Saturday, July 31, 2010

A Great Place to Begin

Missing her herd, SP's walk was a true mini today.
It's Day 2 of llama mini-walks. Meet SP, short for Stimulus Package. Are we allowed to have a favorite llamas, or do we love them for special things? I love SP so much; she runs to me in the pasture. She lets me handle with trust and devotion; she is the poster yearling for sweet and gentle. But, today she did not want to walk solo. With her herd in sight, and wending its way slowly to pastures, it was probably a bad call on timing. I'll have to adjust for her if we walk solo.

Good with the golf cart. But then, the see them every day.
What she is great about is different terrains, surfaces, and surroundings. Not a great photo (still learning to walk and be a shutterbug, while doing llama talk), but you can see SP is nonplussed about the golf cart. I would like to train, eventually, SP, Maria, and Etcetera for performance. Since I do not know how to do that, I am waiting for Tabbethia Hubbold's presentation at the GALA 2010 in November.

She sees her friends and isn't happy.
In the meantime, I am taking gentle walks with my llamas, showing them other parts of the farm as they walk over felled tree limbs of varying sizes, and trek on different surfaces. My goal is to expose them to different sensory experiences, even if they never step foot off the farm, however unlikely.

I am content with simple gains. Worse to rush into something without a trainer or training. Would only do more harm than good. If we can walk across our road to the pond side, we have 2 beautiful areas, gently sloped, with total shade and some cool from the water. A nice place to visit; a great place to begin.
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1 comment:

  1. A couple of small thoughts....is there someone that could walk another llama with you? If they are not used to it - or being away from their herd, it is great to start walking two at a time. Also, something I learned back when is to double check the halter placement/fit because if it's not on properly, that can be a major uncomfortable hinderance for a llama.

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