"Words from the West"

Richard W. Galloway Photos By Rock Rabbit Photo

Hello from the "West." Where winter is rearing it's ugly head and things are turning cold. This will change the pattern of training from the summer.

This months column will be on Sugar Bear, my jumpy boy with the wild eyes. From the day we picked him out he has been a little on the skittish side. Not that this has been a problem. When we put a halter on him the first time to load him into the trailer he has been fairly easy to handle.

We spent almost two hours with the three animals getting them used to our being in their space. Sugar Bear would allow us to get close, but drew the line at touching. None of the guys had been handled much. If they were moved from one field to another it was with their mothers and if that required trailing they were simply picked up and put in. No muss, no fuss.

This may be why he would not allow us to be very close. I used wands to work him a little to help him get used to the idea of things near him. From there we worked up to a rope draped over his shoulders, but not around his neck. After that was "tolerated" we looped the rope around and let him think he was free to move.

Unfortunately from there we were out of time and had to use the old "arm around the neck" routine to get the halter on. To our surprise he accepted that easily and let me lead him out of the pen and into the pasture.

Then the rodeo was on, jumping, bouncing, but no running. This was little surprise and was taken with great glee. I love working with new animals. You never know what to expect and it's always different.

When he had calmed down and decided maybe this wasn't so bad after all to be lead around by this, human. When we got to the trailer he hesitated only for a little bit and then jumped about halfway to the front. This would prove to be only a test of his distance.

When the next two would not load quite so easily, we took Sugar Bear out to see if it would help the others to be beside him when he went in, you know, learn by seeing.

His second trailer loading proved to be a testimony to the need for the extra boards I had put on the trailer. (it's one I build at the metal fab. shop I used to work at.)

He jumped in, bounced once and then hit the boards on the front trying to go on out. This bloodied his lip and made him a little upset.

After the others were loaded, mostly by man (& woman) power we took off the halters so they would not get the ropes or halters caught on something in the trailer or each other. Llamas new to being hauled should never be tied in. They can get frantic when they try to get loose and cause more damage to themselves and each other than if they were left loose to move around.

Training at home was slow and calm. With no hurry to get them "trained" we were able to put them in the catch pen and just set in a corner so they were able to get used to our presence in their world.

From this we progressed to the pellets in the "Frisbee" that I described in the last column

This worked extremely well and he now halters easily. The idea of getting out of the pasture must really appeal to him. He has done wonderful on all of the walks around home. With all of this good luck we decided to try an outing in the mountains.

I am a member of the local Sheriff's posse and we were having a training weekend. What better place to get a llama used to people, noise and horses.

What was supposed to be a ten to fifteen horse event turned out to be a three horse crowd. The reaction was typical of the others I have done with llamas and horses. The llamas look at the horses like they are some sort of big buddy and wonder why the horses are having fits. Honestly, these horses did very well and only snorted and stomped around a little bit. No major rodeo or other problems.

Sugar Bear was a perfect gentlemen. He followed me everywhere I went and I was trying to go into spots where I figured he would not go.

We went over logs, under low hanging limbs, across little streams and around brushes.

The only problem we had was with the campfire. He wanted nothing to do with that thing. The problem did not go away when the fire did either. Just the fire ring it's self was enough to get all the brakes put on.

I was able to get him to accept the nasty thing only after several tries and a little green grass as a bribe.

After that all the other things we have been around seem to have lost some of their, 'fear' factor.

Now comes the pack saddle and panniers, but that is another chapter for "Words from the West" from Richard Galloway and "G" Llamas.