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...
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...
), 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.
