More About Yaks

June 5, 2022

I don’t know why I’m such a wimp. They are just baby yaks after all, not even a year old. They are so fuzzy and adorable, I really want to hug them, and I totally would, just ask Ganesh. But they are pretty big, and they have horns, and they are surprisingly fast and agile. When something is big and scary, you don’t want them to be also fast and agile—this is a very disconcerting combination. Their backs are about at my belly button height. When something is big and scary, you want it to be slow like a sloth, or a tortoise, so you know you can easily evade it if necessary. If you touch them funny or even get too close, Dusty swings her horned head at me. I was so confident until the day I had the light brush with the horn. But why can’t I just toughen-up-soldier and do it anyway? 

And we’ve really come a long way. Dusty doesn’t bluff me…too much, Rocky is just getting more and more friendly. When I reach through the coral, I can scratch him and pet him. Rocky loves these little oat and apple horse cookies, he’s basically a giant cookie monster. We let them out of the coral now, and I bring treats in a bucket and then run as fast as they can across the field to come to me and run right in the corral and get the goodies. Dusty likes her head being scratched. Ruth told me I have to brush them. It will accomplish two things, get them used to being handled and also it will get all their down undercoat off, which can cause them to overheat in these hot summers we have. 

Ruth told me they are “so intelligent, much more than cows,” and I think I’m finding that to be true. If Dusty is mean to me, Rocky comes charging in and stands between me and Dusty. Like he’s protecting me and shoves Dusty away. Like, hey she’s nice to us, knock it off! That’s what it seems like. Overall though, I think she is more Intelligent which makes he more wary of us new folks, maybe intelligent and friendly are opposites on the same spectrum after all. She get’s offended if I bring treats but don’t referee and allow her to get some. She waves her head and horns at me like “don’t touch me,” she get’s mad. But if I push Rocky aside and force him to allow her to have some she’s fine. 

Yesterday, I looked out the living room window and saw the yaks right at the fence looking toward the house. I decided to reward that friendly curiosity and went to grab a handful of the cookies and went out there to the fence and gave them some.

Some day I have to call the Hotline again and get some pointers on how to train them to walk along with me on the leader rope. I still have dreams of being able to walk them around.

June 8, 2022

Today was the day we had to brave the yaks. we finally got the shedding brush in the mail and some horse main and tail brushes. We gave the yaks some treats in a bucket and they came over like always. We clipped on their leaders and we tied it to the coral, they didn’t like that. They really didn’t like the brushing. They trashed around and swung their hips this way and that way. Dusty stepped on my foot by accident. That smarted. We had to keep backing up to be out of range of any possible kicks, though they didn’t. We had to watch out for the horns even though they were tied up. We have nearly a pillowcase full of fluffy fur from the brush which should help them stay cool. They looked so much cleaner, without all that matting and hay and stickers stuck to them. I was trying to tell them that this would help them, it’s over 90 degrees, they could get heatstroke, and getting the undercoat off of them will help prevent that. I hope we didn’t undo all our hard work of being their friends. I was filling their water buckets after the brushing and Dusty stood there looking at me, stomping her foot and waving her horns around. And she was outside of the coral so she could have attacked me if she wanted to I suppose. It was enough to make me nervous. I’m really dreading the day we have to adjust their halters. 

In the afternoon, they came up to the fence in the backyard and were looking toward the house. They looked so cute I couldn’t resist running to the garage, filling my pockets with treats, and then out in the backyard to give them the goodies. They liked it and let me pet them. Phew, it looks hopeful that we are still friends.

In the evening when I bring them back to the coral, I wasn’t sure if they would even come to me. Have I damaged my relationship with the fuzzies forever? I filled the red treat bucket and when I saw them I shook the bucket and called “Yakkies!” like I always do. They ran the fastest I’ve ever seen them run across the field toward me. I was approaching the gate and they zoomed right past the gate, then they turned around and zoomed back to the gate and clamored right at the gate opening as I entered with the treats. I guess we’re still friends after all. When I was fully inside, they started jumping and running around me, which seemed to be out of joy, but it was scary as heck! What if they bumped into me, or ran past me with a big horn. But they were trying to attack my bucket and running and jumping and I tried to calm them down but they wouldn’t. So I just set the bucket down and ran away from it. They went after it and started munching. I didn’t know what to do since the lure of the treats is always the way I got them into the coral. I decided to see what would happen if I just walked toward the coral leaving the bucket behind. Sure enough when they saw me walking toward the coral they bolted and zoomed past me again, which was nerve wracking again. They went straight into the coral, I closed the gate and they were in there, then I went back to get the abandoned treat bucket. They enjoyed their goodies, I gave them a goodnight scratchy on their heads and left. Even thought they hated the brushing in the moment, I guess they really appreciated it! 

I got a free year of membership into the United States Yak association. Which apparently is a great resource to have of other yak people, if I ever need someone to talk to about health problems or breeding or anything like that. While I was browsing the website, I found committees people can volunteer for, one of which being fiber. That might be fun. On one of the recent newsletters there was a list of things the association needs, one of which being a genetic specialist and such. But one of the things they wanted was more quality Yak Photography. Maybe this is my calling in life. I must take up the mantle and be a professional Yak Photographer.