Lennie
Lennie is a gorgeous white gelding who came to our farm after three years of showing in 4H and ALSA shows at Maples Hall Farm. Lennie had won Grand Champion Best of Fiber at our Indiana State Fair several years ago, and I am looking forward to using his fiber in our program. His mistress Rachel has spent countless hours training him for shows, which was evident when we began grooming him for his first Public Relations outing.
He let us groom out his long flowing fiber, and was willing to jump in our minivan and even ride with Michele. He had never met Michele before, and as far as I know, had never ridden in a van either. He did just fine, although we are certain Michele was not enchanted with sharing her once-roomy private car with her new acquaintance!
As we pulled up at the church with our van, we saw a horse trailer and several people from our Pet Partners group up by the church. We could hear the comments as Michele looked over the van roof at the church, and then jumped out. Our instructor was sure we would need to bring a trailer with two llamas, and so when we showed up with the minivan, she was sure we had only brought Michele with us. There was a lot of surprised laughter when Lennie took his turn and peered over the van roof, and then hopped out! Someone asked, “How many llamas can you fit in a minivan?” The answer is, surprisingly, four!
Delta Certification Test
Lennie will have to wait for a few months before testing for his Delta Pet Partners certification, but we were given the opportunity last Sunday to do some training with the group to see how he would do. Lennie was initially skeptical, but seemed to catch on to the all-over handling, interface with dogs and wheelchairs, loud, unexpected noises, and even the helper clad in a flapping choir robe, which did not cause him to shy away (too much!) Lennie is a small llama, and will need to get used to having his ears and face touched by curious kids, so we have some things to work on with him over the next few months. His quiet and calm demeanor will make him a good PR llama, although our beloved Michele will be very hard to beat!
Lennie and Michele also got the chance to meet two new Pet Partner teams that were miniature horses! The horses and llamas took a minute to take each other in, and while the llamas remained aloof, the horses seemed to want to play with their new friends! We all had a good chuckle at the interaction, and hope we can meet in the future at an event with children.
Delta Certification Event
Thank you again to the volunteers who make the Pet Partners program a success. If you are interesting in joining or just helping out, check out this link: