Great training success
Temperature - Day (maximum):
approx. 28-30 degrees
Anna Plains Station – 21.05.2001
This day will prove how much Jasper and Edgar have learned, because we have planned to tie them in a row for the first time and let them run behind Sebastian. It’s time to do this test because we want to leave in three weeks. We set Sebastian, our lead camel, down, attach the hobbles to his front legs, strap his saddle to his back and fetch Jasper. “Shoo down Jasper,” I order him. For Jasper, it is yet another new situation to have to set off behind another camel. Previously, he only had to do this exercise at his post, but now suddenly, in a different place, the whole thing looks completely different. Jasper snatches the neck rope out of my hand and wants to run off to the side. I convulsively try to hold him. “Quick Tanja, go to the other side, he wants to go through, I shout. Tanja sprints around to show him that there is no way forward here. Then she shows him the leg rope with which we had pulled up his left front leg several times. Jasper’s eyes widen and he immediately sits down. Of course, he is far too far away from Sebastian, so we can’t attach the connecting lines such as the halter rope, neck rope and nose line. To save us any trouble, we let Sebastian get up again, take two steps backwards and put him down again. When he is finally seated and the distance between the saddle connections to Jasper is correct, he jumps up again. We repeat the procedure until Jasper is connected to all the ropes with great reluctance. Then we fetch Istan and tie him to Jasper. In this way, Jasper cannot race past Sebastian even in a panic, because Istan is attached to him and acts as a brake.
“Epna,” we order Istan and Jasper, who jump up immediately. I quickly let Sebastian stand up and before we set off, Jasper is allowed to get used to the new situation. He sniffs a little at the saddle in front of him, pulls angrily on his nose leash, but remains calm. Tanja and I are sweating, because this moment will show us whether there is going to be a cruel bucking after I start running. “Do you think he’s ready?” Tanja asks. ‘I think so,’ I reply nervously. “Camels, walk up!” I shout as if we were already on the expedition. Sebastian slowly starts to move. Jasper runs a little restlessly behind and Istan seems to think that his vacation of several months on the farm is over and makes an excellent goalkeeper. So that the three animals have an equal chance, we have put hobbles on them. Like prisoners on the loose, they walk behind each other. The connecting chains of the hobbles rattle. Very slowly, I do several laps of the training enclosure until I’m sure Jasper won’t try to escape. Then we open the gate and enter the open area. “Good boy, good boyyy,” I praise Jasper, who masters the new challenge brilliantly. “Not so close to the generator shed,” Tanja warns me. I ignore her warning and walk towards it for testing purposes, turn around in front of it and come back. Suddenly Istan, who has already walked 2239 kilometers through Australia’s outback, is terrified and wants to tear himself away from the roaring shed. “Udu! Udu Istan, it’s just a generator shed!” I shout and try to calm him down. I quickly turn another arc so that he can see the shed again. He immediately loses his fear and I lead the animals back into the enclosure. It takes a while to get Jasper to stop, but in the end it works. We open all the ropes and release him for the day. Immediately afterwards we try it out with Edgar. As his character has revealed in recent weeks, he is decidedly more nervous. As soon as he is tied to Sebastian, he throws himself on his side like a madman and rolls around in the grass. Sebastian screams, Edgar gets diarrhea and we are once again exhausted. “We also need to tie his hind legs together,” I suggest. In fact, this solves the problem. Although Edgar still tries to throw himself to the side, he is prevented from doing so by this method. He now sits there tied up like a parcel and waits wide-eyed to see what will happen to him. It takes an hour before we can do a few laps with him too. Edgar runs quite unevenly. It looks as if he has swallowed a stick. The poor guy has probably forgotten how to walk because of all the excitement, but in the end it works.
In the evening, we are highly satisfied with our success. We only put the halters on them three weeks ago and now they are already walking in rank and file. We are actually ready to set off, because the knowledge you have acquired here will only deepen during the expedition.
