Llamas of Alohallama Forest Ranch: About Us/The Coussens Family

ABOUT THE "COUSSENS FAMILY"

Hi, Meet the Coussens Family of Perry, Georgia. We are Wayne, Patricia, Brandon, Brian and Patrick and let's not forget Chris and his wife Leta (in Atlanta), their new baby Chaim, and Kevin (no longer at home).

We have been involved with llamas since 1995 when we moved to Perry. Our love of llamas began several years before when we started seeing these unusual creatures at the local agriculture fair. They were being put through all kinds of paces and appeared to do almost anything their handlers asked them to. We were intrigued. No, we were "hooked". We began investigating llamas, reading everything we could and soon found ourselves the owners of half a dozen beautiful creatures. By the way, they are like potato chips, "you can't have just one."

The love affair only got stronger as we began to handle and work with our llamas. It didn't take long to get us hooked on the show ring where the kids took over with super performances with their llamas from the very beginning. The more we did, the more we learned and the better we got. We are happy to say we think we've got it down pretty good now with over a thousand awards, and many wonderful cria (new born llamas) to show.

Wayne comes from a Navy family, that traveled a lot, but he calls Virginia Beach, VA home, since that is where he grew up. Before llamas Wayne had little in the way of farm experience; you might say he was a city boy. But, his training in Behavioral Psychology, and experience training a large variety of animals has come in handy with the llamas. Wayne attended Wake Forest University and received his bachelors degree in Psychology and then attended Ole Miss for his Masters and Ph.D. degrees also in Psychology. He has taught at University of Mississippi, Georgia College and State University, Mercer University, University of Hawaii (visiting lecturer), and the Hawaii School of Professional Psychology. He served in the U.S. Army as a Major and worked as a Research Psychologist, an Adjutant and an Information Management Officer. He is a past Board Member and President of the Southern States Llama Association and has served at the Chairperson of the Alpaca Llama Show Association Youth Committee and the SSLA Youth Committee among other jobs. He initiated the Southern States Llama Association Spring Show and the SSLA Hillbilly Llama Hoedown Show which he has Superintended annually until this year. He is also the co-founder of the Heart of Georgia Youth Llama Club.

Patricia (Trish) is from Troutman, NC. She and Wayne met while both were attending Wake Forest University. She received her bachelors degrees in Biology and Chemistry at Ole Miss and earned a Masters Degree in Special Education from Georgia College. She attended Medical School at the Medical College of Georgia and upon completion went into the Army where she did her internship and residence in OBGYN. She has been on staff at Tripler Army Medical Center, and Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, Moncrief Army Hospital at Fort Jackson, SC and Taylor Regional Hospital, in Hawkinsville, GA. She has been in private practice as an Obstetrician-Gynecologist in Hawkinsville, GA since 1988 where she has delivered over 3000 babies. Trish's favorite animals are not our llamas but rather her cats of which she has brought in Strays. (Maybe that is why she let Wayne stay). The cats keep her busy when she is not delivering babies (the human kind).

Chris is married and now lives in Atlanta with his wife Leta. Leta was a nanny until the moved recently and Chris is a computer programmer for Certegy. Chris completed college at Wake Forest University, like mom and dad, and then spent a year as our farm manager. He has a great deal of experience with llamas, fencing, shearing, training and so forth. He then completed a second degree at Valdosta State University in computers. Chris and Leta have been a great help in preparing for and helping us show llamas at local shows. And we are very proud to say they are now parents of their very own cria, I mean baby, Chaim Golden Coussens, our first grandbaby!

Kevin is no longer at home but has gone off to pursue his own interests in California. While he was at home he had great success in showing llamas. He placed several times as the Intermediate Youth Performance Champion at large shows.

Brandon has been one of our most consistent show persons in Performance classes. He has several Youth Grand Championships to his credit. He was named to the National top 10 in youth performance classes and has earned the Superior Youth Performance award for Obstacle classes, a lifetime achievement award. Brandon is now spending more time with his studies and has little time for llamas. His llama has recently been awarded the ALSA Recognition of Merit for Obstacle course work and has been a Performance Grand Champion on several occasions. Brandon graduated from Westfield Schools in 2003 as a First Honors Graduate and he attended Georgia Southern University for a year. He is now pursuing a major in Math Education at the University of Georgia and hopes to Coach Football. Go Dogs!

Brian has also shown great performance in the show ring, having achieved several top performance awards, including Reserve Grand Champion Intermediate Youth at the 2001 Southeastern Regional Championships. His llama, Konotoga has begun to produce excellent cria for us as well as continuing to do well in Halter Classes. Brian has trained one of our fine crias to take over where Konotoga left off and has had great success with him. He and "Midnight" took the Grand Champion Performance Llama prize at the Mississippi Llama Show and Midnight has received his ALSA Grand Champion Performance Llama award for consistent performance. Brian's main interest right now, however, is archaeology. He was blessed, in the summer of 2001, to have the opportunity to spend two weeks on a dig in Northern England at the Arbeia Roman Fort. He had some good success and is looking forward to continuing college and his training in Archaeology. Brian is always our special help when getting llamas ready for the show ring. You might say he has a way with grooming the llamas and keeping us organized. An excellent student, Brian stayed atop his High School class as well as keep busy at a number of other things, like being the photographic editor for the yearbook and a primary organizer for the Heart of Georgia Youth Llama Club. In the summer of 2002 Brian spent two weeks on a dig in the desert of Peru...I'm jealous...but he had a great time and learned a lot! Like twin brother, Brandon, Brian is attending Georgia Southern University, where he is be majoring in Archaeology, History and Classical Studies and is a Dean's list honoree. Brian had his greatest moment so far, was when he was named Valedictorian of his graduating class and named a Georgia Governor's Scholar. Congratulations Brian! Last summer Brian was involved in an archeological dig of a preCivil War rice plantation that was destroyed during the war. And this past summer Brian spent six weeks in Rome studying Roman History and Archeology. He's had a great time and is making plans for another more digging this summer.

Patrick has consistently been one of the top performers in the youth llama program in the country. In 2000 he was the Grand Champion National Junior Youth Showperson at the Grand National Championship and was the 1998 National Grand Champion, for Junior Youth Public Relations. He had been the Regional Grand Champion in the Junior Youth Division for several years and again in 2000, but in the Intermediate Division. We are proud of Patrick and his llama "Moser Frixos". Frixos is a Champion on his own with numerous Performance Championships and Halter Champions on his record. But Patrick is also interested in sports, music and acting. He is an accomplished pianist and is mastering the guitar. He enjoys singing and playing with his church youth groups and has his own Praise band. He has both starred and played in a number of stage productions including "Oliver", "Footloose" and "Oklahoma". He loves football, baseball and basketball. So, the llama training has begun to suffer...but, I'm sure he'll hang in there occasionally to continue to produce Championships. In the summer of 2002 Patrick was selected to participate in the National Youth Medical Leadership Conference and spent 10 days at Emory University studying many aspects of Medicine with youth from all over the country. His goal at the time was to become a pediatrician. Among Patrick's other endeavors have been starring in the one act play "The Lottery", and singing in the "Boys Quartet" , performing as one of the lead characters in "Footloose" and as the male lead in the production of "Oklahoma". He also starred as William Shakespeare in the one act play, "While Shakespeare Slept", and attended "Boys State" where he was appointed Secretary to the Governor. He has also worked as a Summer Youth Ministry Intern with one of the local churches. Patrick is so busy we're not sure when he has time to sleep. Just off the stage from starring in "Oklahoma", Graduation and and his freshman year at the University of Georgia, Patrick is looking forward to an exciting sophomore year. Congratulations to Patrick for receiving the 2004 SSLA Youth Scholarship, the Westfield PTA Fine Arts Scholarship, the Perry Pride Scholarship and other awards.

The Coussens family loves to travel. Spring often finds us out West on the ski slopes, but summer and fall often finds us abroad. Among our destinations have been England, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Mexico, Spain and Canada. This year we are headed for Israel and the Holy Land. Our to-do list still includes Egypt, Peru/Chile, Russia, Norway and Sweden and Australia. Been to any interesting places we should visit? Let us know, so we can add it to our list.

Herd sire Row	Picture Gallery	FAQs	About Us
Sale Llamas	Llama Organizations	Llama Shows	Llama Care
Before You Buy	Kids & Llamas	Miniature Llamas	Llama Links