by Wes Holmquist

previously published in Llama Life and Western Horseman

I’ve dreamed of many things that would put me in elk country at the break of dawn. Many dark morning hours my comrades and I have spent climbing those mountain trails. We’ve tried back packing our camp in and we’ve packed camp on our back while hunting. All have worked but there is a limit to what a soft city boy can take.

One day Dwight Worthington, a hunting partner, told me he had solved our problem, and that I could see the solution in his mountain corral. I figured one of our pack had finally gotten some sense and bought some horses or mules, but no - in that corral were the strangest looking critters I had ever seen. Dwight said they were llamas. "Why in the devil do you want llamas when you can’t even ride the critters?" I asked.

"They eat very little," he said, "and pack half what a horse or mule will." (He claimed it cost more to feed his dog than to feed three llamas.) "They’re safe and easy for the whole family to handle. It’s just like leading a big wooly puppy."

Well, I couldn’t believe that, but when Dwight demonstrated how the llamas jumped into the back of his pickup like a cat, I was impressed. He said people haul them in vans and station wagons.

I couldn’t believe all that at first but after going on a few pack trips guess what? My corral is full of llamas I have bought to train for packing.

HORSES AND MULES ARE TERRIFIED OF LLAMAS

Knowing horses and mules are terrified of llamas, I was quite surprised when Robert Hennifer of Little Wood River Outfitters said I could bring some llamas along on a guided elk hunt. I warned him of the havoc they could cause with a string of mules. Why llamas terrify horses and mules is a mystery to me, but some trails in Northern Idaho were closed to llamas temporarily because of the problem.

"I’ll try anything once," Robert said. "Llamas are the coming thing and we’ll have to get used to ’em sooner or later. " I told Bob I would pack myself in with the llamas Gus and Val. If we could get one of his horses close enough I would ride a horse out leading the llamas.

It was a pleasant sight to see Robert’s head coming up over the ridge as I approached camp leading Gus with Val trailing behind loose and on his own accord. Robert on his favorite mule, Jean, and Louis, a friend from Louisiana, right behind on a horse, Happy Appy, were riding out on an evening hunt. Louis’ head appeared, too; and then the mule and horse. I got Gus far off trail thinking Val would follow suit. Instead, he sauntered up to meet Robert’s mule, Jean. I never saw a four-legged animal move so fast in my life. Jean swapped ends and cleared out! For a few minutes I thought it would end Robert’s and my friendship but after tying horse and mule to some big trees, Bob and Louis appeared back over the ridge in good humor.

WOULD HORSES EVER GET USED TO LLAMAS?

Bob told me to make myself at home and tie my llamas to the hitching rail behind the cook tent for the night. All the horses in the corral immediately ran to the opposite side and sized up the fence for a quick get away. Would animals from opposite sides of the world ever get used to each other or work together I wonder?

Mark Russell of Boise, Idaho, had related to me an unfortunate experience. Once he had met a string of horses on the trail and in accordance with common courtesy for lama packers was in the process of getting his llamas well off the trail when the outfitter told him, "Leave them there. We’ll go around them" The cowboy was riding a newly trained horse and wanted him to get accustomed to llamas. When almost past the llamas, the two-year old started bucking and the whole string of horses followed suit. Pretty soon pack gear, riders, and mules and horses were scattered from hell to breakfast.

While I was unloading my gear, a guide rode into camp on his beautiful blue-gray mule leading a saddle horse. The horse thought he was in the wrong camp when he spotted my llamas and tried to take the guide and his mule to the next canyon. Surprisingly, the mule stayed on course as if she didn’t even see the wooly monsters.

That llamas spooked horses became a running joke in the camp.

After the second day I kept my llamas tied in the Aspen behind the bunk tents so they wouldn’t spook the other pack stock. But whenever we rode the horses into camp they came in sidestepping, dancing, prancing, and craning their neck to see those creatures they believed to be from outer space.

LLAMAS PACK ELK BACK TO CAMP

When the hunter from Lousiana (nicknamed Gaiter) shot a young bull elk, Robert asked if I wanted to test my llamas on packing it to camp but first he made Gaiter promise he wouldn’t tell any other outfitters about this experiment. I promised too, but my fingers were crossed. The outfitter wanted to see what they could do and wound them down rocky ridges and steep shale slides.

The llamas where cautious of the dead elk but certainly not frantic. After the quarters were loaded on their backs they thought no more of it. "These things would be alright for hauling big bucks out of the rocks," Robert concluded. Gaiter enjoyed leading Val so it turned into an enjoyable hike for all of us. Visiting hunters who were in camp when we returned also enjoyed meeting the llamas.

HORSES AND LLAMAS CAN COEXIST

When the hunt ended, we had a four-mile, steep climb out of Wood River gaining in excess of 2000 feet elevation. I meant to get up early, load and walk my llamas out, but Robert wouldn’t hear of it. He caught his riding mule Jean and tied her to a big tree while Ron was fetching his mule Misty and Happy Appy. I hiked up and retrieved Val and Gus from hiding in the quaking aspen patch and delivered gus to Robert who was reintroducing him to his riding mule. After Jean figured out that she couldn’t tear down the tree she did everything she could to stay on the other side of it from the space monster. When she could no longer do that she hid her head in the foliage of the tree.

Val got down and rolled in the dirt while the horses were trying to tear down the trees and Gus decided, well, maybe he should be a little excited if they were. All the horses in the corral were lined up on the opposite side watching the show and sizing up the fence again.

Then Robert tied Gus to a tree and went to get Happy Appy. The big Appaloosa horse made quite a ruckus-jumping back and forth and stirring up dust and trying to stay away from Gus.

Ron tied his mule Misty to a tree nearby and she started her around the tree dance too. Happy Appy settled down some then, so I grabbed him and Gus and pulled them together nose to nose. That was good enough I figured, so we took the llamas down to the hitching post, tied them on opposite sides of the horses, and I saddled and loaded the llamas. I climbed on Appy. Ron handed me the lead rope and away we went. Soon I slowed Appy down to a trot and with a little side stepping and rearing I could get him to walk. To my surprise it wasn’t long until he settled down to a nice smooth walk, but when we rounded the corner it looked like a disaster ahead.

There was Robert’s main herd of mules feeding on the trail. I expected them to scatter and run clear out of the country. I hurriedly pulled up Appy. The mules saw Appy with us and decided because he was there the camelids weren’t life threatening. Most of them just slightly turned their noses up at Appy for associating with such things. The newest collection to Bob’s herd, a young male they called Junior who was raised by a young boy, decided to come over and meet the new critters. (He was only two-years-old and still thought he was human.)

Junior walked right up and sniffed noses with Gus. Appy and I just eased on down through the herd with the llamas trailing. Junior thought he might want to come along, but eventually changed his mind.

By the time the horse and llama string reached the steepest part of the climb Appy acted like it was old hat. Gus occasionally drug back a little in protest but when he and Val wanted to, they had no problem keeping up in the four mile steep climb. Soon Ron and Robert caught up with us and Bob and Jean led the way while Ron and Misty took up the rear. Soon the riding mules were accepting the llamas as part of the group too, so with our strange little convoy of two mules, two llamas, and one big Appaloosa horse, we made it up the mountain.

We know now that horses and llamas can coexist. Certainly it will take some time and more problems lie down the road, but with the llamas’ gentle nature, catlike athletic ability, and low impact on mountain trials, they now are an inevitable part of the packing business.

My horse leading Prince	Appy leading Rascal and Sam I Am next hunt	Horse H B with string in tow	H B helping me train eight llamas in a string