Happy Gotcha Day Saffron!

Facebook politely reminded me that 2 years ago today I brought Saffron and Arwen home to Firefly.  Arwen has since gone to a new home where she is doing amazingly (I'm friends on facebook and see pictures!)

Saffron has blossomed with our little family. Without the maternal need to protect a baby that she was never properly weaned from, she bonded nicely with Gwyn and has begun to trust humans a bit more every day.

There are still holes in her handling that will come with time but looking back on where we started, where we had to push her onto the trailer and she was plainly terrified, where I didn't dare take off her halter in case I needed to catch her. Now she'll stand still and let me curry her and use a shedding blade. I can put medicine on her fly bites on her legs.  She's absolutely petrified of fly spray, but I use the fly spot stuff with her and drip it on her back and she's okay.  You can pet her all over. She has never once tried to bite me or the kids. We're still working on leading but she walks with me more than she resists and I've learned she's not above being bribed with treats to move.

She's a good donkey. I've grown attached to this sassy long ears.

Farewell Arwen!

But do not be sad! This isn't a sad post!

I made the decision to rehome Arwen. She's only 10 minutes away, living with a very lonely black quarter horse. She will get much better attention there than I can give her. Additionally, I was starting to be worried about her behavior around Kaylee.

When you start to see herd dynamics negatively affecting human children, things need to change. I can interfere as much as possible, but the fact is if the animal does not consider a human above them in the herd order, then situations can become dangerous. As big as Gwyn is, she treats my daugher like porcelain and will defer to her and is very careful when they are in the pasture together. Saffron is more apathetic about my daughter. She pretty much ignores her, and that is also safe, in my mind. Arwen would push my daughter around. As a 3 year old human child, she doesn't quite understand the behavior correction that needs to occurr to prevent that. And I can correct it every time I see it but if a correction never comes when I'm not around to see it, then my actions aren't going to have the same effectiveness.

So when I saw someone looking for a companion donkey, I offered Arwen. The family came out to meet them on Saturday and had decided by monday that they wanted her. They brought their mare home a month ago and noticed that the mare was lonely (much like I had noticed with Gwyn). I delivered Arwen last night. She loaded relatively easily with food bribes and hopped off after a short trailer ride to her new home. She met her new buddy and they seemed to hit it off from what I saw.

Saffron was somewhat upset but I'm hoping she'll adjust. There was more concerning behavior between the two that also drove me to this decision.  Saffron has been mounting Arwen as though they were mating. Arwen still tries to nurse. Separation is likely a good thing. Saffron and Gwyn are still together, of course.  And now today things seem to have settled down so I'm feeling better about the whole thing.

Ranch Sitter for Christmas

We returned today to Michigan after spending a week with my family in Connecticut (part of which was 2 days of driving each way)  I hired a house sitter off of care.com and it was a rousing success. Our cats were only starved of attention, they had lots of food, water and a clean litter box when we arrived. My barn was clean of manure and an appropriate amount of hay had been consumed (I pulled bales down prior to leaving)

We got back to town just as the snow that heralded the freezing rain was starting. All the hooved critters were hiding in the barn, sensibly out of the driving, freezing rain. I was glad to see them and groomed Gwyn then snugged her up in a fleece cooler and rain sheet. If I had found her medium weigh she'd in that.   I'll pull it off her tomorrow, the temperature is supposed to warm up and she's been fine with just her winter coat. Apparently, though, she got herself trapped in the front pasture last night (the wind must have blown the gate closed) and it scared my farm sitter. I laughed. Because it's Gwyn.

In other encouraging news, the donkeys have fully embraced the stall guard as a protector of a sacred space that Gwyn cannot enter into. Arwen was a little hesitant at first to go under it but she figured it out on the second day of use.

I was going through video of Arwen from when we first brought them home and she has filled out SO MUCH!! She looks vastly different when you compare July/August to now. Hurray!

The critters before I left:

All the hay I pulled down aka let drop because I'm safe like that

"Mom, you're interrupting my dinner"

Taken today:

Frozen mud in Gwyn's tail. It's also in her fetlock feathers. I tried brushing them out but mid 20s F makes for difficult mud to remove. I definitely don't want to rinse in this weather so waiting for a thaw (i.e. tomorrow) is the plan

The fuzzy beast. She looks pretty good. No skinny critters on my farm!

FLUFFY PONEH!

Wrapped up snug and cozy.

The start of the icy rain. 

First snowfall!

I love how the donkeys have really warmed up and begun letting their personalities shine. I went out today to get them set up with hay and fresh water for the evening and as we're tossing down hay, Saffron comes in and just starts braying as loud as could be. Gwyn was standing in the stall, pressing against the door whickering and Arwen was watching expectantly.

I ended up tossing a few flakes of hay outside so I could work in the barn in peace. You can see their paths through the pasture in the snow. They're not staying in one place. They're fuzzy and warm, despite the snow and cold and are drinking plenty of water, so colic risk is low.  Obviously winter isn't over, it's only just begun, but I'm happy that things are going well so far!

I'm also really loving my hay pillow slow feeder. It keeps them eating consistently through the night and has lasted to abuse from Gwyn.  I started using a Tough-1 slow feeder at the same time and it's already destroyed (The brand name is a lie, this is the second product of theirs that hasn't lasted at all, the first was a water bottle holder that broke on first use!)  Gwyn discovered immediately she could eat from the top if I hung it low enough for the donkeys to also eat from. Then I tried hanging it high and it tore. Then I just hung it and said to hell with it and discovered the webbing had been chewed through, making a slow feeding just a regular feeder. Not impressed.  But my hay pillows. Those zip up and are durable, even with hay bits getting caught in the super heavy duty zipper all the time.

My one complaint is that the mini size pillow is a bitch to load hay into unless you break down the flake and make a mess.  But I'm making due. I wish there was a size between the standard and mini. Standard is perfect for Gwyn. I can fit 4-6 flakes in depending on my determination/laziness and I clip it low so she's still in a more ideal grazing position, rather than eating from an overhead hay rack. But high enough she won't paw at it and get a foot caught.

We weathered the storm well and got about a foot of snow, more than predicted. All of my cold weather prep worked great! The only last minute thing I needed was a long enough extension cord for the tank de-icer. The cord connection is now propped up, off the ground, so it won't get soaked in melt and there's plenty of water that's ice free and some that isn't in heated buckets that got a little slushy. One of the buckets was dry, and a few were down from yesterday when I filled them, so I'm happy to see they're drinking. No colic here!

I did check on them because in the back of my mind I was worried that no one was blanketed. But the donkeys seemed toasty warm, Gwyn was melting snow and her belly was totally dry and they had plenty of shelter to stand in and dry off out of wind if they needed. Obviously the temperatures weren't crazy low, but it's still good to see that Gwyn has a good enough coat (something I'm always worried about).  Since I'm not riding this winter I'm trying a low maintenance approach with her regarding weather. I'm keeping an eye on her, but otherwise not micromanaging. Everyone is barefoot and snow is packing in their hooves then falling out and not balling up. Hooray! So many things to think about with winter! Rate of hay consumption vs supply available sets us up well for the whole season as well. I'm going through a little less than a 1/2 bale a day. Keeping them eating keeps them warm. There are several eating stations as well so they keep moving. Now that my one slow feeder is toast I've pulled my hay net out of the trailer and I'll probably fill that and hang it outside on the hitching post for daytime munchies and use the hay pillows for nighttime into morning.

This was early in the day yesterday. You can no longer see any grass in the pasture or yard.

It was a sunny day today and everyone seemed happy! 

Paths through the pasture

Photo dump!

My camera took a small hiatus when a tiny human hid it behind the couch. Now that it's been retrieved, I've gotten the photos I took off of it to share!

The donkeys continue to get friendlier and I'm even getting vocally greeted by Arwen. Saffron remains aloof though she will let me touch her at arms length. Progress! Arwen also seems to have bonded well with Gwyn. They hang out more often than not.

Kaylee is a huge help around the barn and I've been supervising her preparation of dinner for the critters. She does a good job and only needs verbal guidance to get everything perfect. She measures very carefully! 

Arwen!

Saffron is looking good!

Fly mask retrieval was an adventure

Happy mare!

Alas.... scooping it the second time is always a PITA

Playful Arwen -bit- Gwyn while she was napping. LOL

Napping horses are happy horses

New slow feeder hay nets!

Easily a day's worth (24 hr) of hay when combined with their pasture. 

This is a picture of the new bedding I'm using (mixed with regular pine shavings). It's shredded newspaper! Hooray recycling!

Two critters down for a nap. I love this view. Seeing them able to relax like this is a happy thing for me. I'm doing something right by them and they feel safe.

Winter Planning!

Flurries have shown their face here in the mitten state and I'm starting to prep the Ranch for winter. First order of business was getting heated water buckets. I've had to break up ice before and I'm all for making things easier through the use of technology. So I purchased four large heated buckets.

They plug in and the heater only turns on when freezing temperatures are reached, so that saves us money on the electric bill! I've already swapped out the warmer weather buckets and gotten them plugged in since we are reaching freezing temperatures at night. I don't think it's anything that will freeze the water yet, but I'd rather be prepared.

These buckets are way cool. The last time I dealt with water heaters was when I was a kid and the heating element was an exposed metal coil that sat at the bottom of the bucket that would burn your barn down if the water buckets got empty.

Additionally, I've been contemplating ways to achieve slow feeding for Gwyn and the donkeys. Gwyn inhales her hay when it's free flake on the ground. I'd prefer her to have more measured eating now that we're moving into more hay and less nutritive grazing. Plus, the donkeys need to be restricted to the hay that they're allowed since they'd be more prone to founder.

To that end, I've just ordered a hay pillow. I ordered two, one standard and one mini for the donkeys at night. I'm planning to leave it loose on the ground (no one is shod) to increase the difficulty in getting hay out. They'll figure it out, I'm sure and I can always hang it up if they're going to be restrained in the runs due to weather. I'm excited to have it arrive and test it out.

My barn helper loves measuring out the grain. She's gotten very good and remembers what goes where!

My trailer bumper stickers!

New heated water buckets.

Had someone out to see if she'd like riding Gwyn. Arwen was curious and friendly. 

Even Saffron came closer!

Saffron sniffing my hand.

Gwyn supervises the poop scooping.

And then added more.