Wednesday, December 7, 2011
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?????
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?????
Monday, December 5, 2011
The Dashing Donkey!
You may recall that Emma came from a not-so-good home, that she has a baby brother and parents with severely neglected feet (find the whole story here and here). Well, baby brother has gone to his new home and finally has a real name. Say hello to Dash (Isn't that just the best name for such a dashing fellow, I love it)!
Dash is doing great in his new home. In true donkey style, he has charmed the whole barn and loves dashing up and down the aisle ways.
That isn't the end of the good news though. Finally giving in to pressure from me and Dash's new person, the owner of these donkeys has agreed to sell the jack and jenny as well. They are going together to their new home this week where they will get the care and attention they are so deserving of.
It really doesn't take much to have a to have a big impact on the lives of animals. A little time, a little effort and four (FIVE if you count jenny's next baby, as I am sure she is pregnant again) have wonderful new lives. Yeah for the donkeys!
That isn't the end of the good news though. Finally giving in to pressure from me and Dash's new person, the owner of these donkeys has agreed to sell the jack and jenny as well. They are going together to their new home this week where they will get the care and attention they are so deserving of.
It really doesn't take much to have a to have a big impact on the lives of animals. A little time, a little effort and four (FIVE if you count jenny's next baby, as I am sure she is pregnant again) have wonderful new lives. Yeah for the donkeys!
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Treasures
Tanner is a big believer in putting things by for future use. He collects, hoards and hides "treasures" better than any dragon ever imagined. He spends a significant amount of time nearly every day finding treasures and hiding them. And when I say hiding, I don't mean that he just sticks them under a bush or buries them in just any old hole. He first has to, very stealthily, carry the treasure around with him while he goes about laying false trails. I have often seen him pretend to hide something only to immediately pick it back up and very carefully and slowly, walk backward in his own tracks and then leap off in another direction. Finding the right hiding spot often takes 45 minutes to an hour. Sometimes, when I see him finally find the perfect spot and truly start hiding his latest marvel, the devil takes hold and I just can't help but yell out, "I seeeee youuuu". Tanner gives me a dirty look, picks up his treasure, trots off and has to start over again from scratch. I know, I know, I shouldn't do it.
You may be wondering what sort of treasures we're talking about here. Well, the occasional marrow bone of course and sometimes, for reasons known only to him, he hides his toys. I try to stop this when I see him doing it because then he expects me to magically produce new toys for him to play with (this is why he has three identical frisbees, for a while they kept disappearing). Mostly though, he hides scraps of lumber from whatever project I am working on. Why one particular cut-off deserves to be buried while the other 500 lay where they are until I pick them up, I have no idea. You'll have to ask him. I just know that he keeps himself happily occupied while I am busy working.
At one point, when tanner was just a couple of years old, I accidently messed with some of his hidden marrow bones. He spent all day sneakily moving them. It wasn't until that night when we went to bed that I saw that he had brought every one of them into my bedroom and built a perfect cairn out of them. I was curious to see what he would do with them so I left them completely alone. They stayed that way, untouched for months. I just treated them like a piece of furniture and vacuumed around them. Then one day, some friends stopped by with a new puppy. They needed some chew toys for him and I offered some of Tanner's old bones. I sneaked up to my room while Tanner was distracted and stole a few bones thinking that he would never notice. The next day, while I was busy and not paying attention, he moved every one of those bones. Quite a feat considering that he never goes more than a few hundred feet from me and I never noticed him moving them.
All this week I have been working on my garden beds and apparently, the beds and the manure pile are favorite hiding places. I unearthed at least three treasures from each bed and more than TWENTY marvels from the manure pile. Keep in mind that I have only been here a couple of years and the manure pile is not that big. The interesting thing (at least to me) was that I could have charted the progress of my house and barn building by the scraps of lumber I found. The locally produced, rough-cut hemlock that built the barn are distinctly different from the dimensional lumber and synthetic siding that the house is made of. Since the manure pile kept expanding along with the buildings, I could have charted my construction progress with the bits hidden by my dog.
Just think, all these years I've dismissed Tanner's treasure management as the obsessive-compulsive behavior of a Border Collie staving off boredom. But really, he's an archivist! He's been keeping track of important events for me and I wasn't paying attention.
Poor tanner sure has his work cut out for him. Now that I have messed with his stash, he is going to have to find new hiding places for every bit of history I unearthed this week.
You may be wondering what sort of treasures we're talking about here. Well, the occasional marrow bone of course and sometimes, for reasons known only to him, he hides his toys. I try to stop this when I see him doing it because then he expects me to magically produce new toys for him to play with (this is why he has three identical frisbees, for a while they kept disappearing). Mostly though, he hides scraps of lumber from whatever project I am working on. Why one particular cut-off deserves to be buried while the other 500 lay where they are until I pick them up, I have no idea. You'll have to ask him. I just know that he keeps himself happily occupied while I am busy working.
At one point, when tanner was just a couple of years old, I accidently messed with some of his hidden marrow bones. He spent all day sneakily moving them. It wasn't until that night when we went to bed that I saw that he had brought every one of them into my bedroom and built a perfect cairn out of them. I was curious to see what he would do with them so I left them completely alone. They stayed that way, untouched for months. I just treated them like a piece of furniture and vacuumed around them. Then one day, some friends stopped by with a new puppy. They needed some chew toys for him and I offered some of Tanner's old bones. I sneaked up to my room while Tanner was distracted and stole a few bones thinking that he would never notice. The next day, while I was busy and not paying attention, he moved every one of those bones. Quite a feat considering that he never goes more than a few hundred feet from me and I never noticed him moving them.
All this week I have been working on my garden beds and apparently, the beds and the manure pile are favorite hiding places. I unearthed at least three treasures from each bed and more than TWENTY marvels from the manure pile. Keep in mind that I have only been here a couple of years and the manure pile is not that big. The interesting thing (at least to me) was that I could have charted the progress of my house and barn building by the scraps of lumber I found. The locally produced, rough-cut hemlock that built the barn are distinctly different from the dimensional lumber and synthetic siding that the house is made of. Since the manure pile kept expanding along with the buildings, I could have charted my construction progress with the bits hidden by my dog.
Just think, all these years I've dismissed Tanner's treasure management as the obsessive-compulsive behavior of a Border Collie staving off boredom. But really, he's an archivist! He's been keeping track of important events for me and I wasn't paying attention.
Poor tanner sure has his work cut out for him. Now that I have messed with his stash, he is going to have to find new hiding places for every bit of history I unearthed this week.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
The thing about gardening...
Is that there is always next year to look forward to. I always have big garden plans, sometimes too big. When I bought this land and decided to build a house a couple of years ago I planned for a garden space. I wanted something that would be easy to maintain and work around so I built raised beds.
The raised beds turned out to be significantly more work then I had thought (isn't everything!). The biggest problem with raised beds is finding enough soil to fill them. The soil here is very poor. It is 80% rock held together by wet, acidic clay. I suppose I could have purchased a truck load of top soil but my budget just couldn't handle buying dirt. For the past two years, I have been filling in these beds with layers of mulch, horse manure and what soil I could manage to transport from other parts of the property. I made some feeble attempts to plant a few things in my beds with very poor results. Not only were my soil building attempts still too raw but, building a house and a barn on my own was so overwhelming that nearly everything else got pushed aside. The garden most of all.
This past Spring, the soil in my beds actually started to look like soil and I had high hopes. I planted something in every bed and I did actually get a harvest. However, I still wasn't able to devote the time it really needs and as a result, my garden got completely out of control this summer. The whole thing turned into a giant morass of impenetrable weeds. I finally gave up on it and just let the weeds go until freezing temperatures beat them into submission. This past week, while we have been enjoying unseasonably nice weather, I finally tackled the garden. I ruthlessly pulled everything out of each bed, turned the soil and added a cart load of aged manure (which I finally have, thanks to the horses) to each one.
Gardening is tough, I think that everybody who gardens experiences years where nearly everything goes wrong. A few years ago the whole area was stricken with blight; we had a year of terrible drought and another of so much rain everything rotted. The thing about gardening though, is that every year you can start over, forgive yourself the mistakes you made last season, think about what you want to do different and start making plans.
This past Spring, the soil in my beds actually started to look like soil and I had high hopes. I planted something in every bed and I did actually get a harvest. However, I still wasn't able to devote the time it really needs and as a result, my garden got completely out of control this summer. The whole thing turned into a giant morass of impenetrable weeds. I finally gave up on it and just let the weeds go until freezing temperatures beat them into submission. This past week, while we have been enjoying unseasonably nice weather, I finally tackled the garden. I ruthlessly pulled everything out of each bed, turned the soil and added a cart load of aged manure (which I finally have, thanks to the horses) to each one.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Responsibility
There is a lot of talk right now about the lifting of the ban on slaughtering horses for human consumption in the US. However, the controversy over slaughter eclipses the real conversation we should be having. The issue isn't about slaughter, it's about responsibility. As human beings we are responsible for domestic animals. We created them yet we are failing them.
I have personal experience with the horrors associated with slaughter. I also have personal experience with the horrors associated with the banning of slaughter. There are more horses and donkeys being abandoned, starved and abused now than I ever remember seeing. Much of this abuse stems directly from the devaluation of the animals. The only good to come out of the slaughter industry is a guaranteed value for every equine. Practices such as donkey roping or abandonment are a direct result of the donkeys having absolutely no economic value. It is a hard truth that people don't value what they don't pay for.
If it comes down to a choice of short term abuse followed by slaughter or long term abuse followed by an agonizing death, I guess I would choose the first route. Personally, I don't like either option which is what drives me to purchase animals in great need whenever I can manage it. It is why I spent several years working in an animal shelter. It is partly how I got Emma and how I rescued a pair of driving horses a few years ago, and a mustang before that, and others.......I do this on my own and on my own terms. I do not ask for money. I take on what I can handle at any given time. I acknowledge and accept that I have a responsibility. I may not have saved thousands but I have saved some. Think what it would mean if all horse owners acknowledged the same level of responsibility.
If you are unhappy about the ban on horse slaughter being lifted, do something about it. And I don't mean signing petitions and writing your congressman either, they can't help. Petitions and letters don't feed horses. Go out and find an animal that needs help, a 30 second scan of craigslist will provide ample opportunities. If you don't know how to help on your own, find a rescue group and work with them. Take responsibility. We created these animals, we are responsible. All of us.
I have personal experience with the horrors associated with slaughter. I also have personal experience with the horrors associated with the banning of slaughter. There are more horses and donkeys being abandoned, starved and abused now than I ever remember seeing. Much of this abuse stems directly from the devaluation of the animals. The only good to come out of the slaughter industry is a guaranteed value for every equine. Practices such as donkey roping or abandonment are a direct result of the donkeys having absolutely no economic value. It is a hard truth that people don't value what they don't pay for.
If it comes down to a choice of short term abuse followed by slaughter or long term abuse followed by an agonizing death, I guess I would choose the first route. Personally, I don't like either option which is what drives me to purchase animals in great need whenever I can manage it. It is why I spent several years working in an animal shelter. It is partly how I got Emma and how I rescued a pair of driving horses a few years ago, and a mustang before that, and others.......I do this on my own and on my own terms. I do not ask for money. I take on what I can handle at any given time. I acknowledge and accept that I have a responsibility. I may not have saved thousands but I have saved some. Think what it would mean if all horse owners acknowledged the same level of responsibility.
If you are unhappy about the ban on horse slaughter being lifted, do something about it. And I don't mean signing petitions and writing your congressman either, they can't help. Petitions and letters don't feed horses. Go out and find an animal that needs help, a 30 second scan of craigslist will provide ample opportunities. If you don't know how to help on your own, find a rescue group and work with them. Take responsibility. We created these animals, we are responsible. All of us.
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