Working with the llamas in the winter - driving training

Our llamas our so well equipped for the cold weather and the snow. They especially enjoy hanging out around the round hay bales on a sunny day. Here are a few photographs of the llama girls out in the field with our Connemara pony gelding, Dawn's Jeremiah McLane.

You'll also see a head shot of our sweet male llama, FFF Mas Chiri. We were out this afternoon for walk with Mas. I've been starting to train him to pull a cart. We're in the early phases of training where we take walks out away from the farm and away from the other llamas.

For a herd animal, it isn't always easy to walk the opposite direction from the herd so you want to make sure your driving llama is agreeable to going out with you in the cart and away from his friends. Mas is doing great with that. We've been taking him for walks since we got him this summer, and he has always seemed to enjoy the company of humans.

Today, we were working on trot and canter departures at the spoken commands of "taa-rot" and "caaan - tter." (same commands I use with the driving ponies) It is so exciting to see him catch on as quickly as he is! I also worked with him in more of a ground driving position (although I just had him in a halter and leadrope) where I was back at his flank giving him verbal commands. If he wandered a bit off course, I would tap his right or left hip with my free hand and he would move slightly away from the tap (just like a well-trained driving pony moving off the tap of the whip). My only experience with driving is with training ponies to drive but I'm finding that many of the skills translate to llamas well.

It will be such fun to start ground driving with the harness. I predict that Mas is going to take to it with ease. My biggest challenge is getting him to stand still while being harnessed. He LOVES to have his back scratched, so whenever you start fiddling with a harness strap, he wants to turn himself to give you best access to his back for a good scratching! But today on our walk, he gave me three, long whoas with his full attention and his feet firmly planted waiting for the "walk on" signal. That is a great start and could help us with the "whoa" needed for harnessing.