“Generally speaking, the non-humans native to this Earth-“world” are, by their natural nature, innately extended into the Field of Transcendental Contemplation. Therefore, they can always readily drop out of their rudimentary bondage to mind. Fundamentally, as an innate characteristic, they Stand Prior to mind. In that sense, the non-humans here are (to some degree) already Free. They are not Absolutely Free, because they are still bound to conditionally manifested existence–but they do enjoy an inherent means for transcending conditionally manifested existence. Therefore, the non-humans native to the Earth-“world” do not require verbal Instructions in how to practice the ego-transcending, mind-transcending, and “world”-transcending Way.”
– Adi Da Samraj, “The Way of The Mirror Is Me”, The Gnosticon, pages 703 to 704.
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Adi Da Samraj: “When they are purring, cats are not just in the ordinary sense physically aware. Just to be able to get to purr, they have to be in that other dimensional way of relating to the physical, where they’re peripherally associated with it. In fact, that is the way that the vibration of the purr occurs. You can feel how they feel themselves as energy, and they basically feel the physical is transparent to that apoteketgenerisk.com. At the level of energy, you can feel and even see right through the physical. They are meditating on that, knowing that, with each moment of that purring. That’s how they are aware of the physical when that’s occurring.”
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Spotlight: Fear-No-More Zoo Europe is a Refuge for Rare and Endangered Species
Compassionate Animal Care: Llamas & Alpacas
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“If you’re going to bring animals into your sphere and take them out of theirs, you have to make some sort of arrangement with them in which they have the potential, through their Contemplative life, to be just as happy as you want them to be. But in that process of sensitizing yourself to non-humans and placing no barriers between yourself and them, you have to go beyond your previous mind about non-humans as sort of non-beings. And non-humans include the weather and soil and everything else too.”
– Adi Da Samraj
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“The world is transformed by one’s presumption about it. Those who live in a magical disposition toward the world change their world in one characteristic way: They do not seem to do very much with it as a natural phenomenon. They are very protective of it as a natural phenomenon and want to interfere with it as little as possible, because it is only by letting the world be what it is as a natural process, without interference, that it has the opportunity to produce magical signs and therefore to permit them to engage in magical relations with it.“
Adi Da Samraj
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“Non-humans are not connected to the world via conceptual mind, and, therefore, they have no problems about Realizing the Non-Dual Nature of Reality Itself. The egoless Nature of Reality Itself is perfectly obvious to the non-humans.”
– Adi Da Samraj
From Observe the Non-Humans, and Learn from Them, a Discourse by Avatar Adi Da Samraj, May 11, 2008
At all Fear-No-More Zoo locations there is an ongoing exploration and consideration of how to rightly orient ourselves to fully serve our non-human residents’ precious native disposition towards contemplation of the Divine. This is foremost in everything we do with our non-human residents. Some of the training we do with our residents is for practical purposes (for example, being able to safely provide veterinary care) but also to provide them with enrichment in the form of playing and having fun.
We are excited to share an innovative form of training that we are doing with the horses at the Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary in California. We are fortunate to have Lotte Braithwaite, Zookeeper of Fear-No-More at the European Danda, onsite in California, to teach us this technique. Lotte has been immersed in several different horse training forms over the years, assessing and considering them all with deep heartfelt intelligence. Lotte is currently immersed in what is generally called Positive Reinforcement Training, which you will see in this video. Here is what she has to say about this technique:
Lotte: Positive reinforcement training, or +R, means that the horse gets rewarded for doing something we ask, this is usually a treat, but it could be scratches or anything that is rewarding to the horse. A tool that is often used with +R is a clicker. The clicker is used to mark the exact moment the horse does a right behaviour and acts as a bridge to the reward. Why is this useful? Well, for the horse to associate a specific behaviour with a reward, he has to receive the reward within a few seconds of doing the behaviour. Any longer than this and it becomes more difficult for the horse to understand what he is being rewarded for, thus slowing down the learning process. The click, to the horse, means the thing he was doing in that moment was good and that the reward is coming. This can also be done with a word/voice cue, but because the clicker makes the exact same sound every time, it’s a clearer signal to the horse, which again, speeds up the learning process. We’ve also found that using the clicker as the marker, gives us more room to use verbal encouragement and praise without the horse expecting a reward for it. They know that the treat only comes after they hear the click.
A beautiful day
We set up a training pen in the horse area and started teaching them the basics; loading the clicker and targeting. First of all, the horse needs to learn that the click means the reward is coming. This is easily done by clicking and immediately giving the horse a treat, repeat this a bunch of times and most horses will have made the connection. Click = treat. This is called loading the clicker. Targeting is one of the most versatile and useful things to teach a horse. It’s the basis for a lot of the more complex behaviors that we might want to teach the horse, like walking with you from point A to point B or asking them to give you a certain body part for care/veterinary purposes. To teach targeting you present the horse with something you would like him to touch with his nose. Usually this is a bit of foam/pool noodle on a stick or a cone, but you can use pretty much anything. Horses are curious and will most likely want to touch the new thing you’re showing them. The moment they touch it or move their nose in the right direction, they hear the click and receive a treat. Repeat a number of times and the horse will have learned that touching the target earns him a treat. Now we can ask the horse to follow the target or anything else we might want him to do with it.
With most horses it’s helpful in the very beginning to have some kind of protective barrier between you and the horse. Because there are treats involved, the horse will naturally try to get them directly from your pocket. He hasn’t yet learned that harassing you is never going to get him what he wants. To prevent having to use force or punish the horse while he learns what behaviours do get him the treat, we use a protective barrier, also called being in protective contact. This helps to create space, so the human is safe from being mugged and the horse is more likely to show interest in the target. Positive reinforcement is only one way of training, horses are most commonly trained using pressure and release and this can be used in many different ways. We are in an ongoing consideration about when to use the different ways of teaching the horses and other animals. But positive reinforcement engages the brain’s seeking system, telling the horse to be curious and experiment. Pressure/release shuts the seeking system down, this is why they can’t be used together in a training session or to train a specific behaviour without losing the benefits of using +R. Both ways of training can still be used, as they both have their value depending on the situation, but they have to be clearly separate.
We worked with all the horses except Shady. Shady is elderly and showed no interest in participating beyond sometimes watching from the sidelines, so we left her alone. Dawn and Metu were the most enthusiastic so we worked with them the most. Metu is the star student, he is a fast learner and is very motivated. He is polite and sensitive, but can be quite skittish with various things, including ropes or halters around his head. So with him we focused on exercises that encourage self-confidence and expression. We also started teaching him to willingly put his nose in the halter to help him be more comfortable with it. Dawn has a lot of high energy, confidence and self-expression. She also tends to be quite pushy and in your space, so most of the sessions were focused on targeting puzzles. To create more distance between us and to get Dawn in a calmer and thinking state of mind. She is doing great with this.
You will see in the video that the horses are happily engaged in this training! In a very short time, they started looking forward to the training and would be waiting for Lotte & Sara to arrive so they could start.
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We are excited to send out the first edition of a new Fear-No-More e-newsletter. Be sure to sign up for our e-news mailing listso you don’t miss out on important updates, like this video featuring necessary infrastructure projects underway at the Sanctuary in northern California.
“Apart from human beings and their effects, there is a universal state of Contemplation going on, and functioning just on the basis of that Contemplation. Essentially it’s not a fear world. The human world is the fear world. All of Nature, so to speak, is Contemplating constantly. There are breaks, it seems, or required action, but essentially it’s a culture of Contemplation including the Earth itself.”
– Adi Da Samraj, January 5, 1996
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“Realize that the Living One Is the Real Condition of life, the Real Condition of all forms—and be Happy.”
– Adi Da Samraj
We are excited to share this update from Fear-No-More Zoo Europe, which features:
Updates on the horses, birds, and chinchillas
Lotte & Bart’s 5-day 60 km trek walking side by side with horses Leyndur and Tosca
Our vision for creative paddock design
Our exploration of Intrinzen, an innovative training approach where the main goal is to empower horses to be expressive, brave, and find joy in movement
Horses
We are in the process of slowly updating and expanding the horses’ paddock paradise. A paddock paradise, or track system, is a way of keeping horses that emulates their natural lifestyle as much as possible. This system encourages movement and seeking/foraging behaviour, obstacles like logs or hills can also be added to create more natural challenges and enrichment. Another benefit is that it makes the (holistic) management of the land easier for us.
We currently have the most basic form of paddock paradise; a single track along the edge of the main pasture. The horses and alpacas live mainly on the track with hay distributed at different points along it. When one of the pastures is ready to be grazed, the gate is opened and the herd gets access until it needs rest to regrow. We are currently working on adding a new bit of track so all 5 pastures are connected to it, which will make it a lot easier to give the herd access to these pastures and to manage them.
This is the most recent version of the paddock paradise design we are aiming to create. This design is an ongoing consideration with the various groups involved, including the garden and forest. The area in the red circle is the track currently being built.Putting posts in for the new trackHorses and alpacas walking along the track to the next feeding station.
Horse Trek
At the end of July, Lotte Braithwaite, Bart Driessen, and horses Leyndur and Tosca set out on a 5-day trek, covering over 60 km, mostly on foot and staying with friends and at riding schools in the area. They were also joined by two friends and their horses.
“Walking side by side with a horse and our little horse-human herd for 5 days was a special experience. Leyndur was the perfect companion, it was obvious he was enjoying himself. I could trust him completely to be calm in any situation we came across and he often took the lead of the group, with ears forward and steady, confident steps. The many hours of walking and time spent together with Leyndur deepened our relationship a lot. On day 4 a very special thing happened. I had decided I would only walk beside him, no riding. I believe that riding is completely the horses’ choice, not the human’s. But as we were walking I suddenly got a very clear image of us riding, it was so sudden and clear that I just knew it wasn’t from me apoteketgenerisk.com.. so I just went with that feeling and got on Leyndur’s back.. it was so special.. he was so sweet and I felt so safe on his back… we rode for a short while before I felt it was time to get off and thanked him. I felt so honored that Leyndur invited me onto his back. Over the course of the trek there were many more moments where Leyndur amazed me, he started showing a level of exuberance we didn’t know he had, a quality that has only grown since then.”~ Lotte Braithwaite, one of the primary zoo carers at Fear-No-More Zoo, Europe
Tosca, Leyndur, Lotte and Bart on day 4Tosca and Bart conquering the bridge on day 1Special ride with Leyndur on day 4
Intrinzen Training
The horse team at the sanctuary has been studying Intrinzen for over 6 months now, which is an approach to training where the main goal is to empower the horses to be expressive, brave, and find joy in movement. It is based on current movement and motivation science and works with positive reinforcement.
“Engaging with the horses in this way has been an absolute joy for everyone, it encourages and even requires creativity and humor from the humans. The horses are loving it too, they always want to join in and we are seeing amazing changes in them.” ~ Lotte
Asha, one of the mares, was already quite energetic and motivated to move, but easily spooked. Lately she’s been braver, more self-confident and gets anxious less quickly. She’s been expressing a desire to explore more outside of the main horse area, so we have been taking her out for short walks/wanderings around the sanctuary. It’s a slow process as she does still get easily anxious around new things and places, we only go as far as what Asha feels safe with and when we get to the edge of her comfort zone we might invite her to go beyond it a little bit before turning back. Doing it this way sets the entire thing up as a positive experience where at no point is Asha forced to go over her boundaries and be afraid, there is only open invitation.
After 3 sessions of being introduced to the pallet/pedestal, Asha finally gathers the courage to step onto it.Working on a posture exercise with Asha
In October Steinar Sigurbjornsson, co-creator of Intrinzen, came to the Netherlands to give a 3-day clinic for the first time, which Lotte and Bart attende.
“One of the main things I love about Intrinzen is the value it places on joy, humor, creativity and empowerment for both horse and human and all of that was very much present at the clinic. It was great to be with a group of people who also value these things in the relationship with horses. It was very inspiring to watch the lessons, the change in some of the horse-human combinations in only a few days was amazing. We came home with a lot of new ideas and insights.” ~ Lotte Braithwaite
Birds
Lint is a male African Grey parrot. He is the only African Grey we have amongst the many birds and he is doing really well. He is always hanging out in the big aviary waiting for somebody to say hello to. He is very relational.
When the weather is colder Lint tends to be more inside. To keep him busy, he has a climbing wall with special stone perches. They serve several purposes. They trim his nails and they are also good for exercise. And of course they keep him entertained.
In the wild, African Grey spend large parts of the day searching for food. When an African Grey is kept as a pet, it is extremely important to give the birds toys, inside which you can hide their favorite treats. This helps to imitate natural habitats and behaviour. Lint is often busy for long periods of time searching for the treats.
Lint in his indoor enclosure
Chinchillas
We recently bought new brushes and mops for the chinchilla areas. As the forest had been recently clearing trees we were able to take some birch branches and put them in their cage. Chinchillas are nocturnal and also love chewing wood. They will chew any types of wood they can so it is important not to have wood that might be toxic for them. We hope to build a new chinchilla area next year with a much larger outdoor space for them. We have to make sure that there is no wood they can chew through though!
Chinchillas Juweeltje and Fluweeltje. Chinchillas are nocturnal, so they are difficult to photograph!
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We are grateful for your support of Fear-No-More Zoo!All of the money donated to Fear-No-More Zoo goes toward our ongoing, basic expenses which directly supports the animals. These include hay, grain for treats and training, special supplies, salt and minerals, hoof trimming, veterinary care, infrastructure, repairs, and continuing education for staff. In the future we hope to raise monies to upgrade our facilities and infrastructure to better host visitors.
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“Separate-“anythings”-seeking-unity is the principle of falseness. Separateness cannot achieve unity. Unity is a prior condition that must enforce itself. If this is clearly understood, then it will become obvious what must be done, and what must not be done (or allowed to continue), in any particular circumstance.”
Excerpt from the essay Reality-Humanity, Self-Liberated From The Stave in the Wheels, from the book Not-Two Is Peace by Adi Da Samraj (2007)
Fear-No-More Zoo is about including the non-human world in the Great Reality Consideration that all beings are involved in—the truth that, at heart, all beings are one. This is a powerful consideration in the company of non-humans. Fear-No-More Zoo provides a unique circumstance in which humans are invited to recognize and appreciate how much we share with the non-human world, versus apparent differences. This understanding serves the awakening of humans to transcend our presumptions of superiority and obliges us to stand as allies, friends, and protectors of the entire non-human world.
Camels
We created a new “dust bath” in the shade for the camels, which is comprised of chalky, sandy dirt infused with large amounts of anti-parasitic ingredients such as diatomaceous earth, agricultural lime, and borax. As you can see in the photo at the top, the herd has been enjoying their fresh, new dust bath very much.
Peaceful Baba was beside himself with this new dust bath and couldn’t even wait for the machine to finish before trying it out.
This summer’s heat has been intense and relentless and has brought a lot of flies. Fly season typically occurs at the very beginning of the heat and then subsides, but this year it has been consistent throughout the summer. The most pressing issue this has presented was with Purnimama’s flopped hump, underneath which she developed sores from heat and sweat. We have been warding the flies off and applying multiple medicinal powders and salves. Now the hump is well on its way to full recovery. Peaceful Baba has been staying in the vet area to keep her company. We are developing a further care plan for the two elder siblings of the sacred camel herd to ensure they are strong and well-fortified as we head into the winter months.
Purnimama and Peaceful Baba are both receiving extra care and attention.
The herd otherwise has been doing really well. HiHo, who has been one of the trickier characters of the herd, has been extremely polite. He now requests to receive brushings and pettings that he would normally turn down. HiHo would always slyly lead to chewing on people until being told to leave. Now he corrects himself before the humans have to, and instead either politely walks away or stands quietly and respectfully with balanced feeling attention. It has been really nice to feel HiHo in such a relaxed and peaceful way.
In general, all of the camels remain very well socialized and are growing in their acceptance of handling. Most offer their heads and allow their ears to be stroked, which signifies great trust. They are such gentle loving beings.
Llamas
Kriya and Apple Pie are continuing to do very well. It has been interesting to observe how Kriya, who was never trained or handled in her life prior to last year, has progressed very quickly to being incredibly calm and easy to halter, whereas Apple Pie, who was handled all her life, finds it quite difficult to stand still and receive a halter.
Kriya has also made advancements walking on a lead rope outside of the training corral. She’s no longer bolting and is learning to follow along in a relaxed manner.
Apple Pie is extremely intelligent and demonstrates a lot of spunk. This, along with her previous experiences where she was cornered and grabbed in order to halter have made her training and handling more challenging. Understandably, she is on guard and very self-protective. This technique for catching llamas is typical since they are not inclined to being very social with humans, but there is another method that we use for haltering that is much more pleasant for both llamas and humans.
Kriya easily accepting a halter
The training approach that we chose for the llamas has been really effective for Kriya, but with Apple Pie, we must first undo what she has learned so far in terms of evasive maneuvers in response to what she perceives as being “grabbed.” We are exploring different positive reinforcement strategies, but, most importantly, we’re accepting where she is at and very intentionally not pushing her beyond what she chooses to accept and participate with. She actually loves to do training and willingly participates, but she has very clear boundaries. Overall, she appears to be enjoying Kriya and her new environment very much.
We will take our time teaching Apple Pie to accept being handled in a way that is pleasant for her and us.Kriya in restraints for nail clipping, which she is getting really good at. Apple Pie’s nails wear easily so they have not yet shown the need for trimming.
We recently completed an important tree service project and removed a large, dead poplar tree in the bamboo gardens of the llama enclosure. Thank you to Jonathan Greene and Scott Gough whose expertise and help was invaluable.
The llamas were highly entertained by the tree removal.The llamas enjoyed tasting all the fresh, newly fallen leaves.Apple Pie spends the heat of the day standing in or laying next to the creek in the shade. She loves her dust baths too as any camelid does!
Horses
The horses are doing well. They have enjoyed spending time out of the paddocks roaming the entire retreat area of the sanctuary. Free roaming a larger area stimulates the horses to behave more like a wild herd would, banding together and moving to different areas, able to follow their natural curiosities. The horses get great exercise and are very happy and satisfied when free roaming.
Rarely do the horses get to eat out of the back of the truck, they consider it a big treat.
Recently all of their hooves have needed tending due to access to some of the still wet areas around the spring-fed ponds. The sole and frog parts of the hooves have wanted to exfoliate and their hoof walls have grown quickly since their last trim.
Shady has enjoyed being hosed down on hot days, while the others watch from afar, intrigued but unsure. Fiona Syme and Lena Jenkins, who also serve the horses, said that Shady used to be a swimming coach for other horses who were new to water. Shady would lead them into the lake with her confidence. Little Drench has tolerated some spray from the hose but not a full bath.
We hope to desensitize all of the horses to the water so that we can do cooling baths in the future.
Goats
Bamboo is now fully integrated with his new goat herd. They have been enjoying a very happy summer together.
They spend most of their days browsing the hillsides overlooking the sanctuary (which is across the road) and napping through the hot afternoons.
Bamboo’s new herd members are Mama Lu (aka Shanti) and Mama Bu (aka Sheba). They are sisters, each with two kids, one boy and one girl each. We are referring to them as family Lu and family Bu. The Lu kids are James and Lulit, the Bu kids are Baka and Obi.
Bamboo’s new herd membersAll of the goats’ play has been beneficial for the development of their full goat culture.Bamboo and Mama Lu
Bamboo has taken strongly to Mama Lu and treats her with tenderness and affection. Mama Lu is mostly in charge and will courageously play horns with Bamboo even though she is much smaller. In general, her tactics have been covert, well thought-out sneak attacks that show Bamboo she has the advantage of greater awareness. Greater awareness among herd cultures, and in any culture, is one of the characteristics that makes a leader. Sometimes Bamboo will show his strength with Mama Lu, but never beyond what she is comfortable with—with Mama Lu he is always a gentleman. In general, Bamboo tests the kids by moving them and taking territory, and this has been good for their development.
Bamboo’s new herd has all the dynamics needed for the goats to have their “culture of transmission.” This “culture of transmission” that Adi Da Samraj pointed to as being important to preserve with the non-humans in our care has shown itself as being incredibly healing and harmonizing for certain characters. Since Bamboo has been receiving a full cultural experience, he’s been demonstrating a much better understanding of gentle etiquette with humans.
This was also how it worked for Baraka, the young camel, who was quite boisterous and high energy in young adolescence. Baraka was human-raised and handled a lot, similar to Bamboo. As he became integrated with the camel herd in the years past he has become very formal and polite with humans. Baraka transformed very dramatically by the nourishment of his cultural transmissions. Through this consideration it is clear to us here at Fear-No-More Zoo that cultural transmissions, human and non-human, are very healing and balancing, and demonstrate how cooperative community (or cultural wisdom or herd wisdom) are key for growth in relationship.
May the human world recognize and embrace the non-humans as not different at heart, and may we learn to value and protect the non-human world beyond our comforts and securities. May the “Prior Unity” that pervades us be felt deeply at Heart and completely by all.
Support Fear-No-More Zoo
We are grateful for your support of Fear-No-More Zoo!All of the money donated to Fear-No-More Zoo goes toward our ongoing, basic expenses which directly supports the animals. These include hay, grain for treats and training, special supplies, salt and minerals, hoof trimming, veterinary care, infrastructure, repairs, and continuing education for staff. In the future we hope to raise monies to upgrade our facilities and infrastructure to better host visitors.
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In this post we wanted to introduce and acknowledge in memoriam a special supporter of our herd of Bactrian camels, Dani Walthall (pronounced Da-nee). Dani passed away last October, but her legacy with camels worldwide will live on.
Because of her intense devotion to camels, I lovingly referred to Dani as “Lover of the Tylopoda” (meaning “calloused foot”) and “Patron Saint of All Camels.” Dani’s sole passion in life was camels. She traveled the world connecting to camel communities in Mongolia, the Sinai Peninsula, Australia, and all over the US, engaging people and camels, participating in camel treks and attending training seminars. She was a major patron who actively supported many camel people and organizations worldwide, including the Wild Camel Protection Foundation.
Dani discovered our camels after the Valley Fire when a friend showed her an article with a photo of firefighters hanging out with the camels. Dani was amazed to learn there was a herd of camels only a few hours from where she was living. She immediately reached out and soon after came to visit.
Dani had a striking connection with the camels. She intuitively understood what Fear-No-More Zoo is all about—that all beings are equal, and part of one great, diverse, sacred culture. She was very relaxed and able to move among the herd in a sensitive and respectful manner, and it was obvious how much she loved the camels! Her attraction to our camels had a unique quality of happiness.
After that initial visit, all our relationships grew, human and camel. Dani became my friend and my connection to the broader camel world, which was invaluable for my continuing camel education. Dani continued to visit periodically, came to every retreat, and became a generous patron to our camels.
Dani took the news of her illness with her usual calm and grace. Her biggest regret was that she wouldn’t be able to travel to India for a camel trek to the Pushkar festival and then participate in gifting the camels to a village in need.
I will be forever grateful for our connection to Dani and how we shared a special love of camels. It was a beautiful thing to witness her connection with our herd, she said our camels were the “happiest camels in the world” which is an incredible endorsement given that she would know!
Support Fear-No-More Zoo
We are grateful for your support of Fear-No-More Zoo! All of the money donated to Fear-No-More Zoo goes toward our ongoing, basic expenses which directly supports the animals. These include hay, grain for treats and training, special supplies, salt and minerals, hoof trimming, veterinary care, infrastructure, repairs, and continuing education for staff. In the future we hope to raise monies to upgrade our facilities and infrastructure to better host visitors.
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Thank you all for your patience as the Fear-No-More Zoo guild has gone through some necessary growth over the past year. We are really excited to reconnect through our new website. Here is an overview of the infrastructure projects that have been going on at the sanctuary in northern California.
Our Zoo crew consists entirely of volunteers and all projects are funded by individual donation. We welcome any donation, no matter how modest, to help us care for our residents and provide comfortable environments where they can safely receive visitors.
Camels
The camel herd is healthy and fit. They browse high into the hillsides of the valley and enjoy great freedom.
We have major work happening in the camel’s valley that will offer significant advances to their care, our ability to receive service help, and to host visitors. Examples include:
Newly Remodeled Grain Shed Vet and Training Area
The creation of this new area involved creating good working gates, spraying a layer of concrete on the existing shed and creating a concrete “safety” bench around the side (primarily used as seating but also useful for many camel training applications). The fencing around the shed is designed for different training applications and makes working inside to prepare grain and supplements much easier without the camels reaching in. We used earth bag fill for the concrete bench which saved a lot of money and worked great.
Camel vet and training area
Rock Circle Gathering Area
A previously disheveled area filled with rocks and brush was transformed into a useful habitat where camels can gather. This area is great for feeding in the winter as it is safe, level, and drains well. The camels love using this area for shade and it’s where we comb wool from the camels in late May. Still a work-in-progress, this area is the hub and main gathering place for the herd and has the potential to serve as an area for humans to gather safely with the camels.
Rock circle area
Lazy day in the rock circle
Summer Time at the Lake Shelter
This shelter is a tall roof structure that is the beginning of what will be built on and developed over time into a very large open shelter likely to be used mostly in the summer months. Last summer we secured this shelter from being chewed by the camels with a sprayed-on a layer of concrete over the post. We also added sandy dust pits for the camels to lounge in.
This turned out to be a favorite spot for the entire herd (the camels always make home base around where Peaceful Baba is). This happens to be Peaceful Baba’s “summer home” as every late spring he is let out of his winter enclosure to wander and graze the fresh grass and eventually ends up landing at the lake shelter for the summer months. We hope to continue developing this area.
Lake shelter and dust pits
More Freedom to Roam
We have removed a large amount of old barbed wire fencing that formed the herd’s old paddock. The camels are now free to roam the valley as they please. This has been happening for well over a year now and we’ve noticed many pleasant adjustments. In general the camels are more relaxed and satisfied with this arrangement, certain members of the camel herd that were challenging to work with have calmed down a lot. Not having a paddock fence has initiated expansive and dynamic movement patterns for the camels. This provides us with very useful information for going forward creatively in terms of design, accommodations for both human and camel, and retreat processes in the future.
Hardscaping Project
We have also just begun a major hardscaping project in the camel valley. This hardscaping is designed to prepare the land in areas in which we hope to develop more infrastructure for the care of the camels. An example of this is the making of a new road along with what will become the new paddock hard fence line made out of galvanized horse panels. We will then be able to manage the herd in an enclosure when necessary and out of the flood zones of the valley during the winter. This project will also address safety issues in areas the camels move through and spend their time, for example, around their hay shed and over creek crossings.
Camels inspecting the building of a new road
Camels checking out the excavator
Horses
We integrated all of the horses, including the mini horses, into a single horse herd. We also made several improvements to their area including updating shelters and storage areas, slow feeders for eating hay, learning hoof trimming (necessary for horse health), installing safe hitching posts for training, and more. Rainy seasons are the most challenging with the horses as we need to make sure they get enough exercise, and their hooves need monitoring as they tend to pack with mud. We’re looking into strategies to reposition the horses during the winter and spring months to more sandy, well-drained hills.
We are really happy about the horses’ adaptation to the slow feeders for the winter and spring months as this dynamic has offered some significant benefits including: it takes the horses hours to eat instead of 30 minutes, the horses must share feeders and have therefore grown in their tolerances of each other while feeding, and the slow feeders make for very easy hoof care as the horses are happily settled into the feeders and allow us to work on their hooves with less fuss.
Horses using slow feeders
Shady and Leeda
Shady, Dawn, and Metu
Llamas
In early 2018 the llama area was remodeled and Lori Chowning, a highly respected “llama whisperer” from Montana, came to sheer the llamas and provide basic grooming and health maintenance. Unfortunately, we lost two of our llamas in early 2019, leaving one llama—Kriya. We recently got a new llama named Apple Pie to befriend Kriya. The introduction of the two llamas was very easy and happy and they are bonding well.
Apple Pie and Kriya meeting for the first time
We have constructed a new 6’ fence that is very secure and expands to include more space for the llamas. Both llamas have enjoyed watching construction of the fence.
One of the new 6’ gate entrances to the llama enclosure
Kriya seems relaxed and happy about the new developments in her life. Both llamas will be involved in ongoing training and handling.
Sara working with Apple Pie
Llamas enjoying the new browse they have access to.
Goats
Bamboo the Goat was relocated to live at Sara’s so she could work more closely with him. They acquired a small family of goats for Bamboo to have a more full and happy life experience. Some time in the future this little herd may spend time on The Mountain of Attention Sanctuary.
Bamboo
Bamboo has bonded to the two mothers very well and enjoys playing horns with one of them that he’s identified as his lady, and she’s happy about that too.
New mothers and babies
Bamboo has been introduced to the babies and is responding to them well.
Two baby goats
Future Goals
We are making strides to being able to offer visits and retreats in the near future, but it’s imperative that we make necessary infrastructure improvements first in order to ensure the safety of our non-human residents and their guests.
Support Fear-No-More Zoo
We are grateful for your support of Fear-No-More Zoo!All of the money donated to Fear-No-More Zoo goes toward our ongoing, basic expenses which directly supports the animals. These include hay, grain for treats and training, special supplies, salt and minerals, hoof trimming, veterinary care, infrastructure, repairs, and continuing education for staff. In the future we hope to raise monies to upgrade our facilities and infrastructure to better host visitors.
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A world in which humanity is sensitive to the sacred nature of all life
