No drama, just llamas — new competition showcases camelids

“Llama shows, who knew?” Nancy Carpenter said with a laugh.

She’s been a llama owner for more than a decade but is more excited than ever to have a llama exposition in Northwest Montana.   

Carpenter owns Stillwater Ranch with her husband Bruce Gist and has three llamas: Tomahawk, Echo and Jackson. She takes them to shows on occasion, but they mostly live a leisurely life by the Stillwater River.  

Carpenter is one of many llama enthusiasts in the area to help establish the new Glacier Classic Llama Show taking place at the Majestic Valley Arena on June 22 and 23.  

What is a llama show? It has elements of both horse shows and dog shows, with a few different categories, according to Carpenter. The competition includes three obstacle courses, one of which mimics what a llama might encounter on a packing trip. 

“It’s going to simulate things that you might encounter out on a hike, like water crossings or a bunch of debris in the road ... putting a pack on or off, just navigating different things,” Carpenter said.  

Another one of the obstacle courses is meant to pose a challenge with more difficult tasks for the llamas. 

“It could be that there are four pie tins on the ground, and you’ve got to get your animal to put one foot in each pie tin,” Carpenter said. “Or it could be a rope laid down to jump over, you just never know what it’s going to be.” 

Another is public relations, which relates to skills found in therapy animals, like navigating around more everyday occurrences like cars and wheelchairs. Across most of the tests in the competition, judges are looking for how well the handler and llama work together. 

Other areas of the show will focus on the coats of the llamas. This part of the competition looks at the varying types of fibers in llama coats. For example, silky llamas would compete for the “champion silky” — a type of coat characterized by its slippery touch and luster. 

It wasn’t that easy to get the show up and running, according to Carpenter. When she and her husband moved to the area and began connecting with other llama owners and breeders. But when it came to hosting a show, she learned that state regulations made it difficult for out-of-staters to bring llamas to a show here.  

The state used to require llamas and alpacas who enter the state to have negative brucellosis and tuberculosis tests. Following the change in law, llamas are now only required to have a recent visit from the vet and documentation, according to Montana State Veterinarian Tahnee Szymanski. 

Carpenter said the law was created years ago when cattle ranchers in the state had a fear of brucellosis and tuberculosis spreading from llamas to cows. But, through working with the Montana Department of Agriculture and the Montana State Veterinarian they found that there are no documented cases of llamas carrying brucellosis. 

“I also got a number of people that are breeders and llama owners to write letters (about the benefits of llama shows) like that they are family-friendly events and bring business to hotels and restaurants and that sort of stuff,” Carpenter said.  

The change made it easier for people to come here for a llama show, but also for Montana residents going to out of state shows.

Carpenter is excited to be taking part in the competition and believes it will bring together a strong community of llama enthusiasts in Montana. She said there are notable breeders in the state, and that increasingly, she’s seeing people use their llamas as pack animals for backpacking trips. 

Because the animal is native to a rocky and mountainous environment, it does extremely well as a pack animal here. 

“They’re very sure footed, you can take them places that horses can’t get to. Their feet are padded like a dog so they can walk on rocks, they can scrabble on all sorts of things and they can crawl over rocks and under downed trees — they’re actually pretty versatile animals,” Carpenter said. 

Carpenter fell in love with llamas more than a decade ago. After growing up on a cattle ranch and showing horses, she longed to get back into owning large animals. She was living in Portland at the time and started looking into animal rescues, eventually landing on a llama rescue.  

“I reached out to the gal that owned it. It was around 2011 or 2012, after the real estate crash and people were walking away from their farms, they were walking away from their animals,” Carpenter said. “So she was doing a lot of llama rescues, and I showed up on her doorstep — next thing you know, I have a bunch of llamas.” 

It was there she met the first llama she ever owned, who is still with her at her ranch. She was working with baby llamas and decided to adopt Tomahawk, who is still going strong at llama shows.  

Carpenter said she sees them as pets and enjoys their calm demeanor. Because they aren’t as high energy or large as horses, they don’t pose a physical risk for handlers. They are also sensitive to humans, which makes them great therapy animals, according to Carpenter.  

“They can sense your mood, your feelings ... Sometimes I just need a hug and I’ll go out and I’ll ask him for a hug, and you know, he’ll put his head over my neck. So, yeah, they’re just wonderful animals,” she said. 

Organizers of the upcoming show are hoping to see families out and having fun with the llamas. In addition to the competitions on Saturday and Sunday, there will be vendors and food trucks.  

The Glacier Classic Llama Show is June 22 and 23 at the Majestic Valley Arena, beginning at 8 a.m. To learn more,  visit The Glacier Llama Classic Show Facebook page.