20th May 2007
What an adventure I have to tell you about.
On Saturday we were all woken up at 4 o'clock in the morning, just in case you don't know that is so early even the birds are still asleep!!! We were given a small amount of Barley straw, which we all ate with great relish, as we don't usually have breakfast.
At 5 o'clock three of us had our;head collars put on, ready for our trip to Devon County Show, mine is a bright red one which makes me look even more attractive than usual
Lawson was loaded first then Annabelle was taken out of her stable, while a bowl of something was sneaked into Capella's without Annabelle seeing in the hope that would Capella quiet - not a lot oh hope there but humans just don't understand our need to communicate loudly. Anyway I digress, my human spent 30 minutes trying to load Annabelle, she even forgot about the need to keep Capella quiet and loaded her in the hope that Annabelle would follow, but with only one person to accomplish the loading it was to to no avail so Annabelle was left behind, disappointing at the time, but a situation which was to be viewed gratefully later !! I of course walked straight into the box - I knew what to do.
I did all that I was asked to do at the show - a beautiful trot and I stood like a statute in front of the judge with ears well forward, you see just in front of me were sheep being judged in the next ring and my human placed me so that I had something to watch. The judge awarded me a lovely deep yellow rosette which suited my coat. My human was very pleased with me.
We were given some hay as a reward and then I heard my human say that it would be a good idea to go home early as our stable girl could not clean our stables out today so there would be a lot to do when we returned home.
What a sensible decision that proved to be............... We set off along the M5 and after about 15 miles my human said that she was sure she could smell burning so she pulled over to the hard shoulder and got out to check the horsebox from the outside; there was smoke coming out of one of the front wheels - how frightening was that with such a prescious cargo on board?
The RAC were telephoned immediately and also the Highways Agency who look after the motorways, they were told that WE were onboard and we needed added protection because lorries were rushing past and shaking the donkey box - within 5 minutes vehicles with flashing lights arrived and cones were put out to prevent the other traffic getting too near to us.I even heard talk of closing the motorway in both directions in order to get us out; I wondered what that meant, but our human came into the box and gave us polo's and told us that there was nothing to worry about. The Highways Agency men reassured us that all would be well and one of them stood by the wheel just keeping an eye on things while the other person was on the telephone telling the experts what was happening and to be ready to close the motorway.
Who was going to hold us? My human did not think that she could hold both Lawson and me - I would have been alright, but Lawson was beginning to shake and would be a bit too strong for her to hold if he got frightened, our bridles were put so as to give whoever had to hold us more control.
Another vehicle with flashing lights arrived and thankfully this one had someone extra on board - an expert used to handling horses.
All was in place for action, then the RAC arrived and got the wheel off our horsebox, he said it was very hot and had we not stopped when we did the wheel would have caused a fire - it was so hot that no-one could touch the centre of the wheel; of course we were stuck on the motorway for some time while the RAC man worked furiously on the wheel and as soon as it had been replaced he said that he wanted us off the motorway and that the vehicle was now safe to drive to the next Service Station with an escort.
So RAC in front with flashing lights, then us, and bringing up the rear by the Highways Agency vehicle complete with flashing lights and the expert equine handler. I heard one of my humans say that he felt like royalty!
Before we set off I heard our human being told that if lights were flashed at us and the Highways vehicle came along side of us we were to pull on to the hard shoulder immediately!!
At last we reached the Service station - what relief for my human, but that was .only the beginning of the next chapter of this adventure The RAC declared that we were not safe to drive home so reinforcements had to be summoned - even more excitement - a very large horsebox arrived and a large breakdown vehicle to take our box home. I was unloaded first as being the sensible one !!! to be met with the most enormous ramp that I have ever seen, it was taller than my human - was I supposed to go up there? Everyone was very reassuring and placed one of my feet on the bottom of the ramp and my human held some peppermints in front of me so I put my second foot on and I was very brave and walked up, then came Lawson who took one look and just shook and told his two handlers in no way was he he going up that ramp, and shot in the opposite direction- oh dear men are so unpredictable - so I was unloaded again by my human, and Lawson was led up to me so that I could show him what he had to do and sure enough he followed me in, these boys need us girls when the going gets tough.
When he got in I had to nuzzle him and whisper in his ear to calm him down because he was shaking from head to toe. The lorry driver said that he ought to drive straight off as the movement of the lorry would calm Lawson down, which was correct; Lawson has never had much time for me before, but on this occasion he was glued to me, and I have to admit I quite enjoyed it.
We and our box arrived home safely and my human made a great fuss of me telling me what a sensible donkey I had been. Of course I had to go and tell all the other donkeys about our adventure and how it had been all down to me to get us home - Annabelle predictably said that she was very glad that she had not come - however what she hasn't realised is that now she is going to have practice in loading!
13th May 2007
This week it has been brush, brush and brush.I have simply adored all this grooming. Next came the mane trimming with special round ended scissors - I stood really still, but next came my ears and I wasn't too sure about them as the scissors tickled, but I had kisses from my human every minute, so I was persuaded and stood like a statue whilst the long hair was trimmed away down the edges.
Whilst all this was going on Raffles was being a bit of a pain, why? did I hear you ask? because he wasn't getting the attention I was - so he kept pawing my human and made her shout "Ouch" very loudly, in the end she just had to give him a little grooming to keep him happy.
Why all this extra grooming? Well I know, because I listened in to some human conversation - four of us are going to the Devon Show this coming week-end, so if you want to see me in person come to the Devon Show, although I must warn you I am not looking my best because my coat is a biot patchy. When we had all that hot weather earlier on I started to shed my coat thinking that Summer had arrived - I am usually rather late parting with my coat and my human gets quite desperate as everyone else is looking sleek and lovely, so this year thought I would get on with it starting early - big mistak, all this horrible rain arrived and now I have changed my mind, consequently I now look extremely moth eaten. You can of course see my beautiful summer coat in places and by the weekend I think most of my face will be looking extremely attractive.
Still it isn't just about looking good, one has to move well too and there has been a hint of panic because we have not practised - it has been forgotten that once we donkeys are shown what to do, we never forget. I am just waiting to see how if the same can be said of my human and how she moves now she has her new leg!!!!!
5th May 2007
Never a dull moment in 'Donkeydom'
This week we had some alien invaders - cows - who broke down the fence and came into one of our paddocks!! Not just any old paddock but the one that had - you not I say 'had' got a nice growth of fresh spring grass which our human had been saving as a special treat - not any more - the greedy caows have gobbled it all up and gone back through the broken fence to their own side. As you can imagine the humans were not best pleased.
I have heard from my friends in Wales that they have had invadors too, but theirs were short legged and very woolly and made lots of bleating and had to be rounded up by two black and white dogs before they were willing to go back to their own paddocks. I think that donkey paddocks must be very special if all these other animals want to come along to share.
Anyway Capella and I have decided we are going to go and pull faces at anything and anyone who comes close to our fence so that they understand we aren't going to allow them in to eat our grass; without any rain it isn't growing much and there is already human talk of feed getting very short and we might need every last blade for ourselves!!
But you humans must remember that we donkeys do not do well on fertilised grass as it contains too much 'nitrogen enhanced protein' (those are long words aren't they?) which can give us laminitis, so it is essential that the grass is just allowed to grow naturally, and if it doesn't be ready to provide us with a little extra in the way of some hay and clean feeding straw.
