A woman who started her alpaca business as a hobby and ended up travelling across the world with her beloved animals is now looking to retire after 14 “incredible” years.

Annie Clifton-Hort is behind Alpaca Annie, one of the first experiences in the UK to offer up-close and personal time with the friendly creatures.

After starting off with just three alpacas, her flock grew to 148 at one point as people travelled from miles away to meet, feed and walk them.

The business, ran with the help of a small team of staff, is based at Annie’s family farm in New Romney.

It was in 2008, when Annie was nursing her mother who had dementia, that she purchased her first three alpacas.

After suffering from a heart attack, and then losing her mother in 2009, 68-year-old Annie says the animals were like therapy for her, so kept buying more.

When she got to 20, her husband, Robert, said they needed to come up with a way to make them pay for themselves, as they “just kept eating”.

Annie started offering meet and greets and walks that paying customers could do with the animals.

“We just love having the public here and my staff are brilliant. It’s just a hobby that’s gone berserk,” she said. “I was one of three businesses in the UK when I started.”

Annie, who has three children and five grandchildren, says she has made some incredible memories thanks to her alpacas.

“The alpacas have taken me to fashion shows at the Old Bailey in London, to Peru – the Peruvian government have flown me out several times. I’ve travelled the world with my alpacas,” she said.

“I’ve been to amazing weddings with them, which is something I never thought I would be doing.

“I’ve also been to care homes, hospitals and schools with them. It’s been 14 years of adventure and I never thought it would be so successful. My team are just incredible too and it’s all down to them.

“We’ve had people just sit in the paddock with them; the alpacas seem to know if the person is upset and they gather around them.

“Our alpacas are very calm and are so nice to be around.

"Someone told me very early on the reason that they're like they are is because they come from the Andes and they're up with the Gods in the Andes and have special abilities to bring calm. I don't know if it's right or not but it's a lovely story.

"They certainly have something.

“We have some people come all the way from Croydon. A woman brings her elderly mother a couple of times a year and we drive them around the paddock so she can see and feed the alpacas.

“It just makes her day and is lovely to watch.”

But, having decided she needed to wind down, Annie hopes her staff will continue to offer meet and greets and walks in smaller groups as she has started to sell some of her flock.

She added: “I had a health issue last year so I thought I ought to slow up.

“After speaking to my family about it they agreed and when someone came along wanting to buy some of my alpacas, I thought I would try to sell the business.

“I felt it was the right thing to do. It’s sad but I’ve had 14 amazing years.

“We did have 148 alpacas but we have been slowly stepping down so we have about 90 at the moment.

“We will probably end up keeping about 25 if my staff can continue the business.”

Looking back over the years, Annie says it is impossible to pick her favourite memory, but recalls one highlight – a proposal that nearly went wrong!

“We knew the proposal was happening and the plan was for me to take the couple away from the group onto a different path but the receptionist had got the wrong couple,” she said.

“We kept walking and I was just wondering when he was going to propose – we had champagne ready and everything – and then I got a phone call from the shop to say we had the wrong couple!

“I had to explain to the couple what had happened and go back to get the right couple. It was so funny.”

Annie is still running Alpaca Annie but is slowly selling her alpacas in the hope that her staff will operate the business on a smaller scale.