Guide to Halter Training - Stage 5: The Lead...

Excellent session with the crew today for many reasons. Firstly the fresh air cleared a post-wedding hangover. Secondly they all accepted the lead without ANY issues. Not one Ghandi (a paca that responds to the lead by just sitting down and refusing to move). Nor did we have a Sgt Elias (a paca that throws themselves into the air, convulses and dramatically collapses on the floor AKA Sgt Elias at the end of Platoon). This is not a good look in the show ring and a bit of a Hacienda Stud specialty. Drama is in the genes. Thirdly I got to have a chuckle when two random cyclists biking past shouted "Do you want two more alpacas?" What kind of industry are we in where complete strangers offer to give you the very product that you are trying to sell? I reminded myself not to be concerned as this year we will have a Unique Selling Point, exceptionally well haltered trained pet boys, not to mention a Champion at the National Show :) Anyway to business... Stage 5 involves clipping the lead on for the first time. I use our smallest pen, about 2.5m x 1.5m and pop two in at a time. I feed them out of the buckets and my hand. Then I pop the halters on and clip the lead on one. I don't put any pressure on it at all. I begin by following them around so that they don't feel anything and they get used to me being connected to them. Then I start to step behind them to get them to walk around in a circle as I was doing before with the lead rope (stage 4). I do it for about 5 - 10 minutes for each paca.

Posted by Jenny Barrett at 18:05 No comments:

Email ThisBlogThis!