You don’t come across them in the forest every day: alpacas. But for Sjaak van Haaster from Den Helder, no walk is crazy with his four -legged friends. He has trained his alpacas, and therefore they now effortlessly walk through the forest and on the beach for hours. “They now even go into the sea.”
Twice a week, Sjaak van Haaster loads a horse trailer full of his alpacas to go out. The beach and the forest are favorite.
Sjaak prefers to take his four -legged friends everywhere. He once started walking through the North Holland forests and along the beach. “They also have such a company in Egmond and they have been doing it there for years,” he says. Sjaak now earns a nice pocket money, because more and more people want to go on the road with the alpacas.
Train
But alpacas are not dogs: they don’t just walk with you. That is why Sjaak first had to train before they could be on the line at all. “That was quite a fight in the beginning. They just didn’t want to walk because there was never anything to do with those animals,” he explains.
Van Haaster: “Then I bought two foals and a foal runs smoothly, so the rest automatically came along, because they are herd animals”.
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The entire tune runs easily through the forest, the dunes and also the beach. “They recently also enjoy going into the water and also go further and further,” says Sjaak proudly. “Yes, I think that’s funny.”
And although it might be a crazy face, Sjaak emphasizes that it is anything but pathetic to take his alpacas to the beach. “They really like it. If I grab them from the meadow, they always come along easily. As long as they stay together with the herd.”