donkey day

Went out and visited the donks at lunch ( turned into an extended lunch! LOL)
got some good scratchings in with Martha, Daisy wanted nothing to do with me at first. Then my work friend was talking to steve over the fence, and both donks came up & were interested. They both got scratched/loved on. I had my carrot stick with me today so Martha gets used to seeing it.

then steve grabbed the stick at one point and was playing with it, twirling it around while he was talking. So this was good exposure for Martha. Then i jumped on the trampoline, Daisy came over to investigate, and actually stood right at the edge of the trampoline while i was jumping. Martha came up but not as close. Then I sat on the edge and played a bunch with Daisy. I'm talking about a lot! lol playing with her lips, scratching her face, holding her head. She was just getting loved on!

I grabbed the tarp and showed the people across the fence how daisy was really tolerant of the tarp. put it on her head, made a hood, put it over her head. she just stood there. put it over her back and left it there. then she started walking around - the whole time Martha was watching probably thinking 'OMG the blue thing ate Daisy!'

Daisy started walking back to the shelter, but Martha was in front of her, Daisy still had the tarp on. It was so funny to see my calm donk desensitizing my scaredy cat donk! Daisy ended up in the pen and Martha in the alley way. Steve still had the stick. so while i was loving on Daisy Steve was letting Martha smell the stick, and he was actually able to touch her on her face, neck, back, rump and thigh with it. he got down almost to the back hock and then she walked off. But i thought it was fantastic that she had someone else showing her the stick & touching her with it. I put the tarp back on Daisy and she walked to the pasture with Martha close behind.

I just kept working that tarp! lol i was holding it open while it was still on Daisy, rubbing it around. flapping it around. ITs good for the both of them. Next time I'm definitely bringing my camera out. I liked how Steve was going about things with Martha - he's not an equine person and hasn't had much experience with them. but he'd show it to her, let her sniff it. then he'd touch her a bit, then he'd let her sniff it again. It was neat, he was very gentle & patient with her.

there have been a couple days where I've worried about Daisy a bit, cuz she's seemed very put off lately, when she's usually very lovey. Today she was a love bug so that made me feel better.