Donkey, Goats and Yard Work! Oh my!

 Led Zeppelin saying hi to hubby.

Little Zep has been on my mind a lot lately.  I am so happy to now have two horses that I can approach, touch, catch, groom, fly spray, work with, etc., but it's making me even more frustrated that I can't catch or touch or fly spray the donkey.  It's so against my nature to have an animal I can't touch and care for like he needs.  His hooves are starting to slipper a little.  They normally self trim really well, but with all the wet weather the ground is just too soft to break them off.  I also hate that I can't groom him.  It's so annoying that donkeys take so long to shed out.  I know grooming might not speed that up much, but it would make me feel like I was at least doing something.

 Dirty donkey.

The vet is coming out on the 29th to do Chrome and Rocky's coggins and teeth.  I'm going to talk to her about gelding Zep.  I'm terrified to do it since he can't be caught/handled/etc. and donkeys are apparently heavier bleeders than horses so they are supposed to be stitched up instead of allowed to drain.  This of course would have to be done in the fall when the flies are gone, but I want to get the information on it.  I want to know if she's gelded a full grown donkey before.  Most people around here just don't geld them so a lot of vets have never actually done it.  That makes me really nervous.  I also want to have his hooves done while he's sedated.  The only problem is doing his hooves once is only a short term solution.  They need to be done regularly.

I have touched his legs and he's offered to kick.  He also offers to bite.  He is very defensive about his body.  I'm hoping gelding him will help, but I doubt it will eliminate all of his behaviors because he's so old.  We've been catching him in the round pen and making a squeeze chute out of a third of our hay ring to halter him, deworm him and fly spray him.  I can't really do it by myself though so the only time we can do it is on weekends.  I need to go back to clicker training, but he will have to be trapped in the round pen for that because the other horses won't leave us alone.  I can't leave him in the round pen at this time of year without shelter though because of the bugs.  He spends a lot of time in the shed hiding from the bugs and rain.

So anyway I'll keep thinking on all of this and I'll let you know what I find out from the vet next week.  For now here are some pictures.  We finally replaced the Jolly ball that Chrome drowned in the pond at our old house.  This one is peppermint scented!!

 The horses weren't interested, but Zep loved it!  The goats were scared of it then brown goat sniffed it, did the flehmen (is that what it's called in goats?) and walked away lol.  Speaking of goats....

...the little turds have been leaning on the fence and got it pushed down far enough to go over it.  Grr!  We got him back in and tied the fence back up, but we will probably have to put up an electric fence to stop them from ruining it.  Brats!! They are doing a great job of keeping the weeds eaten down though so I won't complain too much.

We have been so busy the last couple of weekends catching up on yard work that we haven't gotten to ride (and I'm so sad and getting seriously frustrated that we haven't been able to).  We got really behind on yard work because of the month straight of rain.  We had trees down everywhere, limbs down everywhere, overgrown grass and weeds, etc.  We spent last weekend cleaning up and mowing the yard and then this weekend cleaning up and mowing the pasture.  All I can say is thank goodness for dad's fourwheeler.  That makes stick/limb/tree pick up so much easier.  I have to get pictures of the pasture after hubby brush hogged it this weekend.  It looks amazing!  The woods look like a park.  My arena can be used again too yay!  Now I just have to find time to ride!  Work is sucking my life away, but I won't gripe about it... too much.

I'll try to get pictures of the pasture tomorrow while I catch up on housework.  I also need to get the sweet itch post finished.  Sorry it's taken me so long.  I've been so busy!

I guess that's all for now.  I hope everyone is doing well and getting to ride!!  Also I hope you aren't having to deal the the horde of mosquitoes that we are!!  I itch 24/7 from the little #&*%%$!!  Oh and the chiggers!  I have an infected chigger bite on my foot that I'm frankly terrified to take my sock off to look at it everyday..... 8o!  This week the heat index will be over 110F everyday so don't expect any fun posts lol.  Stay cool guys!