Gruber family members have been active participants in 4-H events for many years.
The four kids — Abby, 18, Alyssa, 17, Autumn, 9, and Axel, 8 — have prepared and shown all kinds of animals for the McLeod County Fair, from pigs to chickens and rabbits to horses. But about two years ago, the family decided they wanted to try something different.
Llamas and alpacas.
“It started with my two older girls,” Shauna Gruber said. “We decided to buy llamas. We’ve been in 4-H since (Abby) was in kindergarten. We just decided we would try llamas as a 4-H project.”
They had seen llama shows at both the Sibley and Carver county fairs, and it seemed like an interesting project to undertake, Shauna Gruber said. But Alyssa said there was a larger motivating force than 4-H projects at play in the family decision to purchase a couple llamas two years ago.
“Because they’re so cute!” Alyssa exclaimed with a wide smile.
That cuteness — and all the work they’ve put into working with the animals — will be on display this week when the Grubers, the Donwen sisters, Faith and Grace, and Chase Klingelhut participate in the McLeoad County Fair’s first-ever llama and alpaca show.
It’s a small group, but one that Shauna Gruber hopes will grow as more people are exposed to the animals and those who enjoy caring for and training them.
“We’re trying to gain more members,” said Shauna Gruber, who became the de facto coordinator of all things llama and alpaca for the county 4-H program. “We’re really excited to have our own show at the fair.”
The Gruber family’s first real exposure to llamas came at the Carver County Fair, it was during a show there they decided it would be a fun project to undertake.
The Donwens had kind of the same story of introduction. Faith and Grace had done duck, goat and horse at the county fair, but when they saw the somewhat unusual llamas and alpacas, they thought it would be fun to give showing them a shot.
Llamas are a member of the camel family, native to South America, that are used as a pack animal, and as a source of wool and meat. Alpacas are similar in appearance to llamas, but smaller in stature, and they were originally not bred as working animals but specifically for their fiber, a popular wool used in knitted and woven items like blankets, sweaters, hats, mittens and scarves.
Though they started with two llamas, the Grubers’ herd has grown to five llamas and two alpacas during the past two years. The Donwens have two alpacas and a llama-alpaca mix.
Caring for the animals is simple, Alyssa Gruber said, similar to the horses the family already had. No special feed mixtures, just water, grass and hay, she said.
Training them, though, requires a little more patience than working with horses, or many other kinds of animals.
“They’re, like, moody animals, kinda,” Alyssa Gruber said. “We have one llama who’s just, he’s a character. He’s very friendly, and then sometimes, he can get very angry, really easily. If he doesn’t want to be petted and you try to pet him … he’ll just start spitting. But he’s a lot of fun, (his) personality changes like every second.”
“Sometimes he sounds like a dinosaur,” Axel Gruber said of the plaintive noises the sometimes-grumpy llama makes.
“They all have their own little personalities, really,” Alyssa Gruber said. “Faye, she’s a princess, and then there’s Jesse, and she has a lot of anxiety, doesn’t like to do new things.”
Learning new things is what the 4-H’ers have to coax out of their llamas and alpacas, however, to prepare them for the county fair. The llama and alpaca division has three different classes, including showmanship, obstacle and costume.
Showmanship is typical to other animal showmanship classes, where the 4-H’er leads their animal around a show ring, then gets them to stand with proper form for presentation to a judge.
The obstacle class is what the name implies, with the 4-H’er leading their llama or alpaca through a series of 10 obstacles, including a bridge, seesaw, enclosed tunnel, fence jump and a water noodle passage. The movement through the course is not timed, but is judged.
The final event is the costume class, where 4-H’ers dress up their animal into whatever costume they dream up.
The Grubers and Donwens say they’re excited about the opportunity to show their animals in all those classes at the McLeod County Fair, to expose others to their personalities and to maybe get some to give llamas and alpacas a try themselves.
“There should be a lot of people, because this is the first year,” Faith Donwen said.
“It’ll probably draw some people in,” Alyssa Gruber said. “I mean, like, llamas? They’ve never been at the McLeod County Fair, and you know, just seeing them for the first time, it’s like, ‘what is that?’”
