Prizewinning day at the British Alpaca Society national Show

Paula Winsor of the Winsaula Alpaca Stud explains why this means so much and offers help and advice to those thinking of starting with alpacas

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Did you know Alpacas come in 22 natural colours from black to white and there are two breed types of Alpaca, Huacaya and Suri. Huacaya are more common and grow fibre which needs to be shorn each year, rather like sheep. The Suri Alpaca accounts for about 8% of the overall Alpaca population of Alpacas in the UK and grow a more dreadlock style of fibre which can be left unshorn for two years. At Winsaula Alpacas we breed the rarer Suri breed of Alpacas as we believe they have a more graceful and majestic presence and they are rumoured to be more intelligent than their Huayaca counterparts, but don't tell anyone I said that! Ten years ago, we moved from the city of Bristol to a tiny village at the foot of the Mendip Hills, with stunning views of Crooks Peak. The new home came with empty paddocks so we explored what animals we could easily farm to keep the grass down. I remembered meeting the Suri Alpacas when I trekked the Inca Trail 10 year prior, so found a breeder and bought our first five Suri Alpacas and Winsaula Alpacas was born! Surprisingly in 2017 an exceptionally rare classic grey boy Winsaula Joker was born on the farm and of course we thought we should take him to an Alpaca sh