If anyone in my presence EVER says the best way to exercise your cardio-vascular system is to go to a gym or use a treadmill, I will personally slap them in the face & if they stand still slap them again.......!!!
The last couple of days, round-up has been......well, interesting. Mesquite beans & access to them, obviously erodes the mental capacity of equines, especially donkeys & mules.
Each round-up has gotten more involved. Not everyone participates in the "let's exercise the humans, they look like they need it" games, but the ones that do, have gotten more determined to NOT go in their pens.
Jill, new kid, bless her heart, goes in her pen when she sees John walk out the door to start the game. Actually most of them go in pretty good............except for........... Jack & Molly mini mules, Reba & Rusty big mules, BlackJack who knows better, and Coquette & Penny the 2 girls from the Milagros rescue......!!! All of these animals have gone in their pens like little angels, BJ has been doing it for something like 13 or 14 years without a problem. He was a little PO'ed at me because I had the audacity of smack his rather broad butt 4 times in quick secession with a riding bat & decided to make us pay. The others we couldn't get close enough to throw a rock, let alone smack with anything..........Grrr......!!!
Molly becomes a darting running machine, Jack follows along like he doesn't know what's going on, but is willing to participate. If you try to get him in the pen by himself, he has to go find Molly, wherever she is. BlackJack we basically ignored, he's too lazy to invest much effort into being "wild & free". Reba & Rusty were just trying out their independence, so they weren't that big a problem.
Coquette and Penny were horrible, so our big problems were 2 groups of two. Two people trying to control 4 animals on 30 acres, or even 10 acres once we got Coquette and Penny thru the gate so we could close it isn't easy. I have no idea how far we walked, ran, tripped over rocks & darted thru the mesquite trees, hopefully ducking when needed, but it took about 1 1/2 hours. Of course all this time the others are in their pens, yelling when they saw us because breakfast wasn't forthcoming...........!!
Short term, I guess you could say they won, long term (at least once they went in their pens) the mini mules & the Milagros girls are going to be staying in their pens for a few days, to hopefully remind them of where they are suppose to go, when we ask them to, and to also give us a rest, we're both wore out.......!!! LOL
Courtney came out last night to trim those that needed it. Cisco has self trimmed for years, but recently he's slowed down quite a bit and I noticed recently that his hooves were getting pretty long. Not only was he really long, but he had a huge rock caught crosswise in one of his hooves, that can't be comfortable. Courtney said that if it had been in there a long time he might pop an abscess, so we'll be watching him for the next few days.
Gus is ouchy this morning, she didn't really do very much to him at all, but I guess it was enough to make a difference. He is so hard to keep comfortable, he has to be kept longer than normal, but there is a fine line between long enough & too long.
Wister got a little trimming too. I think he is over his sore fetlock, except for when he lays down. When he gets back up he's ouchy & limping for the first few steps. But in just walking around he's good, even turning is OK.
Rusty the big white mule even got trimmed for the 1st time in about 7 years, since he came here. He has been real good about self trimming, but lately he had chunked out a gouge on one foot & the others were all chipping off pretty ragged. So it was time to get him all tidied up, so he can self trim again for awhile. Maybe that's why he was being "difficult" this morning, as payback for doing his feet, who knows, I know I sure don't........!!! LOL
