Our Beginning Story

---

What makes LightHeart Ranch  unique from other Alpaca ranches? 

We are a family run business. I live on the ranch with my father and mother and my sister and brother-in-law live close by. Many alpaca ranches are family operations since this occupation is great for both children and adults. It offers people the chance to spend more time with their families working together toward a common goal.

I found alpacas 20 years ago when I found myself stuck in an office job in Los Angeles and knew I had to find a way out. Alpacas offered me the opportunity to work for myself and work outside in the country. It was what I really wanted my life to be. Probably most alpaca breeders found the alpaca lifestyle preferable to office work or the 9 to 5 grind.

I started out with just 2 alpacas, which I financed through the breeder I bought them from and now I have a herd of 75 wonderful Huacayas. Most breeders start small and work their way up to better and better animals through the best breeding choices they can make. 

In the past 20 years I have worked with some of the best people in the industry and have had good mentoring and support from the alpaca community. The Alpaca community is just that kind of community. I find that folks in the alpaca industry are, for the most part, always willing to share information and help whenever they can. The national organization, AOBA, is very well organized and shares the same dream as each breeder, to make alpacas a household word and encourage the growth of the end product fiber industry so that the alpaca investment remains the stable and profitable investment it has been for the past twenty years.

We use scientific methods for measuring fleece quality and follicle counts so that we can continue to breed better quality alpacas with each generation. These methods are available to everyone in the industry and many take advantage of them because we have the same end goal. All breeders want alpaca to be the natural luxury fiber that everyone wants and all alpaca breeders want to produce enough of it to satisfy that desire. So we use the best tools that animal science has to offer to improve the density and fineness of each fleece. 

LightHeart, like most other breeders, finances most purchases. 

One of our best aspects is our location. Snowflake is a lovely little town in Northeastern Arizona where we have great air, clean water, temperate climate because of the altitude of 5600 feet above sea level and the wildest sunsets in the entire U.S.A. 

What makes LightHeart Ranch unique is we're doing our very best to try and make alpacas and alpaca fiber the household word for luxury, comfort and beauty. Come by and visit us and we’ll introduce you to the incredibly wonderful world of Alpacas!