Last week with Bellis/Baasha

22nd April was Baasha's 27th birthday. He got a big fancy mash. The photo shows the apple and carrot slices floating on a beet pulp/oil/yeasaac/salt mash with some pellets thrown on.

There is what can only be described as bickering going on between Baasha and Bellis.

Baasha has come to terms with having a donkey here. His stress is limited to moments when I do something with Bellis, or if I’m doing something with him and Bellis takes a step away.

By the way, here is what Bellis has done to my precious oak trees - I've since fenced them off.


Bellis is still uncertain because we have not developed a set daily routine. I am switching things up as a test for her. For example when I shut them back into the grazing strips, will she break out, the memory of the big pasture grass being too fresh? Also, if I do not separate them at night but just leave them out, will she bray for me?



The only thing that I want to establish is that when I get home from work, they come back to the shelter and let me mess with them or even separate them either for the night or a few hours.

Yesterday as soon as I got home from work I grabbed the manure fork and went out to the big pasture, the long way around (I never use the quick, street-side way by the house because I do not want Bellis to expect that she can use that route. Rather, she must take the long way – she must go down in order to come up.

That reminds me of a theory I came up with. The reason Baasha had no trouble with taking an indirect, circuitous route from the pasture back to the barn could be due to the fact he was a trail horse. Trail horses understand that they usually go out in loops. Getting home means going out, and then coming back. To get back to the trailer, he’d go up the mountain, then down the mountain. Ridecamp was always at the center of many Out and In loops.



Bellis has limited out-and-back experience, I think. So she stands in the pasture nearest our house and stares at it and wonders how she will get back to it. (To help her I sometimes simply lock them on a grazing strip, which gets them away from our house and she can remember, “Oh yes, go down to go up.”)

Yesterday Baasha saw me coming up the hill and went back to grazing. A few minutes later Bellis saw me and said, “LYTHA!!!” and came over to me. How nice! I always reward her for coming to me. (The last of the previous photos were taken of our third, new grazing strip.)



As I wandered around cleaning poop Bellis followed me a bit, and if Baasha ventured near she’d push him away. Baasha is getting tired of being told to move away so he’s starting to do a lot of ears back head tossing at her. One time I even saw Bellis try to push Baasha aside, and he flung his head around, glaring, and refused to move. She promptly walked around him. I was pretty amazed – once Baasha realizes he doesn’t always have to move out of her way, she’ll naturally just walk around him I hope. But for now he’s pushing back. A few more times I saw her supplant him and he obliged, but he’s definitely grouchy about it.



Since he’s starting to show attitude and not be bullied as much, Bellis has to amplify her behaviors. If he says, “No” to her, she shakes her head, pins her ears, does a little jump in the air, and squeals at him. (So far no kicking nor biting.) To exert herself that much means she’s getting desperate to maintain control over him.



I realize these behaviors are probably caused by my presence. I will have to try to watch them at pasture without them knowing (that’s hard, our house isn’t right next to the pasture). Bellis wants to be near me and although Baasha is OK with that, he does tend to move in close as well, which incites her snarkiness.



I’m fascinated by their interactions and am learning a lot.



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NHR:



In the traffic report today there was another autobahn closure and evacuation of the city of Duisburg including the main train station due to another bomb disarming.

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I wrote the above a week ago (sorry!) and have more to report. We have since built a third grazing strip, the one in the previous photos.

Also --if you belong to Paradigm Farms please do not read further because it's humiliating. You guys know all this already and are probably snickering at me.  Right?

OK so for anyone not Paradigm-owning, the rest of this post. Now my equines are equals, so it seems. To prove it tonight I gave them a garden sack full of hay to see what would happen. There is only room for one, maybe two equine heads in that sack at a time. And they shared. Wow. Baasha did more posturing, well, the only posturing, really. The fact that they can eat out of the same sack simultaneously is wonderful though.

And due to this photo that my man emailed me, I see they are sharing the same *half* of the shelter. I leave only one half open because Baasha has a blanket against this rain/hail we've been having, and I assumed Bellis would go into her half of the shelter and claim it. Well, apparently they share the 10X10foot half. That is so awesome. It means what I'd hoped. I can buy another horse, hehehehe.

Of course in Winter this is not enough space for three to lie down so we'll see.

For now the two of them lie side by side on the pasture. I am so happy about this. I go to work 10 hours per day and have complete peace of mind, I mean, I don't have to feel guilty about my horse being lonely anymore, and he certainly is not being tormented by her.

Well, he was, but then he found his spine, as Aarene put it, and said to her, "No, just you walk around me then!"instead of jumping to her bidding.

I can hardly believe it that Baasha can actually assert himself. Certainly he is spending a lot of time with his ears back, establishing his rank, but amazingly the big donkey is respecting that.

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I come home from work every night between 6 and 7 and change clothes and then go out there as soon as possible. I just hang out with them, grooming, or teaching Bellis targeting with the clicker. She's slow, but she's getting it. Especially when I hold the target over toward Baasha, and he whips his head around to touch it.

I'm working on the targeting first, before I try to teach her Parelli's porcupine game, which I think is so important. And I honestly need this animal to get the heck out of my way sometimes!

I finally got photos Bellis enjoying her ear rubs.

For now Bellis is just so adorable - she lays her head in my arms. She inevitably takes a step into me, which I correct as best I can by poking the heck out of her, and then offering her my arms again to lay her head there again. She likes me to rub her eyelids, the underside of her head, and the ears, which I really need gloves for.

Braying - This morning I was late to work because she brayed our eardrums out (and the entire neighborhood) at 8 AM when I stepped out of my door. I went directly back inside the house and tried to kill time. I will not respond to braying. This took a few reiterations, until finally I just got in my car and drove to work trying to not make eye contact with her.

AFTER work is cuddly/feed/grooming time. Before work is NOT!

I purposefully make sure there is no need to open gates in the morning, so there is nothing Bellis has to ask for.

Eventually she'll get it, the rules here. They're easy and there's lots of yummy snacks every day.

Anyway, seeing Baasha lead her around, rather than being afraid of taking a step away from her, is awesome.

Seeing her start grooming her, and seeing Bellis reciprocate, is also wonderful.

SO happy!