Posted on July 9, 2026
Working with alpacas is helping Alexis build skills and confidence for a future with animals.
Alexis Boddiford grew up helping on her parents’ farm, cleaning stalls and caring for mares and their newborn foals. From horses to guinea pigs, animals have always been part of her life.
Alexis poses with an alpaca at the farm.
Since moving into a Penn-Mar community home in Dallastown, Pennsylvania, Alexis has continued finding ways to work with animals. She has cared for pigs at Whispering Rise Farm & Animal Sanctuary and volunteered at her local SPCA.
For the past three years, Alexis has volunteered at Alpacas of York Shear Heaven Farm where they breed and raise quality alpacas. The farm also runs alpaca walks, tours, and educational field trips and also offers craft classes and agritourism experiences.
One day a week, Alexis and her fellow volunteers have been learning how to train the alpacas for competitions at the 4-H Show at York Fairgrounds and the upcoming July Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg.
When Penn-Mar DSP and Residential Supervisor Michelle Flickinger first accompanied Alexis to the farm, she followed Alexis’ lead. “I had some experience with cats and dogs, but being with alpacas is totally different,” she said.
Alpacas are generally docile animals, but they are notorious for spitting as a way of communicating emotions like discomfort or irritation.
Owner of the farm, Carey DuRand, helps Alexis put a halter on an alpaca.
Alexis has learned to walk on the left side of alpacas and touch them on the neck when giving them direction. “If you touch them on the butt, they get startled,” she explained. “When they don’t want to do something, their ears bend down and they start to spit and spray. They might even sit down and refuse to move.”
Alexis turns her back to them when this happens, allowing them time to settle down. “I am not intimidated by their behavior,” she said. “I calm them and they calm me. Most have good behavior, but you have to be prepared when they are not cooperative.”
To prepare for the 4-H competitions, volunteers guide the alpacas through obstacles such as stepping in and out of a kiddie swimming pool, looking in a mirror, going up and down a ramp, and staying calm when an umbrella opens and closes.
Alexis’ experience at the farm epitomizes Penn-Mar’s 3 E’s initiative that uses experience, exposure, and education to provide more meaningful understanding about a topic for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
Alexis said her alpaca fiber art is going to be a flower design when she’s finished.
In addition to her volunteering duties, Alexis attends some of the farm’s educational programs and she participated in a six-week fiber arts class where she researched images to stitch with a needle and alpaca hair to create beautiful sunsets and flowers that she presented to the class.
Michelle has watched Alexis build her confidence, make new friends, and form a strong bond with Carey DuRand, the alpaca farm owner, who holds her to the same high standards as every other farm volunteer.
“Working with the alpacas is a labor of love,” said Alexis. “I’m picking up a lot of skills, and all the different chores are teaching me discipline and structure that I hope will help me get a paid job someday working with animals.”