30th September 2006
It seems that Autumn has arrived in our area, the Oak trees are smothered in acorns and the wind is bringing them rattling down into out paddocks - not good as they are poisonous to equines. Sad really as they are very nice and crunchy, but not at all good for our tummies. So the humans have erected a fence around the trees and before we can go out in the morning all the acorns that have come down in the night have to be raked up and taken away ? I wonder what you can do with acorns? Perhaps someone out there would like to send me an email to tell me. It is raining really hard and as I don?t like the rain I actually choose to stay in my stable in the dry, it also means that I am close to the kitchen door so I can see what is going on and you never know I might get an extra pat. Must dash I have just heard the food bowls being moved, it must be later than I thought?
23rd September 2006
It has been really nice this week, I had my feet trimmed and the junior members came, so I got lots of patting and extra grooming, and guess what they have been talking about doing some tests!!! I didn?t like the sound of that but then someone read the tests to me and I changed my mind ? they are rather good and are all about helping you humans look after us donkeys, and guess what ? we even get to take part. So we are practicing having our headcollars put on and done up correctly, standing very still whilst we are tied up with a special knot called a quick release and lots, lots more. You can read the tests too and see if you could manage to do all the things, it is good fun. Next I have got to practice standing on three legs to have my feet cleaned out one at a time, I wonder how long a donkey can stand on three legs????????..?
September 16th 2006
Well it seems that all the shows that we might go to have finished now, so it is very quiet here, no rushing around and choosing which of us will go. Did I say quiet ? not quite, Capella is still braying at everyone if they go near her precious baby ? as if I would want to! Foals are a thorough pain, they think they can jump all over you and then run away kicking their heels in the air; I don?t remember being that naughty when I was young.
Our foal is growing really big now and is eating the same food as the rest of us ? that means you have to guard your food bowl otherwise the contents get eaten, right under your nose. During the summer we had lots of grass to eat out in the paddocks and a very little bit of coarse mix and a carrot sliced up in our bowls at tea-time. But it has been so hot and dry recently that the grass is all eaten off, everywhere looks brown and instead of it being soft under our hooves the ground feels all crunchy; mind you that is not as bad as it sounds though as because there hasn?t been any rain to help the grass grow green again we are being fed some hay as well as the coarse mix and carrots ? and guess what I can eat much quicker than anyone else.
1st September 2006
Well this has been a nice relaxing couple of weeks. We have had some fun games in the paddock, and told Champers, Gigi, Giselle, Raffles and Benjamin all about the adventures we had at Rodbaston. We made it all sound so good that they want to be able to go next year.
The bit they liked hearing about most was the fancy dress - we always do the fancy dress class and usually Gigi is the one who gets dressed up, but this year there was only room for three of us and the foal to go to Rodbaston so Gigi had to stay behind and it fell to one of us to be dressed up - well I certainly wasn't donning a duck costume and Cappella had her maternal duties to occupy her, so the honour of the duck fell to Lawson!!
Duck - did I hear you say? well each year the fancy dress classes at the Championship Show is based on a word beginning with a particular letter of the alphabet - this year is was 'J'. Now much was talked about jars of jam, jellyfish and Jerusalem, but our human went for 'Jemima Puddleduck'
Now Champion Gelding, Lawson might have been on more than one occasion - willing duck he was not, or so we all thought - in the event he was excellent - and Marion was a lovely Peter Rabbit complete with blue velvet coat. Next year the letter is 'K' so what surprises will that bring forth I wonder? Kangaroos or Ketchup?
