Halter Training

I usually wait until spring to start halter training our cria. Most often I just don't get around to it in the fall, and then winter hits and it doesn't sound like a fun thing to do in the winter, so I wait. Then when spring shows come around, I'm scrambling to get them trained in time. This year I really am starting in the fall. For most of them, this just gets me ahead for the spring. But for Rose, her first show will be in a few weeks at Alpacafest in Ohio. We don't usually have a juvenile who is old enough to attend a fall show (we bred for May births at the earliest, which means they can't show until December). Rose came to us, and had already been born in April, so she's ready to show by November (they have to be six months old).

I had Emma (in her old barn clothing) and her cousin help me with haltering. Our goal for this first session was to get the halter on them, so they get used to the feel of it. And, get them to take a couple steps.

Rose is always happy to greet us:




Here the others are wondering what we are going to do to them:




Twilight didn't want to walk with the halter, but did take a few steps in a circle. In the beginning, you can't expect them to walk in a nice straight line. The goal is to get them to take some steps, so we pull them off balance in a circle to get them to take some steps. Twilight was willing to follow our lead on this.






Chaska was not willing to go with our direction and decided to pull and be stubborn:



We've dealt with many like this. In time, he'll get it.