Wednesday, September 18, 2013

In Synch

Emma and Ramsey have very distinct, separate personalities.  It's the little things though, like watching them play with the roll of drainage pipe I have yet to lay.  For nearly ten minutes, their tails switching in perfect synchronicity like a pair of matched metronomes, even their feet stay lined up.  Blood does tell.

Ten minutes later...

9 comments:

  1. So sweet!! I would stand there & just soak in watching them too. If we ever get our own land, we will most definitely have a donkey (or two, buddies are important). It's been on our wish list forever. Sigh. Until then, I'll live vicariously through you!

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  2. Not many other animals would be so focused and intent. Donkeys are amazing in their problem solving abilities (even if we don't appreciate their solutions to imaginary problems, :-) )

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  3. Until I started following your and Carsons' blogs I had no idea donkeys had so much fun playing with things...together or by themselves. I think they like it best when they have a friend to play with! Thanks for continuing my education...and pleasure!

    Nancy in Iowa

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  4. Your donkeys are just adorable!! I might have to have a couple of them one of these days...for entertainment purposes only. :)

    Thank you for your insight about the pea gravel. That's what I think I want to try. I just have nothing to lose by trying throughout this fall and winter during our rainy season when we ride very little. I was wondering how your progress was going with Lakota? I'll share what thing we tried with our founder mare Scooter. She had paper thin soles for a while, was also a sinker and had a LOT of rotation. Much worse than your x-rays showed on Lakota. We conferred with Dr. Reddin in Kentucky, who's a leading podiatrist with horses and problem feet. He suggested putting "banana" shoes on our mare. I think they're more commonly called "rocker" shoes now. The shoes are arced right about where the natural breakover would occur, in Scoot's case, I think it was within about a 1/4" in front of the tip of the frog. The arc is slight and causes the horse to pump/exercise the frog even when standing in one spot by a subtle rocking motion. When viewed from the side, the shoe would rock from heel to toe slightly, and the arc faces the ground when placed on the foot of the horse. We shot xrays the day we put the shoes on, and then at 4 and again at 8 weeks post shoeing. The amount of sole growth was mind-blowing. Even my horseshoer and my vet were amazed. It might be worthwhile for you to try with Lakota, or at least something for you to look into. After you achieved (hopefully) some sole thickness, you could remove the shoes and continue on with your barefoot therapy. Just a thought I thought I'd share. It really helped our mare.

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    1. Thanks, that is something to think about. Our biggest issue with that route is finding someone to do it. Our only option would be to truck the horse to Cornell, which is very cost prohibitive and a real problem in the winter. Also, RB did try something like that a couple of years ago with poor results. So far, we are very pleased with the results we are getting with the casts so we will probably keep at it for a while.

      I am going to be checking his feet this weekend and I will try to post an update. I am also still working on the feed and mineral issues. I will be writing about it at some point, but our hay and pasture tests have shown some real problems. I am still working on getting a few other tests done and will post about them when I get it all together. I'd encourage you to get a hay and pasture test done. The results might really surprise you:)

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  5. I have often thought about getting Beamer a companion donkey, do you think it would suit the donkey? Or do they prefer company of their own kind?

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  6. Love the shots. Donkeys are some of the most curious of animals. They are always playful also.

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