One More Hurdle

This afternoon, Tessa went back to Riding Buddy's place for the rest of the winter, which means that my little baby mule (who is just shy of 8 months old now) got weaned for reals today. 

We've been working on separation a bit here and there, but I only have the one barn so he wasn't really weaned.  Now, he is looking for mommy, who stepped into a big, red box and disappeared. 

Meanwhile, mommy is out visiting with her beloved Hawkeye and a new boyfriend, Sammy.  She has her hooves full and is not worrying about her offspring.

  She got all prettied up before she left

Speaking of hooves, she even got a full pedicure before she left, which Qilin felt the need to inspect in great detail (Ramsey has a fascination with hooves and, apparently, so does Qilin.  It must be a donkey thing as I have never seen horses do this, but have heard of a few other donkeys and mules who do).

Another step in the growing up stage and it went very smoothly.  Qilin had a very brief temper tantrum when I led Tess to the trailer and left him behind, but I came back, tied him up and gave him a good grooming and some extra hay and he settled right down.  I have gotten to hear his odd, rather mystical sounding Qilin Call (a cross between a unicorn and dragon is about as good a description of that sound as you can get) a number of times today, but there has been no other drama. 

The fact that Qilin is almost 8 months old helps a great deal.  I believe strongly that babies should not be weaned too early unless there is a pressing health related reason to do so.  Six months is the earliest I would do it and later is better, especially if you have a good mom like Tessa teaching him how to behave.  At eight months, with a herd of donkeys to keep him company, it is no big deal deal.