Today we’d like to introduce you to Susan Leslie.
Hi Susan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started my journey with llamas 25 years ago in Canton Ohio. We purchased 2 as guard llamas and weed eaters. After having our first cria (baby llama) we were hooked ! We quickly grew our herd and brought 16 of them to Texas with us. We grew our herd to over 50 llamas after moving here. We participate in shows across the nation and I started the Wilson County Llama 4H Club to get youth involved with llamas. We share our llamas with schools and nursing care facilities. We also take the llamas to weddings, birthday parties and corporate events. During covid we opened our ranch to families to come to the farm and enjoy the outdoors while getting up close with the many different animals we have here. Still today we offer private farm tours to families and groups.
It seems like every year we add more fun animals to our farm, some of them are intentional and some of them are rescues.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Nothing is ever a smooth road, there are obstacles with having to relocate the farm to a new location, there are always losses that hit hard, With llamas life span at 20-25 years, we have to learn to say goodbye to those we have had their whole life, it’s hard. I don’t feel that dwelling on the bumps in the road is a good thing, We have to learn from the bumps in order to make the next miles ahead of us smooth ones. Having my daughter and grandson here helping every step of the way is absolutely essential to our success.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We are a family farm, we do Everything llama. We show, breed and train the llamas. We shear llamas and alpacas for other ranches all over Texas and in Oklahoma.
The llama and alpaca fiber is so soft and easy to work with, I love having these fine fleeces processed into beautiful yarns and items like socks, blankets and rugs made from the fleeces that we offer for sale here in our farm store. No harm ever comes to the animals when giving them their haircuts. I think my passion for what we do here shows to everyone who comes for a tour and sees the animals in their element and gets to learn a little about each one of them and enjoy their individual personalities. I like to say llamas are good for the soul, and love sharing them with others.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I could talk llamas for days!
Spending my days surrounded by these peaceful creatures, watching them be silly, waiting for new babies to be born, just everything about them is captivating. I love getting to share them. ,
Llamas make everyone’s day better !
Pricing:
- $20 adult farm tours
- $12 children’s tours
- Special events are priced based on individual needs for each event
- $25 family photo opportunities with a paid tour
Contact Info:
- Website: [email protected]
- Instagram: @leslielanellamas
- Facebook: Leslie Lane Llamas
- Youtube: @susanlesliellamas382
- Other: TikTok @Susan_Leslie_Llamas
