I am anticipating taking at least two of my three alpacas on a three hour van ride to join up with this yearly event called the Darrington Fling. I have never participated and believe that this event will be mostly llamas!!! I don’t think my alpacas have ever met a llama in their life. The two that I am thinking about bringing are 4 year old geldings and are now riding very well in the van (which has rear air conditioning). If I do sign up, I will be training them for longer van rides. I have devised an artificial turf “porta-potty” which I can “deploy” outside the van and seed this with fresh poop!! My tentative plan is to gradually increase their time from their present 30 minute max to one hour “segments.” I think that it would be totally possible to stop every hour and unload them, walk them a bit and give them a chance to use the potty as well as to give them some hay, water, and treats. I have discovered that keeping open treat bin inside the van is not good due to their competition/spitting during the ride. They travel more peacefully without having think about competing for treats. Apparently the event has stalls that can be rented for them to be in overnight and periodically throughout the day in between activities. I DO NOT PLAN TO SIGN UP FOR ANY OF THEIR COMPETITIONS. I only want to do some trail walking as well as allowing them to potentially walk into the shallow stream, etc. https://www.jnkllamas.com/darrington-fling-july-12-13-2024.html I would like any and all suggestions for making this event doable for my two boys. I have not yet tried to put all three into the van. I suppose I could do this and take all three. My first question is what to do with Remi for the four days/nights that we would be gone. I do have caregivers who would visit him daily, but would worry that he would be too stressed being all alone. I could try to locate a place where I could board him during this time, but that may be even more stressful??!! My second question is whether this just might be too much for my two boys who have never met llamas!! Maybe I should just not do this event. These two have already been taken to our Larry Scott Hiking Trail and did pretty well for a 45 minute walk. I sure appreciate this Forum and the guidance it provides.
