Haltering Update

After the weekends first haltering of Ginger, I decided I needed to make an effort to halter train our 2010 cria. Rose has already been to a show and halters fine. That leaves Copper, Chaska, Challenge, Twilight and Ginger who need to be halter trained. Copper and Chaska are at our boys barn and the other three are in our dam/cria area. I decided that it would work to alternate days, training one area each night (the boys one night, the young ones by their moms the next night). That way it doesn't take too much time each day (I would only be training 2 or 3 alpacas each night), and they aren't overly stressed by a daily lesson.

Zack offered to help with haltering training, so we decided to start this week after school. As it turned out, Monday after school I was busy wrapping Christmas presents (I'm excited to say I have all my Christmas shopping done!). Tuesday evening I did not get home until almost 8 p.m. I had to be in court across the state at 4 p.m. By the time I finished my work there and drove home, it was late (and dark). Now today is Wednesday and this is the first day we've had a chance to work on halter training. We decided to start in the dam/cria area, haltering Ginger, Challenge and Twilight.

I didn't have the camera out when we had Ginger haltered. It was much like the picture in my last post, though. She's so new to all this, that just having the halter on her is a new experience. She took a few steps.

Zack had Twilight walking all over the pasture, though he complained she didn't walk in a straight line, she is doing quite well.



Zack even managed to get a couple pictures of me! (that is some thing I don't often let happen, I've never been a fan of having my picture taken). The temperature outside today is 24* so I am bundled in my warm gear. I do not like being cold.

First, me leading Twilight with Spot trying to help:



And me with Challenger:



Challenger, like his brother Cavalier, is a bit of pistol and likes to lay down rather than walk on the led:



It's going to take some time to get these cria fully trained.

Zack always insists on having his picture taken face to face with the alpaca. I have to say, the alpacas do not like this, but since Zack is my helper, I indulge him. He does look cute next to them: