Deanna Perkins, left, and her daughter Hannah Perkins, right, perform a yoga pose while alpacas eat hay during a Weird Flex Yoga alpaca yoga session Sunday at Alpaca Run Farm in Parkersburg. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)

PARKERSBURG — Mid-Ohio Valley yoga enthusiasts got a chance to try things a little differently Sunday in the form of alpaca yoga.

Weird Flex Yoga owner and instructor Michelle Waters held an alpaca yoga session at Alpaca Run Farms in Parkersburg on Sunday. It was the first alpaca yoga session of the year, Waters said, and she has held a few others last year.

About 11 people showed up to Alpaca Run Farm to enjoy the sun, stretch and pet the alpacas. During the yoga session, participants did different yoga poses while the alpacas ate hay that was left out in various spots near the participants by Alpaca Run Farm owner Earl Khosrovi and farm hand Levi McGary.

Occasionally an alpaca would get close to a participant, including one red haired one who sniffed a participant’s shoes and a large black alpaca running at full speed and then turning at the last second near participants. Mainly the animals wandered around and ate and participants smiled watching them. Joining the fun were a few llamas, a pony and a miniature donkey.

After the yoga session was over Khosrovi gave attendees a cup with food so they could feed and pet the alpacas. He warned at the beginning of the class that they like to be petted but he said “they don’t like hugs.”

Deanna Perkins, left, and her daughter Hannah Perkins, right, balance as part of a yoga pose while alpacas watch during an alpaca yoga session at Alpaca Run Farm in Parkersburg. The yoga session was taught by Weird Flex Yoga. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)

Erica Benton Fleming was one of the participants at the alpaca yoga session. She said that she has taken Waters’ yoga classes before and they are always amazing. She said that Waters brings something different to yoga that helps make it accessible to regular people.

Fleming said she had visited Alpaca Run Farm before with her son.

“The alpacas are beautiful,” she said. “They are so cute.”

Hannah Perkins attended the class with her mother Deanna Perkins.

“She’s never done yoga before,” Hannah Perkins said about her mother.

Participants stretch their arms during an alpaca yoga session at Alpaca Run Farm in Parkersburg on Sunday. Weird Flex Yoga taught the yoga session. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)

Hannah Perkins said she thought she and her mother would try something new so she invited her to the yoga session.

“This is very different for me,” Hannah Perkins said of the alpaca yoga. “I like to try new things.”

Deanna Perkins agreed with her daughter.

“This is out of my comfort zone,” but she said the class is “very interesting.”

The alpaca yoga started as Khosrovi’s idea. He said he has run the farm for 10 years and opened it up to the public five years ago and goes to association meetings and other gatherings where he has learned about different ways to promote farms.

Earl Khosrovi, left, owner of Alpaca Run Farm in Parkersburg, poses with his alpacas while farmhand Levi McGary, right, feeds the animals shortly before an alpaca yoga session at the farm on Sunday. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)

“Alpaca yoga was one of the crazy ideas I brought back,” Khosrovi said.

He said he then posted the idea on Facebook and the response went viral and he was contacted by Waters about doing alpaca yoga.

Waters said when Khosrovi posted on Facebook about alpaca yoga the response was crazy with the number of people that tagged her.

“I said ‘Well, I guess we’re doing alpaca yoga,” Waters said.

Alpaca yoga is not the only unusual yoga Waters does.

Weird Flex Yoga instructor Michelle Waters stretches at an alpaca yoga session at Alpaca Run Farm on Sunday in Parkersburg. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)

“I get bored easily, so the weirder the better,” Waters said. “I felt like there was just a need for some kind of alternative classes in the area.”

She said she had been trying for seven years to find a class that would do metal yoga, so that is what started her becoming a yoga instructor and creating Weird Flex Yoga. She said she has been teaching for a year.

“I love finding ways to incorporate fun and something different into a yoga practice,” Waters said.

She said that alpaca yoga has been successful every time she has hosted the class.

“People love the fluffy babies,” she said. “I do too. As soon as I taught the first class I was instantly in love. They’re so sweet.”

Weird Flex Yoga instructor Michelle Waters feeds alpacas after an alpaca yoga session at Alpaca Run Farm in Parkersburg on Sunday. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)

According to Waters, alpaca yoga classes cost $30, with half of it going to the farm. Her other classes cost $15 to $20 usually.

She said Weird Flex’s next yoga class will be at Simply Kin Market at Point Park Market Place in Parkersburg on May 11 and there will be a metal goat yoga class on May 17 at Mountaineer Safari in Evans.

To learn more about classes at Weird Flex Yoga and to contact Waters visit Weird Flex Yoga’s Facebook Page. Visit Alpaca Run Farm’s Facebook page to learn more about events for the public.

Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsandsentinel.com

Erica Benton Fleming, right, laughs as an alpaca gets close during an alpaca yoga session at Alpaca Run Farm in Parkersburg on Sunday. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)

An alpaca investigates Deana Perkins’ shoes as Perkins, left, bends down in a yoga pose during an alpaca yoga session by Weird Flex Yoga at Alpaca Run Farm in Parkersburg on Sunday. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)