I’ve been impatient to resume regular llama walking. Since we moved in here, I’ve been putting halters and leads on Duc and Valentine most days, and have often walked each around in the willow field. Neither they nor I have found this very satisfying, but it has at least kept them familiar with the discipline of walking close to me.
Having cleared and mowed a track around the outside of the big field, I had tried out the notion of taking Valentine for a walk within our own land. Although he was keen, this proved not be be a great success! Within seconds of leaving the willow field, as Valentine was getting interested in the new eating possibilities of the land outside his field, Pedro had spotted that one of his potential rivals was coming nearer. With much snorting and stamping, he came rushing to the fence nearest to us. Valentine looked as innocent as he could, but this didn’t calm down Pedro’s territorial anger. Rather than get him even more agitated, I decided to take Valentine back into his own field . . . .
Clearly, using the newly created track will have to be deferred until we have sub-divided the big field. Then we’ll be able to put Pedro in a smaller area not adjoining the track when we want to use it for llama walking. In the meantime, an alternative was needed.
A small track runs along the back of the willow field, and this presented another possibility for walking with Duc and Valentine. Val and I installed a new gate without too much difficulty (glossing over the post banging and other labours!). Now we have access from the field to a nice track, which offers a link to another track which leads down the side of the farm to the house, and also to various other lanes which go to the village and elsewhere. Over the last few days, we have walked Duc and Valentine down this track for a couple of hundred metres, and their response has been very enthusiastic.
This morning, I decided to try something I have never done before – walking Duc and Valentine simultaneously, on my own. “Are you sure you want to do this?”, queried Val. “Yes, it’ll be fun!” I responded – though to be honest I wasn’t sure it would work out as well as this confident statement implied.
But it was really successful! Both llamas enjoyed themselves, and I had a great time. You can judge the result for yourselves:
