YAY.........A BREAK IN THE WEATHER

 Nothing really exciting, but a few sprinkles here and there and the high so far today in the afternoon is 87 degrees and cloudy.  Hopefully this is the start of fall and cooler weather.

The donkeys have been getting to go over to the Burro Barracks for about a week.  About half of them go one day after breakfast and the next day the other half get to go.  They seem to look forward to it with great anticipation, even Casper the mini mule almost prances to the dog pen to spend the day. 

We still have the problem of piles of beans on the ground under the trees.  

This is what it looks like under almost every tree on the property.  John has his grass catcher and it works pretty good, but you can't get under the trees.  So the latest idea is a leaf blower to blow the beans out from under the trees, where the golf cart can go.  He doesn't want to buy one if it won't work, so a friend has offered to loan hers.  If it works then John will get one of his own.  Otherwise if they aren't going to turn black and rot, I guess we'll have to rake under each tree, which really sounds like a lot of fun.......!!

I raced last night, car came home in one piece, so it was a good night.  I finished 4th in the main event.  It's frustrating to get beat by the same cars all the time. Talked to the manager of the track and he verified a rumor I had heard that the Hornets wouldn't be racing next year.  Our car count has dropped off over the years because a few cars dominate the class.  He asked me what I was going to do and I told him, I guess I'll retire.............!!!  

Hopefully the local dirt track will open up in the spring.  They were going to race this year, but the Covid-19 crisis stopped that.  Pima County has come up with rules on top of rules and people running around with pens and clipboards to make sure the rules are followed.  I really like the dirt a lot better than pavement, so I've got my fingers crossed that it will happen.  

The Burro Buddies facebook page has quite a few really good videos Linda took up in Colorado.  I'll share the addresses, the first one shows how agile some of the donkeys are.

https://www.facebook.com/burrobuddies/videos/342657517104562

 Benji had not been worked with much before Lynn and Linda took him to Colorado in the spring, look at him now.........!! 

https://www.facebook.com/burrobuddies/?ref=br_rs

Unfortunately Gus has been gone for a few years,  he was such a nice boy.  Roxie was the neighbor's dog, she use to come over here a lot and she and Gus had a thing going.  The local cattleman complained about her and her 3 grown pups running loose, so the neighbors have had her penned up since then.  

https://www.facebook.com/burrobuddies/videos/931649637312688

She was very thorough

https://www.facebook.com/burrobuddies/videos/334845544592363

 Just two friends hanging out together

 

The heat continues...........

 I'm sitting here looking at the temperature of 106.3 on our back porch.  Granted it is on the south side of the house, the sensor is behind a 6x6 upright post, so it is shaded from the afternoon sun.  So it probably isn't an accurate reading, BUT it is hot, no matter what the  temperature actually is.  

 Yesterday was trimming day for most of the donkeys.  Tyler does the ones that have been foundered or in Gigi's case was born crippled and has to wear shoes on her front feet.  

Dan works with Tyler and likes to do donkeys and minis, so he came out and did 11 of them.  Macho Man gets the worst ass of the day award.  Everyone else did really good, and he didn't........LOL  I was in town and missed it, but I sure heard about it.  Poor Macho's ears must have been burning, because John and Suzanne just couldn't wait to tell me what a bad boy he had been.  

We knew he could and would kick, he let us know that when we went to pick the four donkeys up in Tucson a few months ago.  I guess he absolutely wasn't going to make any effort to cooperate and made sure everyone involved knew his opinion of the whole operation.  I guess the fronts weren't too bad, but the back two just didn't need to be done from his point of view.  

 Donkeys have a behavior they use when they realize they aren't winning and have no idea what to do to get you to leave them alone. 

 This isn't one of our donkeys, but this is a little mini donkey that doesn't want to be trained to walk over a mattress.  They will also lay down in harness, which can be a mess to straighten out especially if it a double hitch.  

Macho finally threw himself on the ground, and Dan leaped on him, so he couldn't get up and they kept him on the ground and did his feet, I'm sure much to his disgust.  He was so mad last night, he wouldn't let any of us put his fly mask back on, he wouldn't even take an animal cracker.  By this morning all was forgiven and he was back to his usual even temperament. 

This morning John and Suzanne raked the dog pen, the ground was covered with mesquite beans from the 2 small trees in the pen.  Since Casper can't go in the Burro Barracks because he will go under the barbed wire, he has to be confined.  We figured this would give him a break from having to stay in his pen and watch everyone else get to go someplace. 

It won't take him long to devour everything edible in there.  But at least it will give him a little more room.  

About half the donkeys got to go over to the Burro Barracks for the day this morning.

This is Leroy and Jackson in the Burro Barracks.  They went over with Kachina, Ana, Koshare', Bunny and Big Gus.  Big Gus is already causing trouble.  He's tall enough to hang his head over the fence between us and the neighbor.  Her side hasn't been raked, so there are beans everywhere, and he was enjoying them, until he got caught and got put back in his pen.  I think John and Suzanne are going to run some fence to hopefully keep his mouth on our side. 

This is the siblings Koshare' and Anazazi

Bunny found a spot of her own and Kachina is getting a drink.  I guess the water in the big tank is better than in her pen, it probably is cooler. 

Notice how devoid of anything the ground is.  😄  But they still manage to find beans we missed when we were raking.  Not many though.

A COOLING TREND..........

 All that means is, we might have days below 100*  We did get an inch of rain a couple of days ago, and the humidity is above 70%, so hopefully we'll get some more.  

Yesterday was one of those "cooler" days, so off to the Burro Barracks we all went to rake beans.  Wendy is a volunteer that actually came out to run with a donkey, but she jumped in with a rake and worked instead.   By the time we were finished raking, she and Suzanne were too tired to even walk with donkeys......!!  

 

We talked about burning them, but they make such a hot fire, we decided to just haul them out to the road and let the traffic break them up. 

This is John's newest toy, it's actually a lawn sweeper to pick up grass clippings, but he got one to see if it might help with picking up beans.  He'd played with it 2 or 3 times and it would pick up beans, but it also threw dirt all over the golf cart that was pulling it.  

Wendy said it looked like it wasn't put together right, she was the only one of us that had ever had one.  And of course John being a guy, didn't read the directions, he just put it together....!! LOL

It amazing the difference now, it not only picks up more beans, it doesn't throw dirt all over the golf cart.  

There were still beans in the pen, but there's no way we could get all of them out, so we will limit their time over there.  Yesterday we put about half of them over there, BlackJack, Big Gus, Bunny, Leroy, Jackson, Bella and Sasha.  We wanted to put Tula over there too, had to put her in a squeeze to get a halter on her and then she planted her feet and would not move.  In all the years she's been here, we've never tried to lead her.  She is almost feral, she would never hurt you, but she will evade any interaction with people if she can.  We told her it would be worth it, but she wasn't buying it.  

Casper also won't be able to go over there either.  Part of the pen is corral panels and part is barbed wire neither of which even slows him down as he camo crawls under to go on an adventure.  He's actually not left the property in a long time, but the draw of all the beans laying everywhere, would be too tempting I'm sure.  

Most of them, went in the pen, their heads went down and they started gleaning the area for beans.  Bunny searched for beans for awhile and then she figured out she had room to run and buck, so away she went.  She even got BlackJack to kick up his heels.  

They actually didn't cause much trouble after their hour was up and they got led back to their pens, which was amazing. 

This afternoon we took DJ to his new home.  He is such a good boy to work with, about 5 minutes before we were going to go out and load him, Suzanne came in said he's already loaded and ready to go.  No muss, no fuss. 

Out of the trailer ready for adventure

This is part of his new herd, the small black one is a mini mule named Jack.  Theresa got him and Jill from us years ago.  Jack acted like he remembered me, came up to be petted and stayed with me.  

Dixie is the pinto mini horse.  Theresa got her off Craigslist years ago, went to see her.  The people were horse traders and trying to sell her as a kid's pony.  She has a misaligned jaw and is also monkey mouthed, lower protruding jaw a not uncommon defect with minis.  Her legs are also not straight and she is small enough she shouldn't be carrying weight.  You know if kids got her they would have been piling on and probably running her.  As it is she is is the queen bee of the herd and is in charge of everyone big or little, whether they like it or not.........!!!  LOL  When DJ got there he was in a pen quite a ways from her and they were "chatting" back and forth.  Who knows maybe they will become an "item".....!!

I think this is Carter, one of the 2 donkeys checking DJ out.

 This is Jill the other mini mule saying hello. Don't you just love the rock "posts" they've built?  I guess they had a lot of rocks and figured out a beautiful way to use them.

 When we got home, it was about time to let the donkeys for today into Burro Land.  That would be Rosie, Gigi, Koshare, Ana and Kachina.  It went pretty good, except Koshare was afraid he wasn't going to get to go and became a pill.  From now on, he will get moved with 2 people and 2 lead ropes.  Even that probably wouldn't be enough, if he decided to take off with a full head of steam.  

Tomorrow will probably be Cisco, Macho Man and maybe BlackJack.  BlackJack was over there yesterday, but he's been penned with those two before and gets along with them. 

How about this Ellie.........??

 I'm pretty sure Linda took this video of the Colorado gang.  Nosy bunch aren't they? 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=595718104638295&extid=y2KDc3DKJBGlPV9S

NELL AND HER MOM ON AN OUTING WITH FRIENDS..........

Don't they look like they are having fun?  What a great life Nell is having after being in a pen for years waiting for something to happen.  Thank goodness the older couple decided they needed to rehome her and Benji and as they say the rest is history.  Benji might have a new home in Colorado also, which would be great....!! 

https://www.facebook.com/burrobuddies/videos/1252124835129399

 DJ the pony, will probably be going to his new home this Saturday.  He's gained weight, looks great and it's time for his new mom to add him to her herd.  It's a great home, years ago we had a pair of Shetland mini mules that Theresa adopted.  If anyone knows about Shetlands mixed with donkey, it can make for an interesting mule.  She's never complained, so I assume they settled in and gave up some of their proclivities for getting into mischief.  

  

TRAINING UPDATE

 It's been so hot lately, training is even further down the list than grooming.  Feeding, making sure everyone has fresh water and doctoring gets done, but everything else is pretty much on hold.  

I doctor Macho Man every day, but the other 3 have not been worked with or even out of their pens since they got here early in July.  Suzanne finally put a halter on Koshare' yesterday and took him out for a short tour around the driveway and one of the trails.  Even had him load in the trailer.  

She said he really did good, he spent most of the time, rubber necking, since he hadn't been out of the pen, everything was new to him and he tried to see it all.  

 

He was more settled this morning, and would have ran if she had let him, so he's probably going to enjoy racing when he gets the chance.  

This is Anazazi aka Ana, today was her first time out of the pen.  She is the fast eater in the group.  Once we figured that out, they all eat by themselves now, she is on a diet, and needs to lose a little weight.  She also has fly damage on her legs, her right front is almost bald on the other side.  

We've tried boots and different types of  "barriers", the flies love her.  These blue pieces of material, use to be 2 polo wraps before she destroyed them getting them off.  She doesn't seem to mind something on her hind legs, but those front legs are not going to be covered.  Shoo-Flies are the latest rage, very light weight, breathable almost perfect right?  WRONG.......yesterday I put them on all 4 legs.   

A few minutes later as I was driving around the driveway, I noticed one laying in the pen.  While I was gone, Suzanne and John went out and put it back on her.  She pulled it off and started shaking it in the air.  Then she took it over to Suzanne and dropped it on the ground after Suzanne asked her if she was going to bring it over to her.  

Put it back on her, she took it off and took it back over to Suzanne and basically handed it to her.  We've given up.....for now.  She really needs to have that leg covered, but obviously her cooperation level isn't very high...........Sigh...!!

Kachina their mom also went out, but she didn't enjoy the experience.  Suzanne said she is very timid and everything scared her.  She'll probably be better with more outings, but she obviously isn't a "natural" like the other two.  

They sure had a audience when they went out.  They had to walk right past Leroy and Jackson's pens.  Suzanne has even taken Casper out a couple of times, but Jackson and Leroy have been out numerous time with a couple that are coming out to volunteer and also learning about running with donkeys.  

All 3 of them seemed to think it should be their turn again, standing at the gate, whining as Suzanne and Koshare' or Ana headed down the driveway. 

Macho Man's swollen leg is much better, Dr. Jeremy came out and said I probably had gotten the pressure bandage too tight, which is really common if you haven't done it before.  Who knew I would have enough strength to make a bandage too tight.......!!!  LOL

It's got a long way to go, the edges seem to have wider good skin than it did when I started working with it.  This was this morning. 

 

STILL HOT............

 Probably going to be for the foreseeable future.  Heard from hopefully a reliable source that this is the 3rd hottest summer and the 2nd driest summer for this area since 1894.  I don't doubt it, it's really been a long summer.  

Heard from Colorado, they raced yesterday from Fairplay to Leadville about 24 miles.  Haven't heard how everyone did, except Sugar got a stone bruise and didn't get to finish the race.  Everyone else finished, just don't know where.  

I'm still doctoring Macho and Ana's, legs.  Macho's leg is swollen, so Dr Jeremy said to hose it and see if that helps.  He will try to come out tomorrow if it isn't any better.  

Ana is "much" happier with nothing on her front leg except Underwood Horse Medicine.  Throughout her last couple of days of destruction of anything I put on her front legs, she has had fly leggings on both hind legs, which I find funny.  She doesn't seem to mind them at all, I'm sure she could reach them if she wanted to, she seems to be a determined young lady.

This morning John noticed a momma roadrunner sitting on last year's nest in a small mesquite by BlackJack's pen.  Sure is a hot time of year to be sitting on eggs I would think, poor girl.  I guess we have a built in supply of food when they hatch judging from what John caught yesterday.  

Yesterday afternoon when Suzanne went out to get ready for feeding, when she moved DJ the pony's hay bunk, this little guy was under it.  She said she thought it was a squashed piece of poo at first..........LOL    She came in, got John and his snake catching supplies and the little guy got moved over on Burroland.  We have a no kill policy around here for everything, except roaches and flies.  Scorpions, snakes and all spiders get a pass, when we find them. 

There is a pile of limbs close to DJ's pen, we wonder if momma had her babies there.  As you can see he's not very big, they put an animal cracker with him to show how small he is.  Rattlesnakes give birth to about a dozen of the little guys and the mom pretty much sends them out in the world on their own after about a week.  Now we're all on alert for momma and the rest of the kids, so far we haven't seen any of them.  

One of the favorite snacks for a roadrunner is snakes, so I would imagine they will lower the population of baby rattlers pretty quick, when the baby roadrunners hatch out.   

Stacey in Colorado has been taking more pictures of Miss Nell, the former Jenny she adopted this summer.  

 

Here is Stacey, Miss Nell and a friend out enjoying the gorgeous scenery and weather they are having up there.  They make quite a team, couldn't ask for a better home for one of our donkeys. 

  Thanks for sharing such a wonderful picture, Stacey...!!  She looks very happy with her new life.

VIDEOS FROM COLORADO

Got some videos from Colorado to share

The first one is Turbo showing off his new skills.  Last year he didn't come back to Arizona, he stayed in Colorado for training with Eric Lynn, who owns  Mountain Ridge Gear.  They make top of the line outfitting equipment including pack saddles.  Here he is showing off what he learned. 

 https://www.facebook.com/burrobuddies/videos/332249497817516 

This is Cochise showing off at climbing steps.  He had a pretty rough start as a roping donkey.  But unlike a lot of the donkeys that have been roped, he doesn't hold a grudge and doesn't have a lot of mental baggage.  In fact he is curious, loves attention, and from the reports we've gotten, loves to run.  Seems to take climbing steps in stride too..!!

https://www.facebook.com/burrobuddies/videos/299728351142618  

 

Suzanne has been working with Leroy and Jackson the new minis.  They hadn't been worked with a lot in their former life.  In fact Leroy didn't seem to be very familiar with a lead rope.  

A couple that wants to try racing wants to come out once a week and work with the donkeys.  Let's see, 2 donkeys that need training and 2 people that want to race donkeys.  Hmmmm, sounds like plan........!!!  Suzanne has also been working with trailer loading. Today they both did really good, Jackson is an in and out type of guy, he thinks it's fun now.  Leroy is still a little hesitant, but he'll figure it out.  

 

 

 

Suzanne said Casper who's pen is next to Leroy and Jackson, went to his gate this morning whining when she was working with those two.  So she's going to go walk him for awhile.  I'll add a video if she has one later.  

 

Here is Cochise toddling down the steps.  This was the first time he went up or down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OH! BOY.........IT'S NOT GETTING ANY COOLER..!!

I haven't updated for awhile, nothing much to share I guess.  Not much news from Colorado, although they've had some practice and actually ran a couple of races.

This is a practice with our Coquette who was adopted last year and renamed Avery, she is the darker burro.  I'm not sure if the grey one is her new friend Brigs or Miss Nell, who went to Colorado as Jenny and got a wonderful forever home this summer.

https://www.facebook.com/burrobuddies/videos/921746491669878

This is a link to one of their practice outings.  I think the 1st donkey is Miss Nell aka use to be Jenny, Buddy Brat that doesn't like his feet wet, and little Arrow who just likes to have fun.

https://www.facebook.com/burrobuddies/videos/4451348908239046

Things around here are pretty low key.  It's too hot to be outside most of the day.  The donkeys just stand around waiting for something to happen. This morning Shannon and Cindy came out to groom again.  They are our most devoted groomers, when they come out they spend the morning and the donkeys really enjoy being brushed.  They use to come once a week, but since it's been so hot, they've cut back, which is understandable. 

John is still planning on raking up beans in the Burro Barracks, so the donkeys can get out a little and stretch their legs.  We keep thinking this heat wave will break, but so far that hasn't happened.  Everyone is putting on weight it looks like, especially the ones that are not "svelte" to begin with, which is most of them. 

This is what it looks like under almost every tree on the property, and there are a lot of trees.  The good news is most of the trees have dropped almost all their beans, so it's just a matter of figuring out the best way to take care of the problem.

DJ the palomino pony is really looking good.  A few more pounds on him and he'll be going to his forever home.  He's really a cute little guy, not easy to catch but once you have your hands on him you can do just about anything with him.  He sure likes his mush.  When we go out to feed, he anxiously watches everything going on and starts yelling at us if it takes too long. 

This is Koshare's new fly mask because he tore up the old one.  I don't think he's had it on a week.  When we got them, the people said they were destructive.  I think they are just bored, they haven't had a chance to get out on the property and entertain themselves, because of the beans. 

Some of the donkeys are continuing to eat the shelters, one of the 4x4 uprights looks like a sharpened pencil.  I guess we won't worry about it until the lockdown is over, hopefully there will be some shelters left.  I told John we could replace with metal siding, like we had to do with Rosie, the "ringleader" and wood eating trainer in her shelter.  But he doesn't like the sight of the metal.  He might change his mind by the  time they get thru redesigning their living quarters.  LOL

I raced last week-end, finished 3rd in the main event.  The guys finishing ahead of me have really nice cars and both have more horsepower, so unless I get lucky, which means they have bad luck, that's about where I'll finish. 

The Cobalt in front I've beaten, it's those other two that are a problem. LOL  Actually I've beaten the black 22 for 2nd place, it's that #11 behind all of us in this picture that none of us can beat.........!!!    He's won all 3 main events we've ran so far.  We're suppose to race again the 29th of Aug, who knows, maybe I'll get lucky....!!!  LOL