Well, our newest adventure started on June 9th.  We picked up two female burros from a rescue in New River.  Allow me to introduce Cagney and Lacey.  Cagney is approximately 11 years old and Lacey is approximately nine years old. 

 

These girls had the beginnings of TIP training (you can read more about that here, if interested: https://mustangheritagefoundation.org/tip/), but since we got them home and unloaded them, they have been very skittish.  They don't trust us and are very nervous girls.  

 

We've had them for two weeks.  I have been able to make some progress with Lacey.  She'll pretty consistently take carrots or apples from me.  I have been able to pet her a little bit, but each time I go out with her, it's like starting over.  Nothing is sticking as far as me being able to approach and pet her upon initial contact.  

 

I can barely get within three feet of Cagney.  She is very jumpy and they work in a pack.  When one runs away, the other does too.  They're very bonded.  As far as I know, they have been together since April, but I guess there is a possibility they knew each other on Black Mountain.  That's where they were captured.  

I am going to talk to the trainers this week, but our plan is to split the corral in half and try and separate them some of the time.  I think if I can work with them individually, I will make more progress.  I also want to be able to monitor how much they are each eating and I can't do that now.  The first few days they were here, they went to town chewing on the wood inside the barn.  We ordered sheet metal from our barn builder and it should be delivered this week.  We'll fortify two of the stalls and replace the wood around each door.  We'll also add flashing to those pieces.  We've done this temporarily in stall two, but we'll replace it with the matching metal. On the advice of some other donkey owners, we also introduced slow feed bags.  These bags make eating a little more challenging, so it takes them longer to eat.  So far the combination of these things seems to have stopped the wood chewing.  We've basically covered most of it up and given them something else to chew.  

They're still wearing their halters and I'd like to get those off.  I may need a fly mask on Lacey soon and that's going to be another challenge.  I think, with some time and work, I can get her halter off maybe within the next week.  I was out of town last Mon-Thu, so we regressed some in our bonding.  Getting the fly mask on is another hurdle, but I am up for the challenge.  I just want to make contact with Cagney.  Maybe that's the main goal with her for this week!

This week's donkey goals:

Lacey - get her halter off

Cagney - make contact with her with the whip (it's just to use as an extension of my arm/hand)