Mud, Wash Aways and Llamas

Yesterday Jay Jay - an aging llama - leaving the yards and the creek paddock after breakfsast, must have walked on a part of the bank that had been affected by wash away from the recent rains.  The result was that she landed in a tight muddy 'gorge' and was completely wedged in :(

I tried pulling her out backwards and had her pretty much 'free', but her instinct was to go forward and pretty soon she was wedged in tight all over again!!

I tried getting the hole with her and pushing her out.. no progress.

I tried digging the sides of the gorge wider to help her get out... the soil/clay was much too compacted for me to make much head way and Jay Jay kept spitting at me the whole time I was digging.

By this stage we were both soaking wet and covered in sludgy mud :(

Finally I tried getting the belly band from the crush around her chest and putting the quad bike in the creek bed, lower and behind her and hitching the belly band to the winch on the bike.  I was pulling her back and rotating her at the same time... all good, stopped to assess and see if I could get her free when she started trying to get out herself.  Much wriggling later she had shrugged off the belly band, but rolled herself into a lower part of the gorge on her back!!  She was now stuck in a shallow V shape, on her back, legs flailing in the air!!  More pushing, pulling and maneuvering on my part and I had her out, she was a bit shaky and shivery and totally soaked, but she stalked off as haughtily as she could!!

This morning she opted not to come in for brekkie!!