Walking like on high heels
Temperature - Day (maximum):
approx. 30 degrees
Anna Plains Station – 09.05.2001 – 10.05.2001
The days fly by. Bit by bit, we make progress with Edgar and Jasper. It is a very satisfying job to be able to train animals. I never thought I would have so much fun and never thought I would learn so much. The daily training soon feels like a give and take. Patience, stamina, composure, strength, speed, spirit, ideas, empathy, tolerance and self-control are just some of the qualities required of Edgar and Jasper. Every day we are put to the test anew and every day the intelligent animals reward us with something new.
After the constant shooing down exercises, we put hobbles on them for the first time. As always, Edgar is tied to the post whose foundation I have now repaired. We now manage to set him down, but as soon as we touch him, he jumps up and lashes out. We stand in front of the animal for a long time and think about how we can get to it, because putting it down is important but not everything. After some back and forth, we agree to pull his left leg back on with a rope. (Description June 05) As soon as he sits, I continue to pull his leg up. Edgar wants to jump up, but realizes that he then has to stand on three legs. After jumping up several times, he finally remains seated. While Tanja now pulls on the leg rope, I touch him on the back of his neck and tie both front legs of the roaring animal together. Edgar is now forced to remain seated. This exercise is also enormously important, because if we have to load it, it must not jump upwards all the time under any circumstances. We could get seriously injured by getting hit in the head by the saddle, kicked or simply crushed between the camels. After Edgar is tied to the post in this position, we put hobbles, or rather leg irons, on him. Tanja kneels on the floor next to him and has to grab his front feet. Edgar roars like a banshee, pulls his head to the side and almost manages to bite her. I immediately tie his head even closer to the post so that we can work on his legs without being bitten in the head. Tanja then puts a leather loop around his left and right ankle and closes each one with a kind of belt buckle. The two leather loops are connected by steel rings welded into each other. In the middle of this chain is an iron joint whose two ends can move 360 degrees around its own axis. The joint ensures that the chain sections do not twist. Edgar no longer has the option of kicking forward or running off with one of his front feet due to the leg irons he now has on. Apart from that, the animals have to get used to hopping. During the expedition, they are only without them when they go in the caravan. In the evening they have to be hobbled to eat so that they don’t just run away.
We let Edgar stand up. His first attempts at walking seem clumsy. It soon looks as if a woman is walking in high heels for the first time in her life.
