Jeremiah showed some faith in me today. Again, I tied him in the aisle and did some brushing. I worked on moving back and forth behind him and reaching for his front hooves. He moved away when I bent over facing away from him, (in the proper position to pick up his hoof). I realized that this view was different for him, so we stopped there and I practiced bending over next to him (on both sides) to help him adjust to seeing a human like that. We've noticed that both burros are worried about humans crouching, or bending. While a dog is less intimidated when you squat down, burros have the opposite reaction. It's intuitive with a little thought: Predators crouch before attacking. After touching my toes on each side several times, JJ relaxed. I ran my hand down his back legs as well. I also found little bites on his chest that I scratched while he wiggled his lips slightly. He tolerated the fly spray tonight, which will help with those bites.
The things we take for granted with horses become so clear when working with a wild burro. Going through a gate and turning around to shut it, for example. Many horses see this as foals and accept it as a normal occurrence in their world. To a wild burro, this is strange and scary. He needs to time to study the opening of a path and the closing of that path behind him. I'm slowly introducing Jeremiah to an entirely new world.
Marty also had a good day. We fitted him with a better halter using the panel chute I described before. Again, we were patient and made sure he accepted each step, rather than using force. I clipped the lead rope and opened up the panel to let him get used to dragging the rope. He did not react as JJ did, but took a few steps and then stopped. I worked with him using gentle pressure and asking for the smallest turn of his head to begin with. We progressed to some leading fairly quickly. He is calmer and quicker to accept things than JJ. We decided that he will be the star Nativity burro this December for our son's school. As such, his halter is Advent purple.
Both burros are really making strides now. Though different in personality, we enjoy them both.
Jeremiah
Martin
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