Meet the woman who runs alpaca yoga retreats on her Yorkshire farm

Yoga expert Rebecca Marwood leads the sessions and Debby says they have become a popular addition to her herd’s rota that includes the more well-known alpaca trekking.

“We have a yoga pen, which offers a decent size for people and for the alpacas to graze around them. While people are sitting, standing or laying and meditating, the alpacas just come over and stand right next to them. They help create a calm, tranquil environment.

“Alpacas are always very inquisitive. They’ll go to you and are also very mindful of you. Alpaca yoga has become a regular experience for many people and there’s something really special about how Rebecca conducts the sessions and how gentle the alpacas are around everybody.

The therapeutic nature of having animals around has long been seen as a stress reducer and that’s one of the reasons why trekking is also popular. This has become such a fun activity and one where clearly everyone is a winner, as the alpacas get to see more of their neighbourhood, more exercise and those walking with them get feelgood endorphins.

“We take a maximum of seven alpacas on each trek,” says Debby. “But because each alpaca can be shared between two people we can have up to fourteen in each party.

“We don’t have to make our alpacas do it. I always have somewhere between 35-40 alpacas and we only take the ones that want to come out for a walk, which most of ours do. The alpacas all seem to have their own friendship groups, so if one of their friendship group is going they all tend to want to come.

“We only walk the boys. The girls get pregnant a lot and if they have a cria (baby alpaca) you don’t want to be taking the mums away from them.

Debby started her alpaca journey in late 2014 when she and daughter Jorja came to Garth Cottage, which also proved a step back in time.

“When I was younger I used to work in the Cross Keys pub at the bottom of the bank here and I would look out of the pub window and see this little white cottage with smoke coming out of the chimney and thought I’d like to live there.

“Years later, after several different careers and the way life takes you, I was looking for a move and saw Garth Cottage up for sale. I didn’t think I would be able to afford it, but I came for a nosey. I fell in love with it and sold my business, as well as my house, to buy it.

“I had no farming experience but suddenly had 11 acres that needed looking after because it would have just got overgrown. Fortunately, we made friends with a local farmer who put his sheep on while I didn’t have anything, but after one of his sheep was attacked by a fox he suggested that what I needed was to get a couple of alpacas because they would help guard the flock.

“I’d never even heard about alpacas! But I found two for sale miles away, bought them and that was the start. I absolutely adored them. They were Amadeus and Sebastian. I got them from a breeder called Roger Mount of Snowshill Alpacas.

Having fallen in love with her two it wasn’t long before Debby began moving into the species full time and concentrating on the Huacaya breed, noted for its soft, dense fibre.

“I was sat one night looking at alpacas for sale on the Internet and saw a herd of thirty for sale in Wetherby. The couple had been breeding really well but hadn’t showed in a long time. They were lovely animals with well-known bloodlines. I bought them and eight were pregnant, so I had forty within six months.

“I now breed and sell alpacas, offering starter packages for those who want to get under way with their own herds or simply have a few for home. I’m very selective in my breeding and tend to keep all my best ones in order to breed better for the future. We have eight mating this year between May and June.

Debby enjoys the showing of her alpacas and in addition to her third place at this year’s National Show she has also had champion and reserve champion at the Scottish Alpaca Show in Lanark.

“This year’s Stokesley Show on September 23 will be the first time the alpacas will have their own competition at my local agricultural show, and we are all looking forward to that, as well as our normal show at York Livestock Market in October.

“I’m pretty involved with everything in the alpaca world,” says Debby. “As well as chairperson I’m also the welfare officer and I spin and weave my own rugs from Huacaya wool. Mine are unique because they are hand spun and woven on an 8-shaft loom.

“I also have my Alpaca Shack Shop, which is an online and physical shop where people can buy my rugs, as well as socks, hats and scarves. And I have holiday accommodation too. It’s a shepherd’s hut. We call it The Llama Hut because inside it has llama fabric. It’s on Airbnb.

Debby’s right hand girl is Ella.

“Ella is my full-time farmhand. I have some volunteers. Ella looks after the students from Askham Bryan College who come on work placement.

“We also offer alpacas as wedding guests and we do a lot with Teesside Hospice and care home visits, once again for the therapy these beautiful animals provide. http://www.alpacaalpaca.com