Tours almost every day and Lynn and Linda getting ready for the race up at Black Canyon. There are people flying in from other states, just to run with the donkeys. Unfortunately by this morning the weather report for that area isn't very good, suppose to have rain, Saturday.
A decision has to be made when there are so many moving parts and plans to be made. I had to make a similar decision about 3 years ago when we had 19 donkeys and handlers planned for the Tucson Rodeo Parade in February. It was suppose to rain and turn cold. Our stock trailers are open, which means we could have been hauling wet donkeys in open trailers down the highway. The forecast was for cold and wet that morning. Had to make the decision the night before on the information we had and I cancelled our participation in the parade that year much to the disappointment to all the handlers. The morning of the parade was chilly and overcast, and I don't think there was any rain after midnight, so we probably could have done it. But I doubt that the donkeys would have been very happy to walk 3 miles in inclement weather anyway, they prefer to just hunker down and wait out the weather.
The run Saturday is a "GO", I think almost 20 of our donkeys will be going. One of the big problems is donkey feet on the trail if it is wet and muddy. For one thing they don't like to have wet feet, for another there will be a lot of donkey feet, to stir up that mud. Everyone is excited about the race, hopefully the weather people will be wrong, seems like they usually are......!! I've always said, they aren't paid to be right, if they were they'd starve to death.....!! LOL
We've had a lot of tours so far this month which is really fun. Lots of people learning about donkeys and getting to interact with them. We usually have the donkeys out of their pens for tours, so the people can get up close and personal. The donkeys are really good about presenting themselves for close inspection. Some people have never been around large animals and sometimes are a little timid about being that close. But usually by the time the tour is over they are very comfortable when they see how gentle the donkeys are.
This morning we had a donkey breakout. Linda and I both had large tours and a neighbor came in a said, "the donkeys are out on the road". One of the tours hadn't latched the gate when they came in and the wind blew the gate open. Misty took that opportunity to take about a dozen or more of her best friends on a walk-about. The neighbor and Lynn took off up the road, and I stood at the gate since the donkeys that hadn't participated were roaming around in the area. Another neighbor drove in and helped with the round-up. Once the guys got behind them, it was like they knew the fun was over, they trotted down the road and right thru the gate like it was their idea. Wish I had a camera, they all looked like they were having fun. Arrow, one of the minis was running and kicking up his heels on this side of the gate, I guess he wanted to join the runaways. While I was guarding the gate BlackJack did take that opportunity to escape. He moves so slow I didn't even bother trying to stop him, my primary objective was to get the others in the gate.
Later Linda and I went out to the gate to let the people out and guess who was by the gate. Little Misty River, saw us at the gate and here she came. Linda had to hold her back, so the gate could be open for the people to leave. We'll probably have to keep an eye on her when we leave, especially if there is only one of us and no one around to watch for her....!!
I'm sure glad Linda takes videos when they are out with the donkeys, so I can share them on the blog.
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