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| Updating Catch-up -- Camel News |
| September 26, 2006 by Stuart |
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It's Fall 2006. A lot has happened with our camels this last spring and summer.
I have been tardy in writing about it. I'll have to grease my writing arm to bring this log up to date!
We now have two additional camels, fresh from Al Deutsch's ranch in Colorado (now Montana).
They are Everest, a yearling white bull, and Muffin, a petite light-tan cow of 2.5 years of age. This brings our number to 6 camels.
We are looking to build our base herd number up to around nine or ten camels, with a view to developing two distinct groups.
We want to develop a primarily white herd and a primarily dark colored herd.
Currently we are developing a 150 acre grassy valley to run both groups in.
"Thunder Valley " as we are calling it, will be the new, and permanent, home for our Sacred Herd of Bactrian Camels.
We are hoping to move them all in there before the winter rains set in. The project, in its entirety, will come to around $175,000 in basic set-up infrastructure.
Through many people's incredible passion & generosity we have raised almost $75,000 so far.... more is still needed.
Please visit our donations page and leave some droppings for the Sacred Camels....!
This year we have been studying a variety of training methods. We've checked out the natural horsemanship methods, which definitely have plenty of merit and are tried and tested over many decades, always improving what they bring to the horse, and the person. I attended a camel training clinic which also was useful. Finally, though, we have decided to concentrate first on developing a solid foundation in relationship-building with all our camels, on the back of which we'll introduce riding training and so forth.
Primary to us is creating a deep bond of trust, compaionship and leadership with our camels, drawing them to want to work with us in a mutually acceptable and engaging endeavor... Developing a relationship where mutual respect and consent are always in play. For this we have been fortunate to come upon the training methods of Carolyn Resnick. She calls her method Liberty Training. Although developed with, and for, horses we have found it to be excellent with the camels, including our young bulls.
We are still only novices at implementing this training, but after two clinics with trainer, Robin Gates, we are achieving excellent results. As we learn more, and gain needed experience, Liberty Training will give us the tools we need to manage our mature bulls even during the breeding phase. If you're interested I recommend Carolyn Resnick's book, "Naked Liberty", and her forthcoming book, "Beyond the Whisper".
Thunder Valley is beautiful. We walked the camels in there a few weeks ago, and they loved it. We take long walks with the camels, without halters and lead ropes, and they are happy to follow us just like a group of huge friendly dogs would do.
Will post some photos soon ! We have a large stock of excellent photos to share.
Best wishes,
Stuart  |
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© 2005-2006 The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam Pty Ltd, as trustee for The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam.
All rights reserved. Perpetual copyright claimed.
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