I know that plenty of people keep their horses/donkeys separated from their dogs... They don't allow the dogs in the pasture or around the horses in any way. I really do understand that this is a safety first mentality. I respect it. I completely understand. I don't assume my dogs are OK around other peoples horses. I always ask...
Frankly though, "my people" are those that embrace dogs AND horses together.
At my house, everyone is expected to get along and behave!
Most days everyone complies, but then there are days...
Some days it's a horse. Some days it's a dog. And then some days it's a donkey.
The dogs are easily reprimanded. When it's a horse, it's usually Fiona harassing Kage. Fiona loves to sniff him when he is in the passenger side of the Danger... Kage HATES Fiona sniffing him. So I just have to redirect Fiona to something more interesting...easy enough most days.
But when it's a donkey... Good Gravy! It's on!
The boys have been around Abbi and Kage as long as they (the Hee-Haws) have been with me. They have known Seven her entire life. They actually seem kind of found of Seven. They will play with/around her, without trying to stomp her flat. Kage and Abbi are a different story. They will gladly try and stomp either of them...periodically...and it's usually not too vicious...it's almost like they are reminding the dogs of their boundary's.
And when we have these Hee-Haw out bursts, it's usually Parton acting out. He seems to be the dominate Hee-Haw...also the crabbier of the two all the way around.
So on Sunday afternoon, I'm wrapping up feeding and I see Patron start to stalk Kage...Who happens to be eating horse poop. Must have been a crime to eat horse poop on the third Sunday of July...
I called the dog over to me. I had the Danger between me and the dog and Hee-Haws. As Kage rounded the front of the Danger Patron was striking head down in full on attack mode.
Kage turned and answered Patron's charge open mouthed. I was about 3 feet away from the two, and I yelled at Kage to stop...he had little choice but to stop as the Hee-Haw had him down and rolling and was actually under Patron at that time. Kage went limp. The Hee-Haw continued to pass over the dog and turn. I stepped in between the two just as the Hee-Haw decided to charge the dog again (who was still on the ground waiting to be told he could leave...). I yelled a few cuss words at Patron and then smacked the little ass on the head as hard as I could with my hand. He slammed on his breaks and stared at me. I loaded the dog in the Danger and made sure he was fine. He was, so then I went to check the Hee-Haw.
Apparently Patron was still a bit miffed that I had stopped his fun and wanted nothing to do with me. I had to chase him down and wrestle him into submission to check him over. He did have a slobber spot on his mid neck, but other than having his dander up, he was fine. I gave him a stern talking to and then decided to catch up him and Jack-Jack.
The boys are starting to look rather fat. Patron being the fattest of all. I hate to keep everyone separated, but my donkey's are teetering on unhealthy I think. )0:
So I am now going to follow Ride A Good Horse's lead and putting the boys in a Jenny Craig pen. Of course this is a Jenny Craig For Men pen, but a diet is in order none the less.
Just in case you think I'm exaggerating the Hee-Haws weight issue...check out the picture below. This is Patron's butt. Those are FAT ripples, not roughed up hair... Ugh, I may have let it almost go too far...
Too bad I can't pony them off of a horse without taking a whole day of training and frustration... And I'm not sure that it would work IF I took the time... Maybe a tread mill! LOL!!
6 comments:
Donkeys and dogs... enemies! Cattle ranchers will keep donkeys to drive coyotes away. Glad your dog didn't get hurt from those sharp li'l hooves.
My dogs are with the horses a lot- Reba would live with them if I'd let her, silly girl. Mostly the horses tolerate them, but every once in a while they'll go head down after them.
In the REAL world, dogs and donkeys are enemies...in MY world, they have to be nice to each other! They are brothers and sisters. (0:
(I love that the donkeys attach everything that sets foot in the pasture...cats, dogs, crows, and what not.)
We don't try to keep our dogs and horses seperated either. Rarely will we have an issue when a dog wants to harass one of the horses. Only time I've seen one of our horses start something was Casper actually picking up a cat by the tail with his mouth and throwing the cat about 15 feet to the right. Figured the cat would have a broken back, cuz that is where Casper clamped on to him at, but nope the cat was fine. No idea what prompted such a thing, was out of the blue.
Good luck with the donkey diet. My previous experience with dieting the minis was not the best.. They got onery as hell.
for clarification, it was the base of the back tail where the cat got picked up.
Jazzy will stomp anything that comes into her pen, dog, cat, duck, chicken. And she will stomp until the crunching stops. Mean, nasty little critter killing mare.
Kellie, I can totally see that poor cat flying through the air! (0:
Karen, Holy smokes!
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