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AbbySmith

Active Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2021
Messages
43
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62
Location
Canada
Hi y'all!
I just joined this forum, and I am so excited to chat with y'all and get your advice on a couple of things! I will post those things in other threads just so it doesn't get super confusing!
For a little introduction of myself...
I own 2 mini donkeys that I love so much! I used to have 3, but I had to sell him due to quite a few reasons.
But I love my girls and I have had them since June 23 2020, and I can't wait to spend so much more time with them! They are amazing! Their names are Ruby and Lilly, they are a mother daughter pair, ages 8 and 5, and they have been together their whole life, so no chance of me splitting them up! They are just so great! I love them! When I first bought them, Ruby had an overgrown hoof (i did know this when i bought her, and didnt think it would be a problem), and both of them were pretty skittish/standoffish. I was a total beginner owner, and knew nothing! You could only pet them if you had approached them with treats. They were really friendly when you had treats, but they wouldn't stand for very long as you pet them, they would get bored and just continue to walk away from you. You couldn't even get in the pen with a halter in your hand, nevermind get it close to them! I knew that I needed to get the farrier out to see to Ruby's hoof, but I just couldn't really get near them! The little male, Tim (the one i had to sell), was a super great boy, and he was halter broke and friendly, but the girls were not. Months went by and I would just visit them every single day and I hoped that once I gained a relationship with them, they would trust me, and let me near them with a halter. But that never did happen. Eventually I had my brother help me and I got a halter on them. This was in Oct. 2020 ish. They were terrible for the farrier. And I mean, terrible! The little guy was pretty good, but the girls were really bad. We had to tie Ruby to the fence, as well as Lilly. Ruby reared up quite a few times. She would kick out, and rip her feet away from the farrier. It was terrible. Lilly was a little better. But only by a little. Meaning, she didn't rear. She did still kick and pull her feet away.
Well, the farrier did the best he could on her hoof but it wasn't great. I started kind of dabbling with working with them, but I just really didn't know what I was doing. Eventually Dec rolled around and they were due for another trim. Great. I was able to sneak in the pen with the halters hidden behind my back and get the halter on both the girls, and then I herded them into the barn to be trimmed. That went a little better than the first, but only by a really itty bitty amount.
Then I joined another forum called the HorseForum, and I met some amazing friends there, and the people there were so great, and they taught me how to train, and introduced me to clicker training. I began the clicker training with the girls. By then Tim had been sold. And they did great!! We have made so much progress together! I am so proud of them! We have definitely had our ups and downs, but we are doing waaay better now than we ever have! They are both now %100 halter broke, and they come to me versus running away. They kinda suck at leading, but we are working on it (any tips would be great!), Lilly lets me lift and pick out all 4 hooves!!! Major accomplishment there if you had seen what she was like before. Kind of a nightmare...Ruby has only just let me work with her hooves. I had a new farrier come out 3 weeks ago and trim them, and they did waaay better, and he was able to really trim Ruby's hoof right down, and is pretty sure he can fix it, which would be awesome! Today was the first time in the 9 months I've had her, that I have been able to pick out her hooves! It felt amazing! I was only able to do her front 2, cause her back right is the overgrown one. She does let me lift it, but since it's oddly shaped I can't pick it out. And she won't let me lift the back left because it hurts too bad to put that much weight on her overgrown hoof. I am also working with Ruby to teach her how to smile! We just started today actually and it's too cute!! Hopefully she remembers it in the morning...

But, that's my chubby girls, y'all probably don't care that much about them lol! But try and make me stop talking about them...lol!

I love minis so much! Horses are my first love, I live and breather for horses, but I am unable to have one right now, so mini donkeys were the best I could do right now, and man have they ever been amazing! I love them so much! And they have taught me so much!!

If you have any questions about me or the girls, please feel free to ask!

Here are some pictures of the chubby girls...
Girls 8.jpg
Girls 17.jpg
Girls 9.jpg
Girls 26.jpg
 
Hi Abby!

Welcome to you and your darling donkeys from Minnesota! After many years of owning and showing horses and minis, I acquired a mini donkey about 5 years ago from a friend who passed away. Madelaine was 12 years old at the time and has been a whole new learning experience, in a good way!

You have accomplished so much with your two furry friends! Way to go! Looking forward to learning more about your experience.

Also, this is a wonderful forum and I think it is safe to say that you will find it full of people that love both horses and chubby donkeys! 😍

Thank you for sharing your terrific photos!

Mary Flora
 
Hi Abby!

Welcome to you and your darling donkeys from Minnesota! After many years of owning and showing horses and minis, I acquired a mini donkey about 5 years ago from a friend who passed away. Madelaine was 12 years old at the time and has been a whole new learning experience, in a good way!

You have accomplished so much with your two furry friends! Way to go! Looking forward to learning more about your experience.

Also, this is a wonderful forum and I think it is safe to say that you will find it full of people that love both horses and chubby donkeys! 😍

Thank you for sharing your terrific photos!

Mary Flora
Hi! Thank you so much!! The donks have definitely been a learning experience for me, but they have taught me so much! And I love them!!

Hi, welcome to the forum! Once the farrier gets Ruby more comfortable I bet she'll be much easier to work around regarding her feet.
Thank you! Quick update for ya guys. I had the farrier out a couple weeks ago. (i know, sorry ive been kinda inactive on here, but i will be much more active now! Well...until haying season!😂), and he was able to really get Ruby's hoof trimmed down! It looks so good! He was able to trim all of the overgrown hoof off, and she looked so much happier!! She is due for another trim next week, so hopefully we can give her a flat surface to stand on.
Also, since getting her feet trimmed, Ruby has now let me lift and pick out 3 of her hooves!!!! I'm so freaking proud of her! She won't let me lift the back left, cause it hurts to put so much pressure on the overgrown back right, so I don't make her lift it, but we are working on her letting me just touch the leg, and handle the hoof while it's on the ground. She used to run away when I ran my hand down the leg cause she thought I was going to lift it, but we are working on it, and she is now letting me touch her leg, and has learned that I don't want to pick it up, just touch it! I'm so happy with her!!!
Also, Ruby had a bit of rain rot, but I have been treating it with Listerine, and it i working fabulous, and most of her hair has grown back!
Oh, and, Lilly has this random bald spot at the base of her neck (any ideas why that could be? Lol!), and yesterday i started putting MTG on it, to hopefully encourage hair growth. I'm gonna try it for a week and see what happens.

Okay, I have much much more to write about cause they have been really great the past couple weeks, but I gotta go milk the cow and feed the critters, so I will try and update a little more later this afternoon. I will add a couple pics though.
 

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Hi! Thank you so much!! The donks have definitely been a learning experience for me, but they have taught me so much! And I love them!!


Thank you! Quick update for ya guys. I had the farrier out a couple weeks ago. (i know, sorry ive been kinda inactive on here, but i will be much more active now! Well...until haying season!😂), and he was able to really get Ruby's hoof trimmed down! It looks so good! He was able to trim all of the overgrown hoof off, and she looked so much happier!! She is due for another trim next week, so hopefully we can give her a flat surface to stand on.
Also, since getting her feet trimmed, Ruby has now let me lift and pick out 3 of her hooves!!!! I'm so freaking proud of her! She won't let me lift the back left, cause it hurts to put so much pressure on the overgrown back right, so I don't make her lift it, but we are working on her letting me just touch the leg, and handle the hoof while it's on the ground. She used to run away when I ran my hand down the leg cause she thought I was going to lift it, but we are working on it, and she is now letting me touch her leg, and has learned that I don't want to pick it up, just touch it! I'm so happy with her!!!
Also, Ruby had a bit of rain rot, but I have been treating it with Listerine, and it i working fabulous, and most of her hair has grown back!
Oh, and, Lilly has this random bald spot at the base of her neck (any ideas why that could be? Lol!), and yesterday i started putting MTG on it, to hopefully encourage hair growth. I'm gonna try it for a week and see what happens.

Okay, I have much much more to write about cause they have been really great the past couple weeks, but I gotta go milk the cow and feed the critters, so I will try and update a little more later this afternoon. I will add a couple pics though.

Welcome to the forum Abby!
I've been reading your thread, but haven't gotten around to say Hi ! 🙂
Happy to know your little cuties are getting used to you and to handling their hooves!

About Lilly... If Ruby had rain rot, Lilly's bald spot may be a beginning of it. Rain rot is contagious so you have to be careful. Don't use the same brushes or halters between both of them, especially if one of them has had rain rot. I've had a case of rain rot and the hair was coming back, so I stopped being careful and the horse relapsed. The fungus could still be present, although it may have lost its strength. Check to see if there is hair around that spot that is coming off, leaving the place hairless. If yes, then you should treat her for rain rot.

Hoping this helps... 🙂
 
Yeah, I'm not sure what Lilly's thing is. It's just two bald lines at the base of her neck, so she isn't like biting herself and pulling the hair out, she could be rubbing it on something, but the skin isn't red, or scabby, or hot, or bloody, or anything like that. I thought maybe it was rain rot for a bit cause the hair around it was loose, and I could pull some of it out, but it has gotten hard again, and now I can't pull any hair out. I was treating it like it was rain rot, with the Listerine, for about a week and a half or so, and it didn't do anything. It didn't make it worse, but it definitely wasn't any better. So I stopped with that treatment, and it hasn't gotten any worse, and rain rot would have, so I'm pretty confident to say that it's not that, but I still don't know what it is. I think maybe she could just be shedding pretty bad? I'm kinda waiting for the spring shedding season to be over, and see how she is then, cause I think that that could definitely be a factor, but not sure. I am trying the MTG for week (today is the second day), and we'll see if that helps. It definitely can't make anything worse, so I'm hopeful!
 
Agree with you! Big furry winter coats often hide all sorts of things. But still, just keep a close eye on it. You never know.
 
So I just went out with the girls again, and I put the MTG on Lilly, and I know, it's been one day, there's no way i can see results by now. But I did notice that the skin seemed a lot more moist(?) I don't know how to describe it. It wasn't as dry as it has been, and it just looked better. And that was after 24 hours of the MTG being on, with snow last night that could have washed it off, and the skin still looked better. So I'm super happy about that!
 

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