Holding a large bird on my arm for the first time was pretty surreal. You don't know what to do at first because the bird is tethered to you, you can only use your right hand, and suddenly you are responsible for the bird's and the public's well-being. You have to learn to to EVERYTHING one-handed, from opening doors to tying knots. If the bird baits (i.e., flies off of the glove), you have to make sure that you're holding on to its jesses and leash so it can't escape. You have to make sure it doesn't hit anything or hurt a person. It's an experience that I can't really explain other than "it's surreal" - unbelievable - to have this heavy, wild bird that attracts people to you suddenly completely in your care. It also takes a lot of self-control because 3-5 pounds doesn't seem like a lot, but it's REALLY HEAVY when you have to hold your arm up and keep it stiff with a 5-pound weight on it for for 2 straight hours. You cannot let your arm rest at all because if you do, the bird has nowhere to sit. But after you've been doing it for a while, it becomes second nature. Sometimes my left arm feels really light, like something should be there and it isn't.
We actually have two owls; both of them came to us as nestlings and have never lived on their own in the wild. The first had a huge infection on his leg and lost a lot of muscle mass to it; the second, the Great Horned Owl, had head trauma which caused cataracts when she was a nestling. She was completely blind when we got her. The cataracts are about 95% gone and she can see again, but she doesn't have full use of her eyes anymore.