Foot Fetish

I am not the only one in this family who has a deep interest in all things relating to hooves.  Ramsey also has an intense fascination with hoof trimmings and all of the farrier tools that go along with it, especially the rasp and the hoof stand.

Whenever I get the hoof stand out, it lures Ramsey over like candy.  He'll sniff it, chew it, lick it and even eat the hoof shavings produced from rasping feet.  Emma is interested as well, but in a much more cursory way.  She'll give it a good sniffing, especially after I have used it for strange horses, but she loses interest quickly and moves on.  Not Ramsey.

I have been observing and thinking about this behavior for quite a while now and I have a theory.  It is only a theory and I would be very interested to hear if other donkey owners ever notice similar behavior.  I'd particularly like to hear from other owners of jacks or geldings because I think this may be a "guy thing".

Many animals, including donkeys and horses, have scent markers in their feet.  It is an efficient, passive message system that leaves behind them a clear trail that can be followed even in the dark.  If they travel over ground that has been previously used, they can tell and know that they are on safe terrain, which is of paramount importance to hoofed animals.

They can also tell how many other animals, and what kinds, have used the same trail.  If those others are familiar, they know they are in a safe area.  The scent trails they encounter in their travels gives them far more information than what they can see.   It is also a way to establish and mark territory as well as giving them warning if they are about to accidentally invade another territory.

Predators try to mask their scents by eating and rolling in the manure of their prey.  You'll often see cats and dogs lick their paws after eating manure, which helps mask their own scent markers and make them smell like prey.  The next time you see your sweet puddy tat licking her paws and washing her face, it's probably because she is thinking about killing something.

Donkeys are highly territorial animals, quite similar to dogs in that way.  In the wild, jacks stake out an area and defend it from others.  They mark their areas with "jack piles" (or "stud piles" as horse people would call them), which are heaps of dung that are very deliberately built and placed by stallions.  Jennys will enter a jack's territory for breeding, but rarely stay.

There are good reasons for this as donkeys come from arid regions with very scarce resources.  They cannot often travel in herds the way horses do because the land they rely on won't support more than a few animals at a time.  Instead, they stake out territories that are spread out over a large region.

Both jennys and jacks mark with urine as well as dung.  When Ramsey was a baby, Emma always urinated on top of any place that Ramsey went.  As he started to mature, this began to switch around and it completely reversed after Emma weaned Ramsey.  I have also seen Emma deliberately urinate into puddles when we are out walking in the woods.  I have never been able to figure out if she is marking an area or hiding her scent by doing this.  It is the one time when Ramsey will not mark on top of it.

I have long been convinced that donkeys rely on scent far more than horses do.  Again, they are much more like dogs in that regard.  We humans tend to be rather oblivious to this facet of their biology, which leads to a lot of misunderstanding of donkey behavior.

With all of that in mind, it only makes sense that donkeys, especially jacks, would be intrigued by the smells attached to a hoof stand (like this fancy new red one that I got as a stellar birthday present a couple months ago).

When I put a set of Easyshoes on Tessa, Ramsey's interest grew even deeper.  I am sure this is because the shoes prevented the scent on her feet from wearing off on the ground as it is supposed to and instead, concentrated it under the shoe.  Ramsey does not go around sniffing feet except when I begin working on them, then I sometimes have to lock him up just to get him out of the way.  When I began working Tessa's feet a couple of weeks ago to reset those shoes, Ramsey took his fascination to a whole new level....

I believe Ramsey's fascination with feet is related to his natural instincts to create, mark and defend a territory.  Either that, or I have a very weird donkey with a foot fetish:).

Relations

The relationships between the donkeys and the other animals on the farm are fascinating and endlessly interesting to watch.  The relationship between them and Tessa is generally one of friendship.  Tessa LOVES her donkeys, but is sometimes befuddled by them.  She acts both motherly and slightly possessive and she occasionally tries to gently boss them around.  They accept her mothering, are disdainful of her possessiveness and they just flow away from her bossiness like water, completely ignoring it.  They welcome her company and attentions, but don't mind going off on their own either.  Their independence is a foreign concept to a horse and generally confounds her, leaving her figuratively scratching her head.

Tanner and the donkeys have a wary respect for one another.  They get along fine as long as each party respects the firmly established treaty line, otherwise known as the fence.  If a donkey puts a nose under the fence, Tanner will snap at it.  If he crosses into their territory, they push him out.  Both snapping and pushing are done with no actual violence but a great deal of intent.  Border Collies and donkeys have a great deal in common.  They will never be friends, but they are not enemies.

And then there is the relationship between them and the cat, Moss.  This is perhaps, the most complicated relationship.  Donkeys have a reputation for chasing and stomping cats and I can see that.  I do not think it is an inherent dislike of cats, but rather an extension of their territorial and protective natures.  I also think it is a manifestation of how they perceive things.

Donkeys and horses have very different eye site then we humans do and it isn't just because their vision is primarily monocular.  While their vision is acute, especially their distance vision, their ability to focus between near and far is very slow and is more a factor of where their head is rather than changes in the eye itself, as it is for us.   A horse who is trying to focus on something will often raise and lower its head very quickly, trying to find the right height that will bring the object into focus.  Their close-up vision is poorer and it is more difficult to bring small, close objects into focus, especially if their head is up and the object is on the ground.  This seems to be even more of an issue for donkeys and they rely far more on scent and sound than on vision to recognize things close up.

If you take all of that into account and think about cats and dogs from a donkey's point of view....is it any wonder that they so often object to having small carnivores darting about under their feet?  However, donkeys are also highly adaptable, sociable creatures.  Given time and familiarity, even cats can become friends.

There is also Moss herself to consider.  She has been here for 3-4 years now, but she came out of a situation of real neglect and poor care.  She was once run over by a truck and at another time, stepped on by a draft horse.  She does seem to have some genuine neurological issues and she was quite feral when she first came here.  Her neurological issues have improved some with good care and plentiful food, but she is....uhmmm, odd, to say the least.  She craves company, but is afraid of it.  I can pick her up and pet her now for short periods, but she doesn't know quite how to deal with it.  Regardless, she has formed a genuine attachment to the donkeys.  She always likes to sleep near them and, whenever Ramsey is laying down, she rubs up against his nose and tries to cuddles with him - something he tolerates with amazing gentleness.  Emma does not like her doing this to herself, but will often pet her as you saw in the video.

That doesn't mean that there aren't frequent misunderstandings between cat and donkeys, they do not speak each others language.  She once tried to use Emma's leg as a scratching post, a memorable occasion which resulted in ME getting a fractured nose.  There are also times when the donkeys will chase her out of their space.  This used to puzzle me because I couldn't figure out why they would go from being the best of friends one day to the cat being enemy-number-one the next.  I finally noticed that this always occurs whenever a stray cat (always un-neutered toms of course) stops by for a visit.  Moss hangs out with the strays and then donkeys don't recognize her because she smells different.  Once the toms move on and moss smells like herself again, they accept her back into the fold.

I find it all endlessly fascinating and I never cease to marvel at how much all of these animals have to teach us.

Ramsey Meets Another Monster...

After some investigation...

and discussion with mom....

he decides that it has a nice texture....

and is pleasantly chewy......

 

Donkey Em's Tips & Techniques For Training Humans

"Hey Ma, I'm ready to start my clinic."


"OK, if you're sure about this..."


"Of course I'm sure, I've got today's subject all picked out."


"Well, what's it going to be then?"


"I thought we'd start out with something simple.  A fun, easy trick that everyone enjoys.

"Oh yeah? sounds interesting."


"Yup, the butt-scratch.  I mean, who doesn't like a good butt-scratch?  And, it can be awfully hard to get you guys to do this right.  Seems like a good place to start."


"Oy.  OK, let me introduce you properly..."

Welcome to Donkey Em's Training Clinic

 

"Hi out there, can y'all hear me?" 

"Oh, there's no sound??"

"Well, um, I guess you better just read out loud then."


"Yeah, that'll work.  So lets just get started...

Well, we all know how hard it can be to train humans and I know it may seem like a hopeless task sometimes, but it can be done.  All you need is a lot of patience.  It also helps to keep in mind that they just don't think the way we do.  Their senses aren't so sharp either.  They have those funny, round eyes, their noses don't seem to work at all and their ears...well even a horse can tell you that those are nearly hopeless.  

The main problem though, is that they just don't have very good language skills.  You can tell them and tell them things and they just don't listen.  It can be very frustrating. 

Still, they do communicate.  And I know I know, I might be accused of donkopomorphizing, but I do really believe that all those noises and gestures they make are an attempt to talk with us.   So, Take heart, I'm here to tell you that it can be done.  

The secret is to make sure your wishes are so obvious that even the human can see it.  Once you FINALLY have their attention, use LOTS and LOTS of positive reinforcement.  And be sure to keep it positive, they get really grumpy if you try to correct them.

See, humans like to feel useful and they like it when you return their gestures of affection.  Trust me on this one, if you can master this, you'll have 'em wrapped around your hoof in no time!

So, here's how to get started in, a, um, a bunch of easy steps.  Just follow along and you'll have that butt-scratch you've been hoping for...  

First, get in position.  Move up next to the human and then start backing into her.  Go slow here, humans are terribly spooky creatures and may get alarmed if they misinterpret this.

Just keep backing up, nice and slow, until she puts her hands on you, it will be an instinctive reaction.  Of course, it helps if you are my height.  Whatever my height is, it's perfect.   

Once in position, indicate that you would like the scratching to commence...

Here's the really important part.  Your human needs to know that she is actually doing something right.  Time for that positive reinforcement.  Go ahead and drop any dignity and let her know that she is getting it right....

Stretching and craning your neck while making little snoring noises works great.  She won't be able to resist...

 

And if you start to hear any whining noises that sound like "my arms are getting tired here",  pull out all the stops, let your eyes glaze over and your lip quiver...It gets em every time.

See, it's not so hard.  Next time, I'll demonstrate some more advanced techniques for those of you who have been working with your human for a while now." 

Thanks for coming to my clinic!

The Conspiracy Continues

"OK Tess, we have to figure out how to bust out of here, I'm about to die of boredom and I just KNOW she has treats in her pocket.  We just have to get past this darned gate."

"I tell you what, you distract her and I'll try to figure out this chain-latch thing.  Can you handle that?"

"Got it Em, I know just the thing...."

Clicker Training and Foal Rejection

For a while now, Emma and I have been playing around with clicker training.  I have toyed with it in the past and I think it is an incredibly powerful training aid.  However, I always found it somewhat awkward, having to juggle clicker, treats, signals, etc. Mostly, my own brain is the biggest impediment.  The way I have always worked with my horses is very similar to clicker training, I just don't use a clicker or treats.  Because of this, I find it difficult to keep everything straight, to restrain myself from saying "Good Girl!" when I should be clicking.   My methods aren't as precise as clicker trainig but, they do work for me.  It's a lot easier to train my horse than to re-train myself.

Emma though, is the perfect clicker training partner.  She is very much NOT a horse (or a dog) so working with her is different.  I find that clicker training with her works very well because my own habits don't interfere as much.  Clicker training also works very well with her because she LOVES food and she is very intelligent and imaginative.   With the help of clicker training, she has also learned to be very brave.  When she first came here, she had not been handled much.  While she was friendly and liked people, she had no trust in them and was very wary of every new thing. 

With the help of the clicker, Emma has learned that scary, new objects are more likely to be a path to goodies then donkey eating monsters.  Things like road cones for example....

I have been using this to introduce Emma to as many new things as I can.  Both, because it is good training for her and because I think it will help when her baby comes along.  Foal rejection is one of the most common problems associated with jennies (and mares) having babies very young.  I believe that learning how to be calm and open to new situations will help Emma accept her baby when the time comes.  In the same vein, I have also been getting her used to being handled and groped all over, especially on her belly, udder and under her tail.  She tolerates all of these indignities with good grace.

As for the clicker training, I have this notion that if she does show signs of rejecting her baby, the clicker might help.  If I can teach her that ropes snaking under feet and sleds dragging behind her are good things, I ought to be able to convince her that a baby donkey is a good thing, right?? I hope so.

Emma gives lessons

I mentioned a while ago that my favorite grooming tool is a vacuum.  And no, nobody is paying me to talk about this thing (although, if the makers of Rapid Groom read this and want to send me some money that would be fine with me:).  It's just that I have bad allergies and asthma and the vacuum makes grooming horses doable rather than a life threatening event.  It also does the most wonderful job of getting them clean and improving their coats.  So, if you are a horse person and you didn't get what you wanted for Christmas, send whatever it was back and get one these. 

 

Last week, Emma helped me introduce Gabe to the vacuum (it does take most horses a little time to get used to it but, it isn't hard).  Gabe did great, especially since he had an expert right there to provide moral support and supervision...

 Emma: "It's no big deal, someone as big as you and with all those spots can handle it.  You can do this with you eyes closed"....

"I'll keep an eye on things and make sure Mom gets it right"...

"Come on, put some muscle into it!"

 "You missed a spot!"....

 "You're not going to forget ME right?  You DO remember that I like vacuuming too, right, RIGHT?"

 "Ermphhh, that's NOT what I had in mind!"

First snow

We had our first real snow here last night.  We have been enjoying unseasonably nice weather the last few weeks and really, I wish it would stay that way all year.  I hate snow.  The snow we had last night was just about enough.  After all, it's obvious that it did snow.  It just didn't amount to much and it won't last long if we don't get anymore.  It's that "if" that's the problem.  It is only wishful thinking on my part that we won't get more, lots more, of the stuff.   Last year we had so much snow and then more and more on top of that......well lets not talk about that, I haven't fully recovered from the trauma of it.

This snow is about what snow ought to be; fairly innocuous, not deep, picturesque and followed  by a nice, calm, sunny day (where lots of it melts).  I went out and did what everybody does, I tried to take pictures of the pretty snow trees (what else would you do with a tree covered in snow?).  Tanner does enjoy the snow just as long as it isn't too deep.  Actually, he loves snow, even the deep stuff, but he gets bogged down in it and struggling through it makes him very lame. 

Tessa also likes snow but, Emma, I think she is on my side.  She would have been so small last winter that not even her ears would have cleared the drifts.  I am guessing that she doesn't have fond memories of last years trauma  er, um winter either.  She spent all afternoon wandering around rather dejectedly, looking for bits of grass.  They did both came over to pose for some photos (although Emma just wanted to go somewhere warmer and if that wasn't going to happen would I, "please just get the white stuff off the pasture".  She is a desert animal after all) 

"HOW long until Spring?????"

A whole new meaning to "barn-sour"

Emma is only 16 months old and had never even worn  halter before coming here so I hadn't been expecting much when I first started working with her.  However, I have been continually amazed at how fast she learns and she absolutely loves doing it.  I had heard from several sources that I need to let her mature before doing too much with her.  Honestly though, I keep having to come up with new things for her to do so she doesn't get bored and go looking for trouble.  I do try to keep all our training sessions fun, interesting and include lots of carrot slices so really,  she thinks they are great games rather than work.  She looks forward to our "games" every day and will start making up her own if I don't get moving fast enough.   *Note:  Be very, very careful about letting your donkey make up her own games:)

Yesterday, I brought Emma out onto the lawn intending to work on her leading skills and play around with some obstacles.  Since we were going out by ourselves and leaving Tessa in the barn, I figured we'd be lucky to get to the end of the driveway, which is about 500 feet from the barn.  When we got there though, it was very clear that Emma was enjoying herself and wanted to keep going.  The only time she balked at all was when I tried to turn her back to the barn.  So, we just kept going.  We went all around the neighbors place, down the road and through the woods around the back of the house.....She wanted to explore everything.

Emma has completely redefined the term "barn-sour".   We went out again this afternoon and wound up stopping at several of the neighbors houses where she got to meet lots of new people (and got to eat even more carrots).  We were out for about an hour and a half and walked nearly two miles and I still had to pull hard to get her back to the barn.  I am thrilled that Emma likes going out like this.  The exercise is good for both her body and mind.  The only problem I can see, is that Tanner and Emma don't want any part of going out together.  Since I already take Tanner hiking every day, this could get to be a bit much.  I think the search is officially on to find another riding animal.  One that Emma could follow along behind.  I have a few ideas and some options and perhaps, maybe.....there is a really big, mammoth saddle donkey out there that could use a good home?????

A much better day

Emma's temp has leveled out to 100.5 where it has stayed all day, right where it should be.  She was also much brighter and happier today, I even got a nice loud bray when she wanted some more attention.  Now that's more like it!

It is not unusual for young animals to get sick.  Really, it is to be expected and is not even a bad thing since it will strengthen their immune systems in the long run.  However, such a high and prolonged fever is nothing to trifle with and can't be left untreated without risking brain damage and seizures.  Thankfully, Emma's fever responded to the medication and protected her while this bug ran its course.  I also learned a lot from this.  Donkeys do not respond to illness like any other animal I have ever known, and that is saying something as I have spent my life working with all types of animals.  I know now that I have to be very vigilant and that I have a lot to learn about the truly minute subtleties of donkey language.  At least Emma is a good teacher. 

Fever!

Emma didn't seem to be her normal self this afternoon so I took her temp and it was 106!!!  I called the vet and I gave her a dose of banamine to bring the fever down.  By the time vet got here this evening, her temp was normal and she seemed to be acting better.  We couldn't figure out what the problem is but the vet drew blood for tests and will hopefully have an answer for me first thing in the morning.  In the mean time I have to control the temp with the banamine and keep things quiet for her. 

One of the scariest aspects of this is how subtle the signs of illness were this afternoon.  Donkeys are notoriously stoic.  They don't show pain or illness unless it is very serious and by then it could be too late to treat them.  I don't think I appreciated the absolute truth of this until today.  A horse with a fever of 103 will appear noticeably ill at a single glance.  Emma seemed just a little off and it is only because I have gotten to know her so well that I saw the problem, I doubt anyone else would have noticed.   

I am hoping that this is just a viral fluke and Emma will be fully recovered in a couple of days.  I can't bring myself to even write about the alternatives so that is what I am going with for now.  A weird virus that will pass in a day or two.  Send good thoughts our way, we may need them.