Woods in Winter

The weather here lately has been bad, very bad, and that's the kindest thing I can say about it.  All of the equines are staying huddled in the barn out of the wind and off of the ice that is covering everything.  I tried to get some pictures of Emma this afternoon, but the light was bad in the barn and I didn't want her getting cold, so I gave up, put all her blankets back on and left to put more wood on the fire.  You wouldn't really have wanted to see any of the pictures I tried to take today, they'd have made you cold just looking at them.  I did take some photos last weekend which, while intensely cold, are a little less bleak.  Since we are all hunkered down, waiting for the weather to break and not doing anything fun or interesting, I thought I would share some of them with you.  These were mostly taken a day after a snow storm.  The sky was intensely blue but very cold and the woods had the feel that we had just stepped through the back of the wardrobe....

Wordless Wednesday

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.

Sunday Stills - Corners and Cats

The Sunday Stills challenge this week was corners, I added that bit about cats and you'll see why in a minute.  I gave the corners a try but, it was only about 3 degrees out and just keeping everybody alive and realtively happy seemed challenge enough today.  Still I tried...

My favorite corner shot though is one I took a while ago and I think I posted it once before.  But, I like this photo, it's one of my favorites of Tessa...

And the cat....

This last photo is of Moss.  I haven't introduced her before because,well, hmmm, I am not sure how to be polite about this so....Moss is weird.  Very weird and often annoying.  She came from a farm not too far from here where a friend does a lot of work.  There are, or were, many ill-kept, malnourished, skanky looking barn cats running around on this farm.  For many years my friend has been trying to improve the lot of these cats and has found homes for innumerable kittens.   A couple of years ago, she wrangled some financing and went on a crusade to get all of the females spayed.  Of course, once spayed she was reluctant to return them to their miserable home and tried to find new homes for them as well.  Moss was one of these cats and NOBODY wanted her.  And really, there were good reasons for this.  She was neurotic, unfriendly and poor looking. 

After intense nagging, I agreed that she could live here in my barn and control the rodent population.  She is now spayed, vaccinated, de-wormed, de-loused, de-fleaed, de-mited and well fed.  She looks quite good.  However, she is still neurotic and she won't chase mice.  She only kills birds, which drives me crazy.  I used to enjoy feeding the birds but, I have had to give it up because Moss thought I was doing it just to give her a buffet.  She also insists on using the floor of my tack room for a litter box.  She follows me around begging for attention but, hisses and runs off as soon as it is offered.  All in all, I find Moss to be a bit of a trial. Still, she does have more personality now then she did a year ago.  I guess there is hope and in the meantime, she did make some of my corner pictures more interesting....

 

A Charged Situation

It's always good to have a bit of "spark" in a relationship but, this is getting ridiculous.  Every time I take the blanket off of Emma, one or both of us gets a bad zap.  I can't think of a better way to alienate a horse and especially a donkey.  It is one of the many things I dislike about horse blankets, along with the dry, itchy, skin and dandruff because the blankets absorb the natural oils in the horses' coat.  Luckily, I have found something that really helps these problems.  And I know, I know, this is starting to sound like a commercial but, it isn't.  It's only that I have a problem with static, I am familiar with the skin problems associated with blanketing and I have seen 3 other blog posts about static this week (sorry, I didn't keep track of who's) so I thought I would share my solution.

I have been using a spray called "Healthy Haircare Moisturizer", it has lanolin in it and it really cuts down on the static problem as well as the dry skin.  It helps with the static even if you aren't using blankets.

I also got to thinking about this stuff.... I am wondering if it would help give a donkey a little bit of "water-proofing".  It seems logical to me.  Donkeys are desert animals and lack the protective oils in their coats that help horses deal with wet weather.  A little bit of lanolin could go a long way.  Have any of you tried this?  I can't see any downside, the spray is very light and does not mat down or clump the hair.  I would be very interested to hear if anybody has used this stuff for that purpose.  If not, I will probably give it a try.  The only thing I don't like about this spray is its smell, it is very perfumey.  Although, I will admit that I am ultra sensitive to this sort of thing.  I can live with it, so most people probably won't even notice it.  I would rather have a slightly smelly donkey than one who thinks I am carrying a cattle prod everywhere I go.

Winter

-10 windchill, snow, blowing snow and 40 MPH winds.....about the only thing any of us has to say today is "Thank God for stout barns, plentiful hay, warm blankets and wood-stoves."  Stay warm.

Baby pool and baby pictures

I finally saw some baby pictures this afternoon.  My vet got her hands on a special attachment for the ultrasound machine and we were able to see the baby.  Well, at least a leg and part of a head anyway.  We know that junior has at least one leg, a nose and that he is alive and knows how to kick.  Baby is well on the way to becoming a donkey.  Actually, quite far along to becoming a donkey.  I have been thinking that Emma is much more pregnant than I had initially thought.  In the last couple of weeks her belly has really blossomed while at the same time she has lost a lot of weight.  This makes perfect sense if she is entering the final trimester when 80% of the fetal protein is laid down. 

What I was really hoping for from the ultrasound was an idea of when to expect Baby.  As a result of my observations, much chin scratching, speculations and backwards math we all agree that the baby is most likely to make an entrance sometime in April or May.  Gulp.  Emma would have been about 8 months old when bred.  Double gulp. 

Here are some pictures of "The Belly" taken this afternoon...

The only good news as far as Emma is concerned is that she gets to have LOTS more food now.  She is now up to getting a handful of the 10/10 sweet feed three times a day along with 2 flakes/day of second cutting hay to go with the free-choice first cutting.  She also get a 1/4 scoop of Accel vitamins and a 1/4 scoop of selenium/E because New York is profoundly selenium deficient.  We'll stay there for a bit and adjust as needed.

I had to make some temporary changes in the barn in order to feed her.... 

The creep feeder arrangement is to protect her from the circling sharks....

Sometimes it is helpful to be short.



And finally, what you have all been waiting for...a contest.  Leave your best guess as to the arrival of Emma Junior as a comment on this post (that way I'll be able to find them all).  The winner will get one of my handmade (by me) cutting boards.  It will look a little (but not exactly) like this...

It is made of hard maple and/or cherry and the back is grooved so it also acts a bread board.  If you leave your comment anonymously, make sure to include an identifier so I can figure out who you are.  Good luck to all of us!  I know Emma and I are going to need it.