today's progress 7.1.09

Not much going on today, Daisy got to graze on our now dry pasture. I mowed the other day so there is even less for her to eat. For an overweight donkey, that's a good thing. She enjoyed her time out. I can tell when she's feeling pent up, she'll bray even more to let me know 'hey I wanna go walk around'. I was out trimming tree branches, so she had some tasty leaves/branches to munch on.

got her tied, cleaned her hooves with NO problem ( its still amazing to me!!), each foot got a good dousing of Hoofmaker. Then the brushing, I started on her right side & she was pretty darn good. No moving around, no pawing, no nipping attempts. I got quite a bit of hair off of her, right now it's really coming out. I almost have to clean the brush with each stroke!

Then there's the left side. For some reason she isn't too keen on getting this side brushed. Right away she starts pawing & trying to nip me. I think something bad happened to her on this side. I just kept at it, telling her good things. Even letting her take some of her nipping frustrations out on the shedding comb ( its one of those circle type with the fixed wooden handle). I guess what I'm saying is that I didn't get mad. I don't know why she has issues on that side, but I just keep going nice & soft & reassure her that nothing bad is going to happen.

Its just ironic - I thought to get to the feet I'd have to get through the brushing. With her that isn't true. I can touch her on her left side, but for some reason she just does not care to be brushed on that side & has no problem letting me know.

I think through our grooming we might find out why she does that, maybe there's some emotional baggage from her previous home, or maybe she has an injury or somthing that I haven't found yet. I'm thinking its the first one. Even my trimmer noticed that she's pretty head shy - so she's been slapped around in the past. I try to keep my physical dicipline to an absoulute minimum. Most times she's smart enough to get the message by a look & vocal tones. Donkey's are alot more intune to your body language & voice than you would think.

I totally believe in cleaning hooves before & after each outing/session. If I didn't clean her hooves after her walk the other day, she probably would still have that little white rock lodged in her frog today. clean the hooves!!