Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Honky the Donkey, pt. 2

Honky settled in well. She was quarantined in the small pasture away from the boys for almost a week. She is eating and drinking just fine, and her poops are normal. I gave her a dose of Safe Guard Saturday morning and took her for a walk down the road and around the farm. She leads well enough, but stopping and staying stopped is a work in progress. She's an explorer, for sure. Traffic doesn't bother her one bit, and I sure got the looks from drivers as I walked my ass down the road at six in the morning. We have two plywood cutouts of deer in the back yard that she wasn't too sure of, but we took our time and she realized they weren't going to eat her.
Saturday afternoon was set aside for a good ass-washing. Sara tackled this with some help from a friend and her daughter. Honky didn't seem to enjoy herself, but she didn't put up too much of a fuss. They got all the matted mud and dust and who-knows-what off of her and she's soft and fluffy now.

We introduced the new girl to the boys on Sunday. Sara led her around the little pasture while the boys were locked in the big pasture. She minds electric fences well, so I'm not too concerned about her trying to be an escape artist. Wyatt was acting like a goof; running the fence line and doing laps in his pasture (nice lead changes). Hank was mildly curious, and Jin was uninterested after just coming home from his big show. We let the horses meet Honky one at a time, with Wyatt coming over first. He just wanted to play with her, but she wanted none of that. I have NO fear that she can hold her own with the nastiest of horses. She's got a flying double-barelled kick that almost breaks the sound barrier. It amazed me that Wyatt didn't take one in the kisser. We had to boogie from the pasture because she kept trying to hide behind us, and when Wyatt would come over she'd let off another two shots at him. Much too close to me for comfort. They settled down after a few minutes and munched on their hay piles, but Honky Girl never left an eye or ear off of him.

Then Hank was led in and Wyatt was led out. Hank just stood at the gate alternating looks at that THING, us, and the green pasture he just left. After a few minutes of that show of patheticism, Sara went out in the pasture and led him from the gate. He kept his distance from Honky, but quickly saw she was eating HIS hay, so he sauntered over. She fired off another round of both barrels in the air just below his chin, and he had to show off his acrobatics as well. Hank's a big boy, but he's got some moves. Heels straight up, mud flying, twisting, farting. But it was all for show. Honky was unimpressed and went back to eating his hay.

After Hank came Jin. We had to wake him up first. He sleepwalked over to the fuzzy new thing, dodged her flying heels, and proceeded to eat Hank's hay. Honky Girl ran around him a few times which must have pulled him from his slumber. Would you believe that boy has some really good cow skills? He herded her right into a corner in no time, then relented after she fired off a round at his head again.
Yesterday we decided Hank and Honky could be pasturemates. At first he had to show off his arobatics, but after a while he settled down and stood by the fence watching me mow lawn. As I made each pass, I noticed Honky was creeping her way closer to Hank. In no time she was standing right at his side like best buds. Looks like she found a friend.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

very cute