What's Up at WRLG
FARM BLOG
FROM THE FARMERS POINT OF VIEW
On Tuesday January 28th, sparkle was going to have her feet trimmed for the 3rd time with her new farrier. She went into the lambing area when the farrier arrived and I figured things would go as usual. Miss donkey would pretend to try to escape from me and finally she would stand still and let me get a hold of her halter.
Well....that isn't what happened... She kept going around the lambing area, kicking up her heels and generally being a rude donkey. I finally put up some lambing fences to keep her in a more limited area of the barn to catch her. I had thought I finally got her when she did stand still....but suddenly I was on the floor and Sparkle had stepped on my right calf. Now you need to understand , Sparkle has been a guard donkey all her life and had lambs,kids and sheep around her legs and feet. She never has stepped on any of them intentionally. So when she stepped on me, she panicked and got stuck between one of the barn post and a wall. I was up and grabbed her halter as she couldn't fit through this space and I would have to back her out. The farrier grabbed a lead line clipped it on and held on, while I went around sparkle to get the lead line under her chin and through the other side of her halter. Once that was done I got her over to where she stands to have her hooves trimmed. Once she settled it didn't take that long to trim her hooves and when I released her from the lead lines, she just put her head down to eat hay and acted like nothing had happened. The farrier had said to me, while we were trying to catch her"maybe she isn't seeing very well?". I think she is right as two nights ago she got spooked and ended up in the last two barns which are unlit and wasn't willing to come into the tractor bay and lambing area which is well lit. I brought in some temporary lighting and gave her hay and water, but was ready to call the vet if she wasn't willing to come back into the other part of the barn. Luckily ,when I came down to check on the mom's and lambs that evening she was eating hay in the lambing area with her flock. So I will keep an eye on her....she is 25 years old...so she isn't a teenager anymore. GETTING OLDER IS NOT FOR SISSIES, EVEN IF YOU ARE A DONKEY! I have to say it is a good thing that when she did step on me I wear tights, lined work overalls and mid calf Muck boots. It helped to mitigate the bruising, plus she doesn't wear horseshoes. The picture is 4 days out from the initial injury!
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