How To Make a Donkey Ridiculously Happy

First, a Ramsey update:  I spoke with Dr. Walker this morning.  Ramsey continues to do very well and has become the pet of the hospital.   I told him that maybe they should have a donkey mascot, but I had to concede the point when he said that it would be too distracting.  God knows, Ramsey is a major distraction.  The vet also says that Ramsey is his favorite patient he has had all year. 

The only disappointing news is that they have decided they want to keep him there until Tuesday (tentatively).  Ramsey has a fairly large hole in the side of his foot where they did the surgery.  This hole communicates directly with the inner most structures of his hoof and if it gets infected...well, we don't want to talk about that.  The vet says they would like to see some more granulation tissue covering that hole before he comes home.  Ramsey has received and continues to receive exceptionally good care at Cornell and I am not about to argue with their advice. 

Meanwhile, I have been busy getting a place prepared for him.  Ramsey is going to have to stay confined to the barn for quite some time and it is absolutely imperative that his foot stays DRY and clean.  No easy task in a barn.  I took the dividing wall down between the two stalls in my barn, making one 8x24' stall.  I boarded over the entrance and hung up a gate.  I disinfected everything with a bleach solution, but it is still a barn...

I intend to keep one other member of the herd locked in with him at all times so he always has company.  They are all going to take a daily shift of babysitting duty.

This afternoon, Riding Buddy and I did something I have been wanting to do ever since I brought Emma home.  I have not been able to do this yet because first, Tessa was too lame, then Emma was too pregnant and Ramsey was too little.  I had been thinking about trying it when Ramsey came up lame.  Since he is still not home and in the spirit of "making lemonade", we went riding and took Emma with us.  It is getting close to hunting season and Emma is nearly invisible in the woods so I made her a little easier to see...

The horses haven't been out in two weeks and everyone was feeling very frisky so we had a bit of a rough start.  Tessa, in particular, was wound up about having Emma with us and I ended up getting off and walking her for the first 15-20 minutes.  After a while, everyone calmed down and we had a BLAST!

Emma LOVES going out in the woods, but when she goes out with me, she has to leave the horses behind.  When I took her out with Ramsey, she had to worry about keeping track if him.  Today, she got to go out in the woods with her entire herd.  She was ecstatic! 

She has an almost uncanny ability to find and follow trails on her own and she wound up in the lead most of the time.  Twice, she took the wrong path when we came to a fork in the trail.  At the third fork, she stopped to wait and see which direction to take and then led the way again.  That is one smart donkey.

 She explored and nibbled her favorite moss, but never got more then a few feet away. 

Emma's sheer delighted exuberance was catching and we all wound up having as much fun as she did.  

Riding with Emma was a wonderful, healing experience that we all desperately needed...

 I am going to try to do it on a regular basis...

and I can't wait until Ramsey gets to join us.   He is going to absolutely love trail riding.