A Bit of Stone Bridge Farm History
We gave the name Stone Bridge Farm to our alpaca farm because of the unique bridge of stones that crosses the 2 ponds on the property. The bridge was not evident to us when we first bought the land, due to dense brush growth, but after its discovery, we set out to make it usable – as it must have been in earlier days for possible wagon and livestock crossings.
Alpacas became our livestock of choice in a roundabout way. Owning a horse or two had always been our dream so as we were building the barn, we began asking ourselves what animals could we get as companions for the horse(s). We ruled out sheep, goats and mini-horses for various reasons. Then we saw an alpaca at a local fair and, after doing a fair amount of research, decided that huacaya alpacas would be the horse companions. We purchase two pet quality female alpacas to begin with, to see if we if we could handle raising this type of livestock. We decided that we liked alpacas enough to start an alpaca breeding business, so over the course of a few years we purchased show quality breeding stock of various bloodlines. Our herd grew into a wonderful herd of fine quality fleeced animals, most being ribbon winners and some being champions. We are proud of all of them. After our herd of alpacas grew to about 15, we finally got our horse. Ellie was a thoroughbred, retired lesson horse and former race horse. She had never seen alpacas and freaked at her first sight of them, probably thinking that resembled a herd of ET’s with their long necks. But she soon settled down and they became close friends. The alpacas seemed to rely on her for protection, probably due to her size.
Today, our herd has grown to a medium size of 30 alpacas, more or less, through either purchases or having crias of our own. Sadly, Ellie has since passed on (she was approximately 30 years old) but we will remember her always, and how she loved her alpaca buddies.
Business Goals and Values
Our goal is to breed healthy, quality huacaya alpacas to be used as breeding stock for both our breeding program and for sale to other breeders. You can view lists of our alpacas, males and females, that are for sale and available for breeding. We are always working to improve the fiber characteristics of fineness, density and crimp style as well as the conformation of our alpacas. We value, first and foremost, our animals’ health and quality of living and, to that end, will remain a small breeder. Remaining a small breeder allows us to give each animal individual attention. This human/alpaca inter-action makes the animals better adjusted when buyers want to purchase animals. We also value and promote the “Home Grown” concept that is finally sweeping the nation. Because of this, our Farm Shoppe usually carries a good supply of our animals’ fleece, roving, yarn, as well as finished products made from our animals’ fiber such as assorted hats, scarves, mittens, leg warmers, and more.