Last week was ranch life all the way. Sure other things of
note happened, but nothing anyone who wasn’t involved would probably care to
hear about.
Last weekend we had a couple of accidents on the ranch. One
of our horses got his head stuck between some bars in the paddock and skinned
his forehead and chin and one of our donkeys got her leg caught in some barbed
wire. Neither injury is life threatening, or really more than an irritant to
the animals, but they have needed a bit of medicine applied.
With the horse this was no problem. Stormy is the biggest
attention seeker you will ever meet, and something of a bully. He’ll bite,
kick, and chase the other horses out of the way to make sure that he’s first in
line to get his nose rubbed and be fed a snack. Our horses are really treated
more like really big dogs than anything that’s meant to be ridden or worked. So
despite feeling out of sorts, he enjoyed the attention and let himself be
treated.
The burros, or as my bride has taken to calling them, the
burritos, on the other hand are about as opposite from Stormy as you can get.
These girls are rescues from the SPCA and were brought in together after they
were found wandering up the road together, so swollen they looked like they
were pregnant. We don’t know much about their pasts besides that but it’s
pretty clear from the way they act that they were abused. This week was an
exercise in earning their trust and my bride set forth to the task with gusto.
Now these are not mean animals, just skittish, and highly
protective of each other, not to mention our livestock. Just the other week we
walked outside one morning to find them chasing off a pack of about 5 coyotes
from our cows. These little donkeys are small and don’t have much in the way of
natural weaponry but they are tenacious little boogers and incredibly skittish.
After many treats and soft words, Candy, the dark furred one, is willing to let
us pet her and both her and Rose know their names and will come when called to
see if there’s food. They actually had a bit of a standoff with our dogs while
this was all going on, both dogs and donkeys were determined to keep my bride
safe from the dangerous other animals. Funniest thing ever and so sweet. They got
it figured out pretty quick and Candy’s leg is doing MUCH better.
Topping that off, yesterday we received a new addition to
the ranch. Baldy is a dinosaur masquerading as a cow, specifically a bull. This
animal is taller than my bride’s car and weighs in over a ton at 2,500 lbs. He’s
here to be a stud, which had me worried at first that he might be hurt one of
our smaller girls. I’ve been assured that this really isn’t a concern. Guess
they know enough not to be crushed. And apparently he comes from a line of
low-birth weights, meaning that he and his dad were born small and grew fast. Wonder
what the heck they were feeding him. At any rate, Baldy used to be this woman’s
pet, but she had to move and couldn’t take him with her. He’s not exactly
domesticated but he’s friendly enough!
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