Donkeys at play

I look out the window and see that Kanny and Tesla are chasing each other around the pasture. I love watching them play. Kanny will chase Tesla for a while, then Tesla will chase Kanny. They don't seem to care who chases who as long as it's an excuse to run. Kanny has a very funny little canter. It's more like a rabbit hopping than a normal canter. His front legs move together and his back legs move together. He doesn't always move that way, he can canter normally, I think he does it just because its fun. Silly donkey.

Lunging Shadowfax

Well, I finally felt well enough (and brave enough) to try and lunge Shadowfax. Not that he's bad to lunge. When he is lunged consistently, he does just fine. But he hasn't been lunged consistently since we bought him. (I know that's bad, but first there was knee deep mud and then I was injured and Foxfire doesn't really know how to lunge since his horse was never trained to do it.) I don't know why I decided to lunge Shadowfax today. Foxfire was actually out of town with SH doing SCA equestrian stuff. And you would think that I would want to do it when he was around. If for nothing else than the fact that he could take pictures. (I still don't have any pictures of me with my horse. Sigh.) But for some reason, I felt like doing it for the first time this afternoon, and so I did.

Now, I don't exactly have much experience lunging horses. Back when Cash was still sound, JJ showed me how to lunge him a couple of times. But that was well over a year ago, and Cash was extremely well trained. All I really had to do was hold the lunge line and speak the cues and Cash did what I said with absolutely no fuss. A few months ago, at the jousting clinic, JJ had demonstrated lunging Shadowfax to me, though, because of my injuries, I couldn't actually lunge him myself. Shadowfax is not quite as well-trained or willing as Cash. With some consistent work, he probably could be, but he's not there right now. Even with JJ lunging him, there were quite a few fireworks. So, I knew there were probably going to be some problems when I started lunging him. And there were. But they weren't that bad. And by the end of the relatively short session, he was actually doing pretty well. So here's a brief summary of how things went.

Now, since I had treats in my pocket, the minute I walked out into the pasture, Shadowfax came up to me. How he knows I have treats in my pockets, I don't know. I only have treats about one in ten times I go into the pasture, but, I swear, the horse is psychic, because he always seems to know when I have treats. When I don't have treats, he'll look up at me, but he doesn't come over unless I call to him. If I have treats, I don't have to call, he just comes. Smart horse. I haltered him and led him to the trailer which is where we keep the lunging equipment.

The flies were bothering him, so I decided to spray him, which I knew he wouldn't like, but he needs to get used to it. I pulled out the fly spray and when he saw the bottle, he stepped back just a little and looked nervous. I held the fly spray in the same hand the I held the lead rope in, and with my other hand, I pulled out a carrot stick. I held the carrot stick up next to the fly spray where he could see it. After a moment he stepped forward and reached for the carrot. I made sure that he had to rub his nose against the side of the bottle in order to get the carrot. Then as he was munching the carrot, I slowly sprayed his front legs. He sidled away a little bit in a semi-circle on the lead rope, and I followed him until he was against the side of the trailer and couldn't sidle any more. I again sprayed his front legs and he sort of shifted a bit, but couldn't really go anywhere. I sprayed his leg again and he finally just stood there, so I gave him another carrot stick. As he was munching the carrot stick, I moved to his side to spray his side, back and belly. He moved forward and got away from the trailer, so I moved him around in a circle again, until he was against the trailer again. I rustled the pocket with the treats in it and then sprayed his side again. He twitched a little, but basically stood still, so he got another carrot stick. Then I sprayed his back leg. We went in a circle again and he ended up back against the trailer. Etc... We repeated the pattern several times until I had gotten him to stand still while I sprayed him all over. Then I held up the bottle in front of him again and when he sniffed it, gave him another carrot stick. (The carrot sticks are pretty small, so I can feed him a lot of them.) I put the fly spray away and got out the lunge line and whip, and led him over to a clear flat area.

Now when I started all of this the donkeys and Ziggy were way on the other side of the pasture, but when I started to walk Shadowfax in a circle, they ALL had to come over and see what I was doing. Ziggy actually stayed far enough away not to be a problem, but Kanny and Tessla managed to actually get between Shadowfax and me just ahead of the lunge line, they kept walking and I actually let them lunge with us for about half a circle because it was really sort of cute. But after half a circle, I stopped because I figured sooner or later someone was going to get out of sync and cause problems and I truly did not want that. I locked the donkeys in the goat pen and started Shadowfax walking in circles again. He actually did really well walking at the end of the lunge and after about 5 or so circles, I asked him to trot. He didn't trot right away and I had to ask more forcefully and flip the whip a little bit to actually get him to trot, but he trotted eventually. When I asked him to go back to walk, he did so promptly. When I asked for trot again, he did a little better and he was always willing to slow to walk.

However, when I asked him to canter, there were some fireworks. He wouldn't go from just the voice cue, so I had to flick the whip at him several times. I finally actually touched his rump with the whip, not forcefully, just enough for him to feel it and he bucked and kicked out. I yelled, "NO!!" and he immediately went into a hell bent for leather canter. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it was a canter and he wasn't pulling on the lunge line or anything. I let him run around about five times, then tried to slow him to a trot. At first, he just kept running. I tried different things to slow him and finally figured out that speaking extreeeeeemmmmmmmllllllyyyy slowly and letting my voice drop in pitch and volume was the way to get him to slow down. He gradually slowed down and finally dropped into a trot. I trotted him two circles, then asked for a walk, and he slowed to a walk. And then I asked him to stop.

Sadly, he doesn't seem to understand "Ho" at all. The only way to get him to stop is to pull the lunge line shorter and shorter and he'll eventually stop. It's a bit frustrating, but I suppose there are worse things. I'll ask JJ what I can do to teach him to stop when I say "Ho".

I switched which side the lunge line was attached to and started him walking in the opposite direction. This time when I asked for trot, I got it a bit more easily, I still had to make tsk, tsk noises at him, but I didn't have to flip the whip. I walked, trotted, walked several times, then I asked for canter. Again there were fireworks, but a loud "NO!!" was all it took to make him canter instead of buck and kick out. (He only did one buck and one kick before he went into the canter on each side and I sort of wonder if he would have gone into the canter after expressing his displeasure even I hadn't yelled. Who knows.) Anyway, he did hell bent for leather canter again and I let him go for several circles then I started slowing him down. I asked for a slower canter, by saying "canter" in a slow drawn out way on a descending scale, and he actually slowed into a nice controlled canter. After a couple of more circles, I asked for a trot and got it immediately. I asked for walk and got it fairly quickly and then I had to pull him in to get him to stop.

I switched directions again and asked for walk, trot, walk, trot, canter, trot, walk, and got everything I asked for reasonably quickly and with NO fireworks. I tried asking for stop again, and again had to pull him in closer to finally get him to stop, but he did stop a bit more easily than before. I decided that that was a really good positive note to end on and didn't lunge him in the other direction again. Maybe the lunging was a bit uneven in numbers of circles in each direction, but I wanted to stop on a positive note and wasn't sure it would go as well in the other direction. I gave him a carrot stick and told him that he'd been a very good boy.

I led him back to the trailer, switched the lunge line for the lead line and held the fly spray bottle out to him again. At first he pulled his head back, but then seemed to remember the carrots and nosed the bottle. I gave him another carrot stick. I closed everything back up in the trailer, led him over to the gate to the backyard, took his halter off, gave him another carrot stick and petted him a few times. I let the donkeys out of the goat pen, petted them, petted Shadowfax again and came inside.

It wasn't a very long lunging session, and it certainly wasn't perfect, but I am very happy that it went as well as it did. And even though my arms and shoulders are a little tired, my ribs and tailbone don't hurt any more than usual, so obviously it didn't strain my injuries. Now that I know that I can lunge Shadowfax, I will try to do so several times a week. Hopefully, he and I will both improve our lunging abilities, and it will strengthen our relationship.

I GOT A HORSE!!! I GOT A HORSE!!! I GOT A HORSE!!!

After searching for over a year, I actually found and was able to buy (barely) my dream horse. He's an eight year old, 16.2 hand, dapple gray Andalusian gelding.

JJ kindly agreed to give Shadowfax a test ride when I asked for her opinion before buying him. I didn't have anyone to take pictures when I was riding him, but JJ said that I looked good on him.

I can't believe that I actually found an Andalusian that I could afford that was healthy, sound and sane. He even has dressage training. Okay, he doesn't have the best conformation, and he has a little arthritis in his hocks, and yes, he is young to already have arthritic changes. But he is still sound enough for what I want to do according to the vet, and should remain that way for many years with proper maintenance. He is also still somewhat inexperienced since after being started under saddle and ridden for a couple of years, he was then put out to pasture and had nothing done with him for about two years. But after being back under saddle for only a little over a month, he was easy and comfortable for me to ride. He's a little lazy, but that might get better with more consistent riding. I didn't have any trouble getting him to trot and canter, though I did have a little trouble keeping him cantering. But just a little extra push with my outside leg and inside hip kept him going. Considering that I'm still learning how to canter myself and that I am just coming back from several months off of riding because of my surgery, it's a pretty good sign that I was able to ride him that easily.

His registered name is Mi Romeo, but neither Foxfire nor I really wanted to call him Romeo so I was trying to come up with another name for him. I was out in the pasture with him and suddenly realized that I had just called him Shadow. So I asked, "Is Shadow your name?" and he walked toward me. Of course any time he hears my voice, he walks toward me(Yes, he already comes to me any time I go out in the pasture. He really WAS meant for me.) But Foxfire liked the name Shadow, so we tentatively started calling him Shadow. However, we already have a cat named Shadow and I also wanted a name with a little more distinction for my horse, so after thinking about it for a while, I decided that I would call him Shadowfax. I know it's a bit presumptuous to name him after Gandalf's stallion in Lord of the Rings, but he is an Andalusian, which is the breed of horse they used for Shadowfax in the movie. And it just seems like the right name for him.

I admit that I'm still a little nervous about having spent so much on a horse. But even though he is not perfect (no horse is), I think he is the right horse for me. I'm still sort of getting used to the idea of having my own horse. I don't think it's really sunk in yet. Maybe once I get a chance to ride him here it will finally sink in. I haven't been able to ride him at home yet because my husband's very mild mannered horse, Ziggy, has turned into a fire-breathing herd protector. Ziggy will not let Shadowfax anywhere near HIS donkeys. The problem is the donkeys (and Ziggy to some extent) are used to coming up to me anytime I go into the pasture in order to get petted and scritched. So anytime I go out in the pasture to try and spend time with Shadowfax, the donkeys and Ziggy come over and chase Shadowfax away. I can't put Ziggy in his stall because when we tried to do that, Ziggy went absolutely balistic and started charging his stall door. We were afraid that he'd hurt himself (and destroy the stall) so we had to let him out.

Foxfire and I have tried several different things to get Ziggy to accept Shadowfax. It's not like we just turned everyone loose in the pasture together. When we brought Shadowfax home, we had Ziggy in his stall and the donkeys and goats in the goat pen. We led Shadowfax around the property and let him see and smell everything. (BTW, Shadowfax behaved very well throughout everything. He was curious and looking around, but not nervous or aggressive.) Then I led Shadowfax up to Ziggy's stall to let them sniff noses. And that's when the drama began. Ziggy took one sniff then snapped at Shadowfax. Shadowfax naturally stepped back, but that's all he did. He didn't snap back or get excited, he just got out of reach of Ziggy. I waited a few seconds and let Ziggy just look at Shadowfax and when he seemed calmer, I led Shadowfax up to him again. Again Ziggy snapped at him. So I decided to leave Ziggy alone for a bit and led Shadowfax over to the goat pen and let him sniff noses with the donkeys through the fence. Tessla, of course, immediately came over and said, "Hi". After seeing Tessla interacting safely with the big gray horse, Kanny and eventually Marie came over and they all sniffed noses. Shadowfax actually seemed to like the donkeys. Maybe he just appreciated that they weren't pinning their ears and snapping at him.

When Shadowfax seemed to lose interest in sniffing the donkeys, I let him wander around a bit on his own. I was still holding his lead rope, but I let him go where he wanted to. He soon found the water trough and took a long drink. After that I decided to try Ziggy again. Same result. Foxfire thought that maybe Ziggy would be friendlier if he weren't stuck in his stall, so I led Shadowfax a good distance away, and Foxfire haltered Ziggy and led him out. We carefully led the two horses closer to let them sniff noses again. This time Ziggy not only snapped at Shadowfax, he reared up a little and sort of thrashed his front hooves at him, accidentally racking Foxfire in the process. Foxfire was okay, just not real happy. Shadowfax remained surprisingly calm and just stepped back out of reach. Foxfire backed Ziggy up and I kept Shadowfax at a bit of a distance and we just let the horses look at each other for a while. Then very carefully we again let them get closer. Again Ziggy displayed very aggressive behavior. Ziggy wasn't actually biting or kicking Shadowfax, but he was putting on one hell of a threat display. We, Foxfire, the previous owner, her trainer and I, finally decided that the two horses would have to just work it out themselves. So I took Shadowfax to one end of the pasture and Foxfire took Ziggy to the other end and we turned them loose.

Shadowfax immediately trotted towards Ziggy who was standing by the goat pen with the donkeys in it. Ziggy charged at Shadowfax and chased him away. As soon as Shadowfax was a good distance away from the donkeys in the goat pen, Ziggy stopped chasing him and went back to the donkeys. This pattern repeated itself several times during which we figured out that Ziggy apparently saw Shadowfax as a threat to his herd (the donkeys). Poor Shadowfax just wanted to join the herd, but Ziggy absolutely refused to let him near. Since Ziggy was behaving so aggressively, we decided to just leave the donkeys and the goats in the pen for a while and see if in a few hours things had calmed down. Watching Ziggy behaving so aggressively was actually pretty frightening. He'd always been such a non-dominant horse before, but now his behavior was really scary. I'll repeat that neither Ziggy when he was attacking nor Shadowfax when he defended himself actually bit or kicked the other horse. It was just a lot of really aggressive display. But even though no one was actually getting hurt. It was distressing to watch.

Unfortunately, even hours later, Ziggy was still chasing Shadowfax away from the goat pen any time he came near. However, both horses were completely lathered and probably exhausted, and the chases were getting shorter and less intense, so we decided to try feeding everyone since it was about time for their evening meal. Shadowfax was quite willing to go into his new stall to get fed and enthusiastically gobbled up his grain. Ziggy had to be haltered and led into his stall and after taking only a few bites started pacing his stall, pinning his ears at Shadowfax in the stall next to him, snaking his head around the stall wall and snapping at Shadowfax. He even started charging his stall gate. At this point, because we were afraid that Ziggy would hurt himself, we had to let him out of his stall. He ran over and checked on the donkeys, then started charging at Shadowfax's stall. Foxfire and I would clap and yell at him and make him turn away, but it was still frightening Shadowfax. For the first time, Shadowfax started displaying nervous behavior. Completely understandably. Foxfire managed to chase Ziggy far enough off so that I could let Shadowfax out of his stall. Once Shadowfax was out of his stall he calmed down. However, Ziggy would still chase him away any time he came near his little herd. Poor Shadowfax.

Once it got completely dark, things seemed to settle down a bit. Every once in a while, Shadowfax would ease up toward the herd and Ziggy would chase him away, but things weren't nearly as dramatic. Since Ziggy hadn't finished his grain which is a very bad thing because he has a history of ulcers, I led Shadowfax into the goat pen and stayed with him so that Foxfire could bring Ziggy's feed bucket to where he was standing with the donkeys and encourage him to eat. Ziggy eventually finished most of his grain, and I let Shadowfax back out. Foxfire and I finally got our own dinner and settled down to watch some tv. But we would go outside every once in a while to check on everyone. Ziggy still wouldn't let Shadowfax join his herd, but at least there were no more big dramatic chases.

Anyway, that was the first day of having my new horse. Which was Sunday, by the way, I'm a little behind in posting this entry. I'll try to post what went on on Monday and today either later tonight or more likely tomorrow.

Trimming Tessla

Tessla never shed out his winter coat this summer. I asked our equine vet about it and she suggested doing a major de-worming regimen. That sometimes regular worming isn't enough and if an equine has a parasite problem, they sometimes don't shed out normally. So I gave Tessla a double dose of wormer for five days in a row a little while back. As of two days ago, he still hadn't shed out his coat, though it looked like he might be beginning to. However, watching him, I just couldn't bear to leave him with that heavy coat anymore. So I grabbed an old pair of barber shears that I had and went out and trimmed all his heavy matted hair off. It took about an hour and a half, and Tessla was very patient for the most part. He did wriggle around a little. But I imagine me pulling the matted hair out far enough to get the scissors underneath to trim it off felt a little weird, so I can't blame him for moving around a little. He never tried to get away or anything, he just didn't stand completely still.

Anyway, I'd been online chatting with JJ when I decided to go trim Tessla and she told me to take pictures. So here they are:

BEFORE
You can see how shaggy he is.

Halfway through the first side with Marie and Kanemura looking on.

I swear Kanny is laughing at Tessla, and Tessla is getting mad at him. :-)

All done.

Did that all come off of Me?

Without all that fuzz, you can see what a nicely conformed donkey he is.

Though I still need to trim his belly hair a little bit.

The scissors I used on top of a pile of shorn hair.

Marie and Kanemura examining the scene of the crime.

Tessla checking to make sure there's not another donkey under there.

Tessla may look a little funny. It's hard to do a really neat trim with just a pair of scissors. But at least he should be cooler. And I don't think he really cares what he looks like, as long as he doesn't have to wear all that heavy winter fuzz anymore.

Donkey talk

I realized that I haven't written much about my donkeys lately. Since this blog is titled Donkey Sense, I think it's high time that I did so. Also, it was time for their worming yesterday and it reminded me how much I love my donkeys. Now most people don't like worming their equines. It's a generally a bit of a fight and unpleasant for both the human and the horse. I didn't want to have to go through that with my donkeys. Especially when I first got them and was working on developing their trust and affection. So... when I very first started worming them, I used a trick that the previous owner of the donkeys had told me. I spread the wormer on a couple of tortillas, rolled them up and fed them to the donkeys. Marie and Tessla were still very excited to get any kind of bread as a treat and were quite willing to eat the tortillas, even with the strange tasting paste inside. However, I didn't want to keep worming them that way.

I'd read about a method of training horses to accept the worming tube in their mouths that involved filling old tubes with honey or applesauce and making the tube a method for delivering treats, rather than that nasty thing with the nasty paste that a human forced into their mouth every other month. So I took some old empty tubes and rinsed them out thoroughly and filled them with honey and went out to teach Marie and Tessla (Kanemura hadn't been born yet) that the little white tube had good tasting stuff inside. I also had a pocketful of carrot sticks which they already knew were treats. (I'll explain about why I use carrot sticks rather than just chunks of carrot later.) Now it's been a long while since I actually did this wormer training, but I have a pretty clear memory of how it went.

I called Marie and Tessla over, gave them each a carrot stick and then held out the tube so that they could sniff it. I had squeezed out a little bit of honey and smeared it on the tip so that they could smell what was inside. Tessla just sort of looked at it then ignored it. Marie gave it a good sniff and then started lipping it. I held it in such a way that she could get the end of it in her mouth, then squeezed out a little honey. Marie tasted the honey, then began to try to pull the whole tube into her mouth. I had to grab the tube with both hands to keep her from getting it away from me. I pulled it completely out of her mouth, made her stop trying to get it back, then let her suck on the end again while I squeezed out more honey. This time, she didn't try to suck the whole tube into her mouth, but she did clamp down with her teeth and kept sucking as I squeezed more and more honey into her mouth. After she'd had most of the tube, I pried her teeth open and tried to give Tessla some of the honey. He really wasn't interested in the tube, but I did manage to squeeze a little bit of honey on his lips which he then licked at. He didn't seem very impressed, so I guessed he just didn't like honey all that much. I held out the tube to Marie again and she was quite happy to suck out the rest of the honey. I was a little worried that the tube might break from her biting on it, but apparently these little tubes are designed to withstand a fair amount of abuse.

I gave Marie honey from the tube several times over the next couple of months. (I'd done the initial training right after worming them using the tortilla method.) Marie very quickly learned to look for the little white tube and was always eager to get her mouth around it and suck the sweetness out. Tessla never did really get all that interested in it, even when I kept smearing honey on his lips. I was a little worried that Tessla would end up being hard to worm, but in general, he's a very agreeable fellow and he's a lot smaller than a horse, so I wasn't too worried.

Finally the time came to worm them again. I figured that Marie would put her mouth on the tube willingly enough, but that as soon as she tasted the wormer, she would pull back and try to spit it out. So I put both their halters on them so that I could control them a little better. I held the tube out to Marie and she put her mouth around it and I quickly squeezed the entire dose into her mouth. What happened next was a total surprise. She clamped down on the tube and kept sucking. I was so startled that it took me a while to pry the tube out of her mouth. And even after I got the tube out and she had plenty of time to taste that what was in her mouth wasn't honey, she still wanted to suck on the tube. I had to keep pushing her away so that I could give Tessla his dose.

As I expected, Tessla didn't put his mouth around the tube and suck the way Marie did. I had to hold his halter and put the tube in his mouth and squeeze. However, he didn't put up a fuss when I did so. He actually stood very quietly and let me squeeze the wormer into his mouth. He did make a funny face and mouthed a little bit, but he didn't spit the wormer back out. So even though he wasn't as easy to worm as Marie, he wasn't exactly difficult. When Kanemura was old enough to start being wormed, I did the same sort of training with him. He wasn't as excited about the honey as Marie, but he didn't totally ignore it like Tessla.

I've now had Marie and Tessla for a little over a year and a half and Kanny is almost a year old. When I go out to worm them, I don't even bother with halters. I do still bring carrot sticks and give them some both before and after the worming. All of them now willingly take the tube in their mouths as soon as I hold it out to them and suck down the worming paste. They don't seem to care about the taste at all. Even after the paste is gone, if I hold out the empty tube to them, they will mouth on it and try to suck any remaining paste out. I reward them for their good behavior with carrot sticks and the occasional sugar cube.

An interesting note about this last session of worming. I've always wormed the donkeys myself. Sometimes Foxfire has watched, but until now, he's never actually helped. This time, he decided that he was going to worm Marie. And this time, although Marie did come up and put her mouth on the tube, she backed away from Foxfire as he was squeezing the wormer into her mouth. Foxfire had to move with her to get all the paste in her mouth before she got away from him. I had been watching this and knew exactly what the problem was. Foxfire was used to worming being a bit of a fight. Ziggy is a good horse, but he doesn't take wormer all that well, so Foxfire's body language was telling Marie that something unpleasant was going to happen to her. Instead of holding the tube like it was a treat that she would only get if she behaved herself, he held it like it was something he was going to have to force down her throat. She picked up on that and it scared her, so she backed away from him. By following her and forcing her to keep the tube in her mouth, he could have really damaged her opinion of the worming tube. Fortunately, she'd had enough positive experiences that this one bad experience didn't sour her. Just to make sure, I went over with an empty tube and held it out to her like a treat and when she mouthed it, I gave her a carrot stick. To be fair, and to reinforce that worming tubes are good, I let all of the donkeys mouth the tubes and then gave them carrot sticks.

Foxfire's experience just goes to show how much your thoughts and feelings as expressed through your body language affect your interaction with donkeys, horses or any other animal. Marie loves those worming tubes, but because Foxfire was tense and was thinking about having to force her take it, she became scared and backed off. Once I came over with my more relaxed body language, she was more than willing to suck on the wormer tube. To be fair to Foxfire, he had been having a very stressful day and at least part of his tension was due to that. Also he was used to having to fight to get wormer down his horse. So his body language reflected his prior experiences with worming. And I hadn't talked to him about body language or about how you should think of the wormer as a treat and not something bad. So it's partially my fault as well. Next time he helps me, he will undoubtedly do better with it.

I promised earlier to explain about the carrot sticks, so here's the explanation. When Ryan and I went to the Equine Affaire for our vacation a couple of years ago, one of the presenters talked about how a horse can sometimes choke on a chunk of carrot. It doesn't happen often, but it can. He also talked about how the carrot sticks (he called them slivers) were smaller and easier to control in terms of portion size. Basically, you don't want to give your horse (or in my case donkey) too many carrots in one day. If you simply break the carrot into chunks you can get four maybe five chunks from one carrot. If you chop it into slivers, you can get twelve or more slivers from one carrot. So you can reward them more frequently without actually giving them more carrot. It's especially helpful in my case since I have bad teeth and can't use my mouth to break the larger ends of the carrot into chunks. So, since I have to use a knife to chop up the carrot anyway, I might as well cut it into long skinny slivers rather than short fat chunks.

When I was first taming Marie and Tessla, the carrot sticks were useful in another way as well. As I mentioned previously, neither Marie nor Tessla had ever been handled by humans before I got them. They hadn't been taught how to properly, gently lip treats from the flat of one's palm. When I tried to give Marie a treat that way, she would put her mouth around my whole hand and then suck/scape the treat into her mouth. She never bit down on my hand, but it still wasn't very pleasant. So it was just easier to hold the carrot stick by one end and point the other end at her mouth and let her take it that way. As she got more used to human interaction, I did teach her the proper way to accept a treat from the palm of the hand, and she now takes sugar cubes and horse treats very neatly that way. It wasn't hard to teach her the polite way to take treats, but it did involve bopping her on the nose and/or pulling the treat away whenever she tried to take my whole hand in her mouth, and I didn't want to do that to her while I was still working on earning her trust and affection.

Anyway, that's it for today. I hope that I haven't bored all you horse people with all this donkey talk.

Kanemura's Birthday

I've been asked to put more cute pictures of the donkeys in my blog. Surprisingly enough, I really don't have that many pictures of the donkeys. I usually take pictures when other people are riding and I don't have anything else to do. When I'm with my donkeys, I'm usually busy doing things with the donkeys and am not taking pictures. However, there is one memorable occasion where I grabbed my camera to record images of the event -- the day Kanemura was born.

Now I don't have pictures of when he was just born because I was busy cleaning out his nose and mouth and drying him off and imprinting him with human touch. But as soon as he was breathing clearly and reasonably dry, I grabbed the camera. I got some good shots as he was first learning to stand up. Admittedly, some aspects of birth aren't exactly cute(please ignore the afterbirth).

He's thinking about it...


Okay, he's got his back feet up... sort of...


Nose plant!


Three feet up... sort of...


Almost there...


Made it!


Standing all on his own!


"It's okay, Mom! I've got it!"


Coming to check out the photographer.

Communing with my Donkeys

I haven't really been working that much with my donkeys lately. I've been doing some work with backing on command which Tessla has down pretty well. Marie has it down when she sees the point of it (like when I'm trying to get her to back out of the chicken coop she's followed me into while I was collecting eggs), but doesn't always get it when she sees no apparent need for her to back up. Kanemura, being so young, has the attention span of a gnat, but he still gets it occasionally, especially when there are treats involved. Anyway, the past few days have been dreary and wet, so I haven't really done much.

However, something that I do once a day or so even when I don't do any actual work with the donkeys is that I just go out in the pasture and “commune” with them. I'll stand there and let them come up to me, and I'll just pet them and love on them. Tessla is usually the first to come up to me, though sometimes Kanny or Marie will get to me first. Tessla appreciates any attention that I give him, but he particularly likes having both sides of his face rubbed at the same time. Marie likes having me gently stroke upwards on the center of her face and really, really enjoys having me rub the insides of her ears. Kanny will get impatient when I'm paying too much attention to one of the other donkeys and will push his way between us. (Something that I am working on fixing. I don't mind him pushing Tessla around (Marie doesn't stand for him pushing her around), but he needs to respect MY space.) I haven't found any one place to scratch or rub that Kanny really likes, he just seems to want to be the center of attention. Sooner or later, he and I will figure out what he especially likes. Anyway, I'll spend anywhere from five minutes to an hour just communing with them.

Of course, it's not always all three of them. Usually all three will come up at first, but sometimes one or two of them will wander off and I'll spend time with the one or two that remain. And if I stay out with them for any length of time, they'll usually come and go a bit. So that at times I'll have all three with me, at other times. I'll just have one or the other with me. When I was first taming Marie and Tessla, I would do this with treats as part of the training process. Now... I don't know if it really accomplishes much as part of their training. Though I suppose it helps to maintain their trust and affection for me, and that makes working with them easier. But, regardless of it's practical use, I've found it very therapeutic for myself, especially when I've been stressed or depressed. Something about just standing there petting them is very relaxing.

Meet the Critters

Just in case you were wondering, here is some information about my various critters.

My horse:

Shadowfax (registered name Mi Romeo)is a 16.3 hand dapple gray Andalusian gelding born July 7, 2001. After over a year and a half of searching for just the right horse, I found him and bought him in December 2009. He's not perfect, no horse is, but I love him and consider myself very fortunate to have such a wonderful horse.

The donkeys:

Marie is a jenny ass born in 2001. She is about 11 hands high and is black and white spotted. She was completely untrained when I got her about a year and a half ago. She wouldn’t even let you get within 10 feet of her. But she is now halter trained and pretty friendly.

Tessla was Marie’s 4 month old foal(born July 2007) when I bought them. He was also completely untrained, but very curious about people. It only took three days for him to decide that humans were great fun. He is also halter trained now, and I’m thinking about training him to drive. He is also black and white spotted. And yes, he has been gelded to avoid inbreeding.

Kanemura (Kanny) was a bit of a surprise. It turns out that Marie was three months pregnant when I bought her. She gave birth August 21, 2008. I named the foal after Mark Kanemura, a dancer who had been very inspirational to me. Kanemura is light brown and white spotted with a dark brown dorsal cross and dark brown tips on his ears. He has also been gelded.

The indoor cats:

Misaou is the oldest. She is a lynxpoint siamese given to me by my friend DA. She always wants to be in your lap whether it is convenient for you or not. She can be very sneaky about it, and I will sometimes realize that she is in my lap without having any idea of how she got there.

Intrepid is the most modern looking siamese of the bunch. She is a very elegant sealpoint siamese. She is somewhat hyper and can jump amazingly high. When you pet her, she tends to do somersaults for some unknown reason.

Casanova (Caz for short) is a big lovable lug. He is an old-fashioned applehead sealpoint siamese. He’s somewhat clumsy, but very affectionate.

Tatiana is another lynxpoint siamese. She is the resident psycho-kitty. She was very sick as a kitten and wouldn’t nurse. I had to force feed her for several weeks. I didn’t think that she would survive, but she did. However, it apparently messed her up psychologically. She wants affection, but any time you pet her she flinches away, then comes back and asks to be petted again. She’s gotten a little better over the years. So now, if you let her jump up next to you and lay down, you can pet her and she doesn’t flinch away. But if she is standing up or sitting, she still flinches. Poor kitty. UPDATE: Tatia is still a bit psycho, but she is much better about letting you pet her. She frequently curls up next to me on the couch and has even started climbing into my lap to be petted.

NiNi is a tiny little sealpoint siamese. She LOVES to play fetch and will play it for hours. She is a very smart kitty. Not only will she bring you the little wadded up balls of paper that we use to play fetch with her, but if she can’t find one of the paper balls, she will bring you a flat piece of paper so that you can wad it up into a ball for her. She is also very persistent and will keep dropping the ball (or piece of paper) on your feet or in your lap until you throw it for her.

Buddha is fat lazy sealpoint siamese. He has a very round face, which prompted his name, and a slight kink in the tip of his tail. He has a tendency to flop down in front of where you are walking and roll on his back asking you to rub his belly.

Eleanora is a big muscular sealpoint. Yet she has a tiny little soft mew. It’s really strange to hear this tiny cute little sound coming out of this big muscular cat. She is also very affectionate, and even if another cat is already laying next to you, she will lay down on top of them and squish them out of the way so she can be next to you.

The outdoor cats:

Xiao Maou is the oldest of the outdoor cats. She is small sealpoint siamese. Though she is the smallest of the outdoor cats, she is probably the most aggressive. She is the one who chases other stray cats away.

Shadow is a solid black cat with semi-long fur. She is very hard to see at night.

Freya was originally my husband’s cat and was indoors. But she much prefers being an outdoor cat. She is our supervisor kitty, and whenever you are doing anything in the backyard, she follows you around to make sure that you are doing it right. She has figured out how to “knock” on the french doors by jumping up and clinging to the wooden window dividers. It makes a fairly audible thump. She is a solid black short-haired cat, and when she hangs on the dividers and looks in at night, all you can see are her glowing green eyes.

Bastet is another solid black cat. (There used to be a black tom that I’m pretty sure was the father of all these black kitties.) She hangs out by the front door, and always wants to be petted a few times before she’ll start eating. Bastet will occasionally leave us “gifts”(dead snakes, mice, birds) on the doormat. (I once stepped on a dead vole barefoot, EEEuuuwww!)

Thomas is a recent stray. He’s gray and white and sort of reminds me of Tom from Tom & Jerry. He’s been hanging around for a few months now, but he still won’t let me pet him. He obviously hasn’t been fixed yet, so as soon as he starts letting me handle him, he’s getting snipped. (Maybe he keeps his distance because he suspects my intentions.)

The goats:

The goats are Tina, Calico, Desdemona, Luna, Roan, Othello and Racer X.

My husband's horse:

Zwanzig (aka Ziggy) is a 20 year old thoroughbred that we rescued from a very bad situation on July 4, 2008. He was suffering from rain rot, malnutrition and stomach ulcers when we got him, but he's quite healthy now. We bought him for $20, then spent many thousands of dollars on vet bills, medications, special feeds, 24 hour boarding care, etc... rehabilitating him. Not really a sound financial decision, but he's a very good horse and I'm glad we rescued him. You can read more about him on my husband's blog, 101 Things to do with a $20 horse.

Those no longer with us:

K.C. was a handsome brown tabby cat with the most beautiful gooseberry green eyes. He was a semi-feral stray that I took in and “civilized”. He was the only pet that I brought with me from Louisiana when I moved to Texas and remained my only pet for several years. Up until I met my husband, he was my closest companion. He would curl up beside me when I was reading or watching tv, and he would sleep with me every night. He helped me survive through some of the worst periods of my depression, and I still miss him greatly.

Arafel was a cute black and white tuxedo cat. She had a strange habit of sitting on the back of the couch and staring directly into the reading light. My husband and I would joke that she was seeking enlightenment.

Vlad was a black and white splotched tabby. He was the best hunter of the outdoor cats. I saw him kill several snakes including one that was almost three feet long. He would sometimes leave us “gifts” by the back door.

Cleo was a salt and pepper agouti pygmy goat. She was the first goat born when I started my herd. She was very affectionate and I taught her to walk on a leash like a dog. I would sometimes take her for walks around my neighborhood.

The Big Bad Beta passed on after spending over two and a half years watching me read and watch tv from his bowl beside the couch. He would do his display “dance” whenever I'd wiggle my fingers outside of his bowl. He shall be missed.

Why do I have donkeys?

Why do I have donkeys? Well... I raise pygmy goats and several had been killed by neighborhood dogs and/or coyotes, foxes, raccoons, whatever.... So about a year and a half ago, I bought a jenny donkey and her 4 month old foal to be guard donkeys for my goats. (I also just really like donkeys.) My husband, Foxfire, immediately named the foal, Tessla, after his favorite scientist, Nikolai Tessla. So I named the jenny, Marie, after Marie Curie. Now, although these donkeys were not completely feral. They were not exactly tame either. They'd been running loose on this person's property, and as far as I could tell, no one had ever tried to train either one. Frankly, you couldn't get within 10 feet of Marie, much less touch her. But she didn't seem truly scared or angry at humans the way some feral donkeys do. She just seemed very wary. Tessla was more curious and less wary, and if you stood still, he'd come almost within touching distance looking and sniffing at you. I'd looked at other donkeys, better trained donkeys, one that was even broke to ride, but there was something about these two that told me they were the ones. So I bought them and brought them home. And thus the adventure began.

I'd been taming and training animals since I was a child. But I'd never really worked with donkeys before. They are a lot bigger than the dogs, cats, goats and chickens that I'd worked with in the past. And although the basic tenets of training work for pretty much all animals, when you're working with something that outweighs you by several hundred pounds, things are a little different. There have been some scary moments, but I think I've done pretty well with Marie and Tessla. And also with Kanemura who arrived on the scene 10 months after I brought Marie and Tessla home. (Apparently, Marie was three months pregnant when I bought her.) I love my donkeys and look forward to sharing stories about them with you.