ozcamelgirl
08-16-2008, 09:49 PM
Hi everyone
Just wanted to share our little adventure with you all. Not as exciting as a cross country trek, but something new for me.
I had to move the girls to a new paddock about 20km away from where they've been. Tessa can be a real handful when it comes to loading so I checked out a map and found quiet and dirt back roads almost all the way and decided to walk them instead. Did recon first and found the roads to be suitable.
I have a big mitsubishi ute but nowhere to tie the girls on it, so hired a cage trailer. Double roped them, one each corner, behind the trailer. (Had to tie them to a big fence first though because once Tess sees a trailer coming she does a bolt!:devil1) Ropes around the neck, with one rope running up through the halter too. Maybe a metre length from the trailer. Had a bail of hay in the trailer and gave them some as we were tying them on. Tess has never walked behind a vehicle before (for more than 2 minutes anyway) so wasn't sure how they'd go. I wasn't game to walk them without the car because we were on roads, just in case something spooked them.
To start off I had my husband drive the car and I walked along with them. We went about a km down the road then stopped, praised them, gave them another nibble and swapped drivers. We had to negotiate a freeway overpass (a very quiet one, and better than crossing the actual freeway!) so hubby followed along behind in another car until we got across okay. Once I turned on to a beautiful wide, quiet dirt road, he left me to it. Stopped maybe once every 3-4 km to stretch my legs and give the girls another little reward. We averaged 6km an hour, which really surprised me. That seemed to be a really comfortable pace for the girls.
I had to negotiate one other "fast" road for a while at the other end so called my husband and he came over as rear guard again, for a couple of kms until we got to a residential street that got us right across town. It's a small country town, by the way. I wasn't trying to walk them through city traffic or anything! :) And around where I am there's stock and tractors on the roads fairly often so most people are used to allowing for them. We stopped traffic a couple of times, with people pulling over to take photos of our little procession though.:D
Coco spent half the time looking around her and yawning (which I'm told means she was relaxed) and actually seemed to be really enjoying it. Tess was great until the last couple of kms, when she dropped back a bit. She's not walked that far since she was a wild desert baby.
It's winter here and was slightly overcast but no rain. Lovely and cool for a big walk, and meant the car didn't overheat either. I had an audio book on the car stereo and can highly recommend it for anyone doing something similar, because otherwise it's a bit of a tedious drive. Wish I could have put the car on auto pilot and walked with the girls all the way!
In the end it only took 4 1/2 hours on the road all up, plus maybe an hour getting them haltered and into position, and they are now happily exploring their new home.
And, this is priceless, my mum called all worried - did I need to take some buckets of water for them to drink along the way? she wanted to know. Nice one mum!:clap
One weird behaviour I've never seen before though... the new paddock has a heap of bushy young gum trees (not fenced off yet), about chest height on the girls. Coco picked one and kept walking back and forth over it, bending the poor tree under her. Over, and over, and over... (Had gum leaves stuck in her breast plate and smelt lovely!) Has anyone experienced this before? Obviously it felt nice. Tess watched her for a while and then tried it herself, but can't have liked it as much because she didn't keep going. It was really funny to watch, and went on for ages.
Anyway, that was my excitement for the weekend. Just thought I'd share it.
bye
OCG
Just wanted to share our little adventure with you all. Not as exciting as a cross country trek, but something new for me.
I had to move the girls to a new paddock about 20km away from where they've been. Tessa can be a real handful when it comes to loading so I checked out a map and found quiet and dirt back roads almost all the way and decided to walk them instead. Did recon first and found the roads to be suitable.
I have a big mitsubishi ute but nowhere to tie the girls on it, so hired a cage trailer. Double roped them, one each corner, behind the trailer. (Had to tie them to a big fence first though because once Tess sees a trailer coming she does a bolt!:devil1) Ropes around the neck, with one rope running up through the halter too. Maybe a metre length from the trailer. Had a bail of hay in the trailer and gave them some as we were tying them on. Tess has never walked behind a vehicle before (for more than 2 minutes anyway) so wasn't sure how they'd go. I wasn't game to walk them without the car because we were on roads, just in case something spooked them.
To start off I had my husband drive the car and I walked along with them. We went about a km down the road then stopped, praised them, gave them another nibble and swapped drivers. We had to negotiate a freeway overpass (a very quiet one, and better than crossing the actual freeway!) so hubby followed along behind in another car until we got across okay. Once I turned on to a beautiful wide, quiet dirt road, he left me to it. Stopped maybe once every 3-4 km to stretch my legs and give the girls another little reward. We averaged 6km an hour, which really surprised me. That seemed to be a really comfortable pace for the girls.
I had to negotiate one other "fast" road for a while at the other end so called my husband and he came over as rear guard again, for a couple of kms until we got to a residential street that got us right across town. It's a small country town, by the way. I wasn't trying to walk them through city traffic or anything! :) And around where I am there's stock and tractors on the roads fairly often so most people are used to allowing for them. We stopped traffic a couple of times, with people pulling over to take photos of our little procession though.:D
Coco spent half the time looking around her and yawning (which I'm told means she was relaxed) and actually seemed to be really enjoying it. Tess was great until the last couple of kms, when she dropped back a bit. She's not walked that far since she was a wild desert baby.
It's winter here and was slightly overcast but no rain. Lovely and cool for a big walk, and meant the car didn't overheat either. I had an audio book on the car stereo and can highly recommend it for anyone doing something similar, because otherwise it's a bit of a tedious drive. Wish I could have put the car on auto pilot and walked with the girls all the way!
In the end it only took 4 1/2 hours on the road all up, plus maybe an hour getting them haltered and into position, and they are now happily exploring their new home.
And, this is priceless, my mum called all worried - did I need to take some buckets of water for them to drink along the way? she wanted to know. Nice one mum!:clap
One weird behaviour I've never seen before though... the new paddock has a heap of bushy young gum trees (not fenced off yet), about chest height on the girls. Coco picked one and kept walking back and forth over it, bending the poor tree under her. Over, and over, and over... (Had gum leaves stuck in her breast plate and smelt lovely!) Has anyone experienced this before? Obviously it felt nice. Tess watched her for a while and then tried it herself, but can't have liked it as much because she didn't keep going. It was really funny to watch, and went on for ages.
Anyway, that was my excitement for the weekend. Just thought I'd share it.
bye
OCG