Rayado was still standing still as a statue. He’d had horses in the pasture with him before, but it had been a few months and he wanted to make sure these new ones were okay.

Llamas are very intelligent, very niele (curious) and when they see something that interests them or that they need to be wary of, they will do just what Rayado is doing here, standing motionless for long periods of time till they decide what they’re going to do.

Meanwhile, the horses grazed quietly.

Sam and Sierra stayed right by the fence, wondering if their new friends would talk to them.

“Hey Sierra, don’t look at him! Look at ME!”

It was time to let Pikake and Puakea out. We all held our breaths, because the last thing we wanted was for them to spook the horses in their exuberance to get acquainted. They first went right up to Poem, who just wanted to graze and let the dogs know to leave her alone.

Then Ricky came over; the dogs were very curious, wanting to get close enough to learn the horses’ scent and to make sure it was okay for these new animals to be in the pasture. They’re guardians, yeah? They need to know whether or not to protect or get the intruders out.

There was a lot of circling and sniffing going on. Poem and Ricky didn’t seem too concerned.

First Puakea would check them out – she’s the big sister to Pikake and is the alpha dog.

Then Pikake would take her turn.

More circling, more sniffing.

Uh-oh. Pikake is getting a bit bossy and Ricky doesn’t like it one bit.

At one point, both horses charged the dogs…

…who then kept a respectful distance.

In the end, it was a draw. Pikake and Puakea were a bit restless, but they seemed to accept Ricky and Poem just fine.

Next time, in ‘Elima, we find out what Rayado decides to do.