Settling In

 Tropical Storm Sally is moving away from us, so our skies are overcast, but not rainy.  We'll see if the weather holds.   I took advantage of the drier weather to do a good training session with Jeremiah this morning.  

The last few days, I have done short sessions with Jeremiah because he was still getting used to the move into the barn.  Yesterday, he rolled and napped in the shavings inside his stall.  He is also going in and out freely to eat his hay and get out of the rain.  

Whenever you train, you need a goal.  Sometimes, especially for us novice trainers, those goals change as the session goes on.  With more rainy days in the future, I wanted him to be comfortable with the inside of the barn (which is very different from anything a wild burro has seen), so my rough outline of goals were to walk him through the door from his stall to the barn, work with his feet a little, and attempt to fly spray his legs (he has little rough areas where the flies are getting him).  

JJ was amazing!  We walked back and forth next to the other stalls and he stopped to look at several things inside the barn.  He picked up both front feet for me (I did not hold onto them, yet), and he let me fly spray his legs (prime fly feeding zone on donkeys).  He likes being touched on his shoulders and neck the most, but he also let me hug him.  He was nervous about many of the new experiences, especially the fly spray, but he trusted me.  As a reward, I took him out for a little hand grazing and shared a carrot with him.  

To appropriately reflect the burros roots as the companions of prospectors, their formal names are Jeremiah Jack (JJ) and Martin McBray (Marty).  They sound like a couple of old prospectors themselves!

Marty's training is going a bit faster already.  Our son already pet him on both shoulders this morning.

Second Burro

 When we signed up to do this TIP Challenge, we originally wanted two burros, but only one was available.  However, one burro was returned and since we were still interested in getting a companion for Jeremiah (burros do better in pairs) I picked him up this morning.  We are calling him Marty, but that might change as we get to know him better.  He is reported to be very food motivated ('a piglet' is actually how we was described) and pretty easy going.  He is 11 years old and from Yuma, Arizona.  His color is called 'burro pink' by the BLM.  He also has a star on his forehead.  

It's hard to believe this guy was passed over for adoption too many times.  He was directly sold as a sale authority burro, which means he could be resold.  However, our plan is to keep both burros.  

Since I'm busy with JJ, our son will start training Marty, with supervision.   

He was moved into JJ's old training pen while JJ watched with interest from the barn.  Once he is halter trained, they can be together.  I love the contrast between the two burros.  JJ is 12 hands and Marty is 13 hands, so both are good sized burros.

Poor JJ had no training session this morning because I had to go pick up Marty.  I hope he isn't jealous.  I'll work with him after chores tonight.

Jeremiah's New Home

 We made it to the paddock this morning!  He has access to a stall now and a paddock with a rock base, which should help his hooves toughen back up.  He did well walking over.  We took our time and I let him graze a little.  Tropical Storm Sally has some outer bands dumping a lot of rain on us, so I'm glad he has a dry place to get in, when he's ready.  I placed some hay inside the stall and some at the entrance.  What a good boy!

The Outside World

 We missed our morning session because the rain came down in heavy spurts.  As I looked out the window at poor, soaking JJ, I planned a way to move him from his pen into the barn so he could have better shelter.  The tree in his current paddock provides great shade, but it can't stop these soaking rains.

The solution was to get him ready to lead outside the pen.  His pen is next to the horse paddocks, which are adjacent to the barn.  It's actually set up in a small pasture that has a gate leading into the paddocks.  JJ's future home is easily accessible, but it does require him to walk through the small pasture on the lead. 

He allowed me to halter him easily again and I started with leading him a few steps at a time around his paddock.  Then. my son opened the gate and, after several minutes, JJ mustered up the courage to step outside.  We slowly made our way along the outside of his pen.  I gave him an occasional carrot treat.  He is beginning to show more personality as he wiggled his lips towards me hoping for more carrots.  At some point, he will probably nip and I will probably scare him a little to make sure he knows he can't do that.  It's perfectly normal behavior in a herd of burros, but human skin is more fragile.  

He also reached down for a few swipes at the tall grass as we walked.  I didn't discourage it, nor encourage it, but quietly urged him on.  About halfway to our destination, the sky poured down again.  He looked at me a little apprehensively the further we moved from his sanctuary.  I sensed that he had enough for the day, so we gradually worked our way back towards his pen.  I was really hoping to move him tonight, but it's more important to move at the appropriate pace.

We made some great progress, but JJ also demonstrated his intelligence.  A few days ago, I led both my horse and the pony individually into the same area to show JJ.  I let both graze a bit before taking them back to their stalls.  My motive was to let JJ see halters and lead ropes on others before I asked to put one on him.  Donkeys can learn by example.  One of the first things JJ tried to do when we moved outside of his pen was to graze.  Hand grazing is very useful for equines to know, so we will take a little side trip and learn this while getting him more comfortable with leading and moving him towards his new home in the barn.  I teach the horses a visual cue to tell them when it's okay to graze and I say "heads up", when we're done.  It's important to control the start and stop to keep your horse focused.  We'll start on that tomorrow.

My birthday is coming up.  My present is a burro sized, neoprene, pack saddle.  It's actually a burro racing saddle for competitions out West (indigenous sport in the Colorado mountains).  We won't be heading out there to race, but they make lightweight, comfy pack saddles specifically for donkeys.  It will come in handy for taking JJ on our family hikes and camping trips.  

Breakthrough

Yesterday evening went much better.  He took several more steps and seemed more at ease with the lead rope.  I removed his halter quietly and petted him for awhile to encourage him to stick around after the halter came off.  It was a good end to the day.  

When I went out to work with JJ this morning, I started by setting up the wedge and preparing to move him in to halter him.  He balked at it and gave me a quiet, appraising look.  So, I draped the loops of lead rope over his neck (no reaction) and haltered him easily.  What a good boy!  He got a chunk of carrot for his efforts.  I also petted him for awhile as a reward. We did a few steps on the lead and then he let me rub his forehead several times.  Things were going so well that I ended the session early.  His halter remained on for the evening session, but he can go back to relaxing and finishing his breakfast now.  

He has a much quieter look in his eyes than he did before.  He is interacting more, rather than simply tolerating me.   When I attempted to move him into the wedge, his look seemed to say 'trust me', so I did.  I think he's teaching me as much as I'm teaching him.  

Leading

My goal yesterday was to halter JJ.  That proved to be a little more difficult than I thought it would be.  While he let me touch him with the halter, I could see that putting it on was going to be challenge for the afternoon session.  Instead of potentially frightening him into moving away, which could set that up as a pattern, I decided to use corral panels to move him into a small space where I could train him without allowing him to avoid me.  By positioning two panels in the corner of his paddock, so that they formed a wedge, he could neither turn around or kick me, but he could move his head and body away to let me know if I was pushing him too hard.  It also allowed me to work with him through the panel, which was safer for me, should he react suddenly.  Once he was in there, I didn't rush the process.  I continued to take my time and reassure him.  After about ten minutes, he allowed me to halter him without trying to move his head away.  Once he was out of the wedge, I scratched him a bit and left him alone to get used to the halter.  

This morning, I showed him the lead rope carefully and then clipped it on with little trouble and we started the rudimentaries of leading.  At first, he was unsure of the long skinny thing that was attached to him, so I dropped the lead rope and let him drag it for a few moments, to get used to the sight of it.  Soon enough, he stopped and I picked it up and showed it to him, again.  Once he relaxed, I began to pull gently on the lead to look for a movement of his head towards my direction.  Once he responded to that pressure, I asked for a step.  He moved out at the trot on his own few times and I kept the rope slack at this point.  All I was looking for was him to give into pressure.  The pressure I used was the same type I do with calves; steady until I get a response, and then slacking up as a reward.  After some good responses, I unclipped the lead rope and fed him a carrot.  After this afternoon's leading lesson, I'll remove his halter for the night.  I'll use the wedge as long as it's needed to halter him.  

I'm very happy with his progress so far.  I have heard about others making quicker progress with bolder burros, but JJ has a different personality.  He is not bold, nor particularly brave, but he thinks about things a lot and has never shown any aggression towards me.  While some burros have been braying to ask for their breakfast already, JJ is silent.  He is also so careful about taking treats that I don't have to worry much about him becoming pushy.  He has a quiet personality.  It may take longer to gain his trust, but it will be worth it.  I also think his personality would do best with another burro.  We have already considered doing that, either the next time a BLM auction comes to our area, or through another TIP Challenge.  Burros are social animals and they need the companionship of another burro.  We did try to adopt two, but they were in high demand.  

Picking up the Pace

We did two sessions already this morning and I gave him a lot to think about.  He'll have a long rest before we do another this afternoon.    

I moved him around in both directions using a small piece of rope.  I rubbed it over his shoulders before we started and showed it to him again after to ensure he was not afraid of it.  We worked on the commands "walk" and "whoa".  He is still awkward moving to the right compared to the left.  Consequently, I spent more time with him going to the right.  He did shut down at one point, which I patiently worked through by asking the same thing in the same way until he responded, then moved onto something else quickly.  The shut down was probably due his basic donkey sense wondering why we were doing the same thing, yet again.  Burros and donkeys are like gifted students; they always want to know why.   

I also spent a lot of time petting him, showing him the halter, and touching him with it.  He did very well.  Over the weekend, I removed the nylon halter that was put on him in the chute during pick up, because this week was predicted to be quite rainy and it would likely rub him raw when it became wet and heavy.  It was a poor fit anyway, so I used a different halter to show him today.  He tolerated it very well, going so far as to let the noseband touch his nose.  I hope to be able to put the halter on and off by the end of the week. 

Donkeys and ponies can learn by example, according to research, and many of us that have been around them for awhile can attest to that (I think ponies tend to study bad habits a bit more..hehehe).  With that in mind, I have been tying the horses and pony where JJ can see them when I do grooming sessions.  Today, I walked both my Mustang and our Shetland Pony out to the grass next to JJ's paddock to see if he was curious about them, yet.  He still showed some fear, so we stayed back.  He was more comfortable with the pony, probably because she's smaller than him.  

I've increased both the length and number of training sessions because I need to get to where I can lead him and move into the paddock/stall combination in the barn relatively soon.  With all of the rain, he is danger of developing thrush and/or rain rot if I don't move him to the next level.  I also need to consider the fact that we're in prime hurricane season and he will need shelter if one approaches.  You can't rush donkey time, but by increasing the sessions, I hope to arrive at the same place a bit sooner.