My Big Buddy

Animals can be great "teachers" if you are willing to open yourself to communication between species.  That means that we may not always understand what the animal is trying to tell us and they might not have a clue as to what we are saying, such as "Ringo, blah, blah, blah ...!"  We need to have heaps of patience, compassion and humility and lots of time for them.

So often, we think we need to "get them to do" something ... "teach them a lesson" ... "show them who's boss" ... it's all about our agenda, but do we ever stop to consider that maybe it is the animal who has something to teach us, something to show us?  Maybe we're all bluster and bravado and in a hurry.

Ringo has been my teacher.  He has shown me that I can be impatient, easily frustrated and scared.  These were things I actually didn't know about myself and would have disputed.  But you can't really argue with a donkey. They have a deep wisdom, I think, inherited from generations of survival and from stoic service to humans, a deep threshold to pain yet still, a compassionate nature.  That's not to say they are necessarily easy or compliant ... Ringo continues to display outbursts of frustration and annoyance.  This can be demonstrated by furious pawing in front of me with a mean hard look in his eye, by shoving me around with his nose or crowding or following me about with his ears pinned back.

But to truly "know" him, as I think I am getting to, is to know a sensitive, intelligent creature ... one who is smart, wily, playful and thoughtful.  And also very sensitive. I am grateful to Ringo - he has been my biggest challenge of all the animals I have known and cared for.  I even considered looking for another home for him, felt I couldn't handle him.  I'm SO glad he is still here, that I didn't cave to my timidity!

Ringo and I will do great things together - he is my mirror.  I hope I can reflect back to him the love and gratitude that I feel.

Blog Blues

Ah!  The weather is too hot (environment)  the arts centre workshops are in full swing (work) the garden needs weeding and watering (survival) the studio tour is less than three weeks away (pressure) and the poor donkeys are last on the list (guilt)!

Although they get fed and watered, hooves picked, fly spray and masks, groomed and scritched, barn swept and pasture cleaned every day, no one has been clicker trained or walked in about two weeks ... bad, bad, bad.

Chickens and Donkeys help the birds ...

    Two nests found, one lined with donkey hair, the other with chicken feathers. Click on photo for a beautiful detailed image.

Separation Anxiety

Donkeys can form strong bonds with one another and the importance of these bonds should not be underestimated.  I've seen different examples of these relationships and also donkeys who don't seem to enjoy eachother's company that much.

When I brought Deenah home four years ago, she had been living with an assortment of other critters ... a mini jack donkey, two alpacas, a couple of miniature goats and a goose.  On the other side of the fence was a mini jennet with a young foal at her side.  I was told that Dee had been living there for about two years and I couldn't find out anything about her life before that, although I tried.

Anyway, Deenah was just about the best thing that could have happened to Dorica.  She had only been with us for nine months and during that time, her stall mate, Annie had become ill and died after two weeks of intense nursing.  It was an awful experience for all of us and very hard on Dorica.  While I searched for another donkey companion for her, we borrowed Syd the goat to keep her company.

Deenah and Dorica became fast friends.  Now it is hard to separate them.  Little Dorrie is fine to come for walks with me, but Deenah gets so anxious that she has actually hurt herself on several occasions - a very "undonkey-like" thing to do!

The other day, I slowly and carefully worked with Dorica just on the other side of the fence from Deenah.
She was still eating hay with Ringo next to her.  I gradually moved Dorica away and towards the gate to take her for a walk.  Deenah became more and more agitated.  This is not a new experience for Deenah - I try to work with Dorica frequently and for small amounts of time.  Deenah should know (this is my thinking) that Dorica will be right back!

But no, poor Dee gets herself all upset, almost hyperventilating, galloping and sometimes tries to jump a fence.  This time she managed to hoist herself up into a corner, get her head over top of the stock fencing and snag her nose on a strand of barbed wire. 

I am embarrassed to admit that there is any barbed wire here - it is left from a previous owner.  We managed to removed all of it except for this strand which I thought was well out of reach from the donkeys.  And donkeys don't freak out like horses, right?

Well I spent the next few hours doctoring Deenah.  Thank goodness she recently had a tetanus shot.  I disinfected the wound but couldn't get it to clot for ages.  Finally it did and I applied a layer of Swat so the flies wouldn't bother it.  By evening, it looked better so I put my magical Golden Seal salve on it and by the next morning you could barely see the puncture.

NOW what, though ...?  Do I ever take Dorica for a walk again?  What a conundrum!

Tellington Touch

Last Saturday, I went to my first Tellington Touch clinic - this is a form of therapuetic massage for animals developed by Linda Tellington-Jones.  But it's so much more!  If you click on the title of this post, it should link you directly to Linda-Tellington Jone's own website.  There you can read about how it works in more precise detail.

The massage technique is light and gentle and slow, connecting to meridians and accu-pressure points all along the body.  So it can be effective in relieving both physical and emotional tension.  It's subtle and you have to work with calm, collected energy
which is a huge lesson for any type of training.  Non-reactive, reassuring guidance for your animal.

We are very lucky to have an experienced TTouch practitioner here and this was her first island clinic.  It had been on my "list" of things I want to learn and what a great fit with CT!  We spent the morning learning about the various ways to hold and move our hands, how much pressure to use and which approaches might help with a variety of issues that the horse might be experiencing.

I noticed both people and horses drifting into meditative zen-like states!


There were about 8 horses.  In the afternoon, Kathleen (our teacher) set up some ground work exercises, called TTeam.  There was a maze on the ground made from poles and a kind of "wagon wheel"  - poles radiating out in a circle with the ends meeting in the middle and resting on top of a large feed tub.  She also had some foam noodles and a long pole.

Riders had to take the horse through these courses, stopping at various intersections.  It was to both teach the horses emotional control and body awareness through some physio type exercises.

I really loved it and have practised a bit on all 3 donkeys.  The responses have been very interesting ... from releases to kicking and all from very gentle pressure and slow moves.  And actually it was Dorica, my sweet mini doing the kicking ... not what you'd expect!  I'm not sure how to interpret the reactions yet but know I want to learn a lot more about TTouch!