How to tame a deer?

Okay now in the Amgui tundra. Snow and sunny. Spring is coming. Early spring this year. Like three weeks ago, I again look longingly at the distant hills. There, about fifteen kilometers from the reindeer herder camp, the highest Chukchi mountains begin. There is also one of the most beautiful lakes in Chukotka - Lake Ekitiki. But this is all there, far away and in dreams, and in front of me, down on a nearby hill, a three-thousand-strong herd of deer of the fifth Amghuam brigade grazes. Valera Tyneilgyn just lassoed a deer. This often happens when she is hunting a herd, for the sake of training for the sake of, or for any other necessity, catches a deer. Caught - let go. But Valera does not let go of the caught deer for a long time. Holds on the lasso. The deer kicks, twists the “candles”, falls, but Tyneilgyn doesn’t let him go ...

“I am teaching him,” Valera says, when I approached, “I do a ride.”

We walk in a circle, the herd grazes a little to the side. The deer is not going to give up.

- Good deer. The structure is correct.

From around the age of three, they begin the process of training sled deer. On the lasso, Valera is just a three-year-old castrate. Valera already has 12 sled deer. They migrate in the winter.

The learning process, like any educational process, requires regularity:

- You can tame it in a week, but you have to do it every day.

During the migration, deer learn faster, they are harnessed with experienced deer and they adopt the habits of their counterparts.

At the initial stage of training, the deer must get used to the reindeer herder: go next to the reindeer herder, in the indicated direction, without showing obstinacy. At this stage, the deer should not kick and lie down on the ground, it is allowed to either stand quietly or walk. The training process will be completed in a year or two, when the deer finally gets used to the owner, ceases to shy away from it and can be called up with a characteristic whistle or shout.

An hour later, the first day of training the deer ended. Tyneilgyn releases a little tortured deer into the herd.

“Almost three thousand,” Tyneilgyn replies, “I will find it.”

- And you know all the deer in the face?

- Yeah, I guess. Almost everyone. The coloring is different for everyone.

It seems Share did not believe him.

“Do the deer have names?” What is this name?

- Yes there is. This Sevoro.

This is not a full name, rather a nickname given according to the characteristic features of the coloring. Reindeer herders have 10-12 basic color inks and many additional specific markings. "Our" lasso deer Sevoro is the Russian "gray". Other names, in Russian, may sound like "white, with black eyes," or "speckled deer."

Valera Tyneilgyn