Thursday, August 14, 2014

Pack Training: Carrying Weight

T is growing up...its time that he has to carry weight for Novice Pack at the NY State Fair this fall.  According to the show association rules, llamas over 36 months of age must carry 20 lbs.  Alpacas used to have to carry 10lbs, but apparently that rule has changed recently.  Ralph will be so happy!

Ralph in a Novice Pack class in 2012.

Luckily T was previously trained to carry a pack, but carrying weight can sometime freak them out.  None of the llamas or alpacas that I've trained to carry weight have cared yet, but I wanted to be careful just in case!

I already had 10 lbs of sand weighed out for Ralph's pack, so I used some leftover gravel to make 2 more bags that totaled 10 lbs.  

Weight bags for the pack.

I decided to be nice, and started T with just 10 lbs in the pack for the first day.  He was more concerned with having the pack put on than he was the weight.  And once he realized that it was just a pack, he had no problems.  The next day I put the full 20 lbs in the pack and again he had no problem.  Other than not wanting to "jump" over the jump, which is understandable.  I'm very proud of my boy, and can't wait to see how he does in at the show next week!

T modeling his weighted pack.  Unfortunately we let the pack sit out in the sun, and the top faded!

Speaking of next week, I won't be able to do my blog post next Thursday, as we will be showing at the NY State Fair!  Ralph, T, and Kara will all be coming, and all 3 will show in Novice Performance!  Luckily Kara isn't old enough to have to carry weight...I'm not sure she would react as nicely as T.

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