After last winter I didn’t think it could get any worse. In fact I told people when the first snow fall hit here in Nov. that I was suffering from PTD from last year still. 100 plus inches of snow last year is being topped this year as we already have over 50 (season average is 49) and more coming tonight and next week.  Even more challenging is the extreme cold we are having this week.  It was minus 21 degree last night and at 11 a.m. it is still only minus 8 degrees.

Having dogs in this weather is enough of a challenge (don’t worry, they all live in the house and several have coats they wear when they go outside) — they barely want to go outside to pee so are definitely not getting the exercise they are used to.  They walk a bit then hold their feet up pitifully.  The pugs all huddle against the door a minute after they’ve gone out.  Then add in the horses and donkeys and we can’t escape being outside in these sub zero temperatures.

Yesterday the high didn’t get out of the minus digits.  All the area schools were closed yesterday due to wind chill warnings of up to 40 below zero and they are closed again today although winds are pretty calm.   Kent bought he and I face masks at the UW Bookstore yesterday (his office is right above it) which I can see will be helpful as I just used mine for the first time while I did barn chores.

The horses and mini donkeys are used to going out every day, rain or shine.  They have 3 sided shelters for when they are out but with these extreme temperatures and wind chills they could easily suffer frost bite, especially those donkey ears.  I have seen donkeys who have had their ears frostbitten and lost part of them so it won’t be happening to mine.  So they are getting a bit stir crazy as this is day 4 of these temps.  Yesterday I turned the horses out briefly when the temp almost made zero and it was at least sunny out.  They went crazy running, rearing, bucking and actually didn’t want to come in so I left them out for 2 hours.  This a.m. they made it out for about 10 min. while I cleaned their stalls, took a couple of laps and were ready to come back in.  The donkeys are divas and if you turn them out they usually stand by the barn door and bray to come in when it is like this outside so they pretty much have been captive in the barn since Monday and it’s Friday now.

We also have 2 barn cats, Gadget and Beauty, who I have been watching carefully for any signs of being chilled.  All the barn animals have heated buckets/bowls for water and we keep a lot of food out at all times when it is like this as digestion produces body heat.  Gadget and Beauty have blankets to lay on and often are laying in the barn window in the sun.  They have the most gorgeous, plush coats right now so they seem just fine although we have a contingency plan of bringing them into our basement should they seem to be suffering from the cold at all.

Tonight I was invited by a friend to attend a demo by a horse trainer who instructs using the
Parelli method, which is also known as “Natural Horsemanship”. The instructor, Farrah Green of Sioux Falls, SD, was able to control her horse on the ground via subtle body language cues and get him to do amazing things such as trot in sync with her, lay down on his side, sit up (which requires a huge amount of muscle control from the horse) all while playing with him. It was like watching them do a dance together they were so in sync with each other. She also rode him with only a hackamore (no bit in the mouth) and he was wonderfully responsive. A very cold night but worthwhile to see someone who can train a horse to this level with no force of any kind.

It’s not the first time they’ve played Houdini…….Saturday evening the mini donkeys decided the grass really was greener on the other side of the fence and found the perfect weak spot in the fence to go through.  Unfortunately the grass is indeed greener there as it is alfalfa hay, not good for donkeys on a diet. 

 When I went to call the girls in for the night instead of being met by the usual braying there was silence.  Not good……It was pitch black out and I didn’t have a flashlight with me.  I listened intently and finally heard the sounds of twigs snapping but no donkey hooves coming closer.  I walked out into the pasture and as I got close to the back fence I could make out Glo (Morning Glory) as she is mainly white.  I then realized all four donkeys were looking at me from the other side of the wire fence.   Of course they weren’t able to get back through it as that isn’t where the escape route was located.  I remembered earlier in the year noting that a portion of the wire fencing was looking pretty saggy so felt my way down the fence line until my hands only touched air instead of a line of fence.  Voila!  The escape hatch was found!  Fortunately when I called the girls they came along the fence line and I held down what was left of the wire for them to step over.  They were moving pretty slowly at that point.  Got them into their stall and Glo immediately laid down — not a good sign.  Got her up walking and her stomach was really bloated looking and she kicked at it a couple of times. 

You may have heard of “colic” — it can be life-threatening in horses and other livestock and she had the symptoms.  Of course it was 11 p.m. by then on a Saturday night.  Fortunately the clinic we use for the equines has a vet on call even on nights and weekends.  I called the clinic number and was patched into him.  The one on call happens to own a couple of donkeys himself which was helpful.  He told me the girls would be fine but it is like a kid who ate too much Halloween candy so they were going to have stomach aches for a while. 

 It was one of those nights where you don’t sleep well and I did check on them a couple of times.   A close call but fortunately but in the a.m. all four were on their feet and seemed okay.  Of course the hole in the fenceline is now patched and they’ve had to stay off pasture for a couple of days which they think is torture.

Just another day in the country at the Blue Barn Farm……..

Sunday, October 28th, 2007 

Yesterday the donkeys had some grazing time in the agility area (my classes are indoors now due to no light in the evenings). They can only have about 2 to 4 hours of grass per day as they are very “easy keepers” and grass goes right to their waists and crests (the top of their neck stores fat) just like frozen custard goes to my waist!  So my husband put them in their paddock after a couple of hours and never noticed the brand new gouges in my a-frame.  

Soooo, it appears that one or two of the younger donkeys decided to try climbing the a-frame and succeeded as the gouges went over the top and down the next side!   Did I mention I just repainted all of my agility equipment 3 weeks ago??  Fortunately it was sunny and 50s today so the paint cans came back out and I touched up the gouges as best as I could.  As Kent said — wish we had security cameras in the barnyard so we could see how they managed to climb it!