford
My Dad trained llamas like nobody else I have ever seen. His llama "Wally" is surly one of the greatest carting llama ever, in my mind he was THE greatest. I remember if my dad would bring his cart out of the barn, Wally would run to the gate wanting to pull it! He would trot with the cart regal and proud with his ears up and alert. In years since I have seen many GOOD carting llamas, but the best I have seen seem to just tolerate the cart, not truly love it like Wally did!
For many years my Mom ran the llama portion of the 10 days of the Clark County fair, including a large 4-H club. Under her direction the open show at the county fair was one of the largest regional llama shows in the 1980s with exhibitors traveling from hundreds of miles away to attend. Mom started the "Llama Busters" 4-H club in the 1980s, the club later got changed to "Woolly Amigos", which is still around today 25+ years later! To my knowledge it is the longest running llama 4-H club in the USA. Today the Club is ran by Meggan and family friend Danielle Casper.
I met my wife in the 1990's showing llamas. Her family used llamas as sheep guards on their sheep ranch.
As you can tell, we have experience in just about all the differnt uses of llamas over the years.
Our early involvement with llamas had a lot to do with nursing home and hospital visits, school and summer camp programs, 4-H, fun shows, day hikes, carting, etc, etc. We find many of those are the same things that keep us loving our life with llamas all these years later.
We have built our knowledge from a foundation of experience with more traditional livestock and have added to it with 30+ years of REAL WORLD, PRACTICAL LLAMA EXPERENCE. People say we should write a book, and maybe one day one of us will, for now please feel free to give us a call and schedule a visit, we love to share our llama knowledge." - - - Jacob Mumford
