Bellis

Our donkey is here! She arrived at 11 AM, coinciding with the time the 7MSN blog became drastically more relevant to me.

March 31, 2009 was the day Baasha arrived here. March 31 is a good day: )

I asked my man to take pics of her arrival--this is me saying, "Not of me!"


I cannot say I'm delighted about it simply because I'm nervous about how this will work out. I don't know much about Bellis, I mean, I don't know her, so it's a really odd thing to have a large animal around that you don't understand. When she brayed when the hippies showed up to work in their garden, was it a warning or was it a greeting? I don't know. The body language isn't exactly like horses, and it's gonna take some time.

I have to laugh at the mishap of her arrival. I was trying to leave it up to her owner to decide how we'll introduce Bellis to Baasha. I offered to go get Baasha but she said, "Oh no, let's just put Bellis in her paddock." I knew Baasha would probably run off, but I had underestimated how terror stricken, how very far he would go, and with such alacrity. My husband was there to see it. Bellis entered the paddock. Bellis caught sight of Baasha. Bellis BRAYED an ear-splitting, horrifying sound. I was like, "Oh dear," cringing. Baasha pivoted and ran down the hang faster than either of us have ever seen, down the dangerous steps/stumps/dropoffs, I thought he'd at least break one leg. That hill is tough to descend at a walk. He was a big white blur that disappeared.

I said, "Oh, I guess I forgot to shut that gate down there, so he's off to the 7 hills. I'll go get him. This could take a while."

When I found him he was snorting, halfway across the pasture. He looked at me and started nickering urgently. I gave him a treat and haltered him and we walked back. As we came closer he was prancing, dancing up that hill, but not pulling on me. He was breathtaking: ) When I got about 30 meters away I stopped so Baasha could take some time looking at her.

Bellis stood as still as a statue, head down politely on her lead rope. I don't even think she was looking at Baasha, but probably she did when he started trumpeting his warning snorts. The owner, her two kids, and her brother got to see quite a sight today; nothing is prettier than an upset Arabian horse. He was trembling and even the lady could see that. My man kept talking to Baasha and I did too.

Finally I led Baasha up and we spent some time standing on the other side of the paddock fence. When he was calm enough, I let him go and he quickly walked about 5 meters away and then stood there, much better.

After they gave us the paperwork (I finally have an EquinePass!) and I paid, they left.(BTW, the sale contract says she's 7 years old, because she'll turn 7 later this year.)

I spent some time with Bellis and she stood right next to me, as close as you can get without touching. She's a very gentle animal, she lips me but doesn't nip, and she emanates peace because she's so still.

Baasha is curious now but not comfortable yet, that will take a few days.

I don't like the braying - it only happened two other times. Once when the hippies showed up, and once when she heard me at the frontdoor. I guess her hearing is very good. She was trying to get me to come back out of the house, and she can see us in here through the windows.

Although it's a really awful noise, I don't think it's as bad as the crows we have here, and it's not much louder than the neighbor's rooster, come to think of it. I don't want to annoy neighbors, who have already told us they're leery of us getting a donkey, but this is part of country living, I hope they realize.

I started to get worried that she'll push Baasha around (God forbid) due to some interactions between them over the stall wall, but then as if God wanted to reassure me, when I fed Baasha his evening beet pulp, he did something I've never seen him do. He viciously snaked his head back and forth, glaring at her over the wall as he ate. I've never seen such an ugly face on my horse, and I was so proud of him! You know that gesture stalled horses do when they eat, simply because other horses are visible through the stall bars? Baasha, please learn to defend food.

I gave Bellis a cut down little cherry tree to amuse her in the tiny paddock, sadly she has to be confined to a small space for a few days. She immediately started eating the bark. She's also disassembling our woodpile, but that's fine, she can do that.
Update: Redunappy pointed out that cherry trees are poisonous, so I'll be switching it with a birch today. When they say "Give your horse fruit trees to chew on" I guess they don't mean cherry. Luckily she didn't eat much of it.

She needs to learn that we go in and out of our house a lot and it doesn't always mean food or attention for her. She'll learn that. By this afternoon she was already simply doing that quiet greeting noise to me when I appeared. She watched me intently as I planted some strawberries and flowers. 

Just a few minutes ago I snuck out to check on them and found her lying down in her stall, so I snuck away before any braying ensued.