Yesterday during a torrential downpour I watched a llama pack training video I had lent out from the Llama Owners of Washington (LOWS) library. So today I tried it out on our llama Winona. She did quite well although certain aspects of it she was less than thrilled with. Having a little grain helped with those parts. After she practiced walking in the barn and placing the halter we went on a little walk up the hill on the back of our property. From this view we could really see all the water on our fields. There’s a lot of blown down branches over the trail and one large tree came down too. This came in handy for obstacle training which she did great at. The only problem was when I thought she should go one way around an obstacle, and she wanted to go another. Finally she won and went her way. After the walk we went into a pen in the barn and slowly put on a training pack with cinches. It was reaching under her with a stick to get the other side of the cinch she didn’t like. Once the pack was on we went on a walk just around the field. She did just great. Next time I get a chance I’ll put a little weight in the pack and see how she does. Then we’ll gradually increase the weight and obstacles and then learn to get in the truck. Once we’ve accomplished that I’ll start trying to train Fancy, one of our other llamas. I’m now optimistic that maybe we’ll get to do some llama packing this summer!

2007-01-03 22:01:36 GMT