Blue Mountain Endeavor 2006

January thru May and November thru December are calendar notations made while the boys were on winter lay off.

January was typical time off for the donkey boys. Both were wormed on the full moon with Ivermectin. It was pretty much a no snow month. The heated water tank is pressure washed at the beginning of each month. The 130 gallon tank needs topped off every other day for them and all the wildlife that drink here. The two boys are eating their way through a small round bale about every two weeks depending on weather conditions. They eat more when it is cold and if it is wet we go ahead and change it out and put a fresh bale in the feeder for them. We have been moving the feeder around the pasture as needed to keep it in dry and clean areas.

February was beautiful with some very warm days and again no snow on the prairie. We cleaned the water tank with the pressure washer and one of the larger round bales lasted almost 3 weeks.

Sunday the 12th was in the mid forty’s unseasonably warm. Luc wearing a side pull and surcingle got out for some ground driving practice. Jim grabbed Dev’s halter and off for a walk about the farm they went. The very next weekend the temperature dropped to –8* and remained cold for several days.

I had added flax to all the diets to see if I could prevent road founder, repair horizontal cracks and build up rear heels on their hooves. The result was Luc had grown long toes over the winter. He was receiving a 1/2 cup portion of prepared flax. Dev’s portion remained at one ounce of flax seed before grinding, soaking and cooking. They received flax feedings on weekends only along with small portions of a high potency vitamin mineral supplement, plus loose salt and free choice minerals. February 25th Luc was trimmed, a February trim for Luc is unheard of. It had to have been the flax that I had been feeding since November 2005.

March High winds, cold and wet! It snowed over 15 inches on the local ski
hill and 4 inches at the farm on the 4th. On the 8th Dev was limping when I arrived home from work. Cleaning the hoof revealed a small rock near the heel. It was tender but Dev was able to walk better after relieving the pressure.

It was 14 degrees the morning Doc Carla came on the11th. She shaved Dev’s neck to draw blood for a Coggins/EIA test and gave him a five way shot. He was wonderful. Later that afternoon it warmed up to 41degrees. It was time to get everyone out for a play session as well as cleaning hooves and applying Kopertox on Dev’s two front ones, the rear hooves were fine.

I did notice a rear hoof was sloughing off a large part of the sidewall, which is a constant problem with him in the winter months. The soles looked wonderful and did not smell of thrush. Dev and I went out for a one-hour ground training session on the gravel road. We worked on whoa, back, over on the front and the rear on both sides. Great session! Mid month both boys were wormed with Ivermectin.

Liberty arrived at the end of the month to rock their world! It was about to get interesting!

April Dev received his first new shoes for the year. By now the outer hoof walls had sloughed off so badly on two hooves we were wondering if the shoes would even stay on. Then it was off to Montana for his 30 day driving tune up with Jack Eden. I was pretty concerned about this hoof but he never came up lame and was able to hold a shoe even through there was nothing to nail to on this side. The farrier did use automobile body putty to seal and protect the damaged hoof walls

Helen Eden from Montana sent us this note, “I went along on Dev’s drive yesterday. Jack is working to keep Dev on an extended trot. Most of the time he trots; sometimes he single-foots; occasionally one half of him trots and the other half single-foots. I think this all has to do with being able to chew gum and walk at the same time! It was a fun drive.”
What a character she is with a marvelous sense of humor!

Jack, Jessie (dog) and Devor Helen Eden Photo

Luc and Liberty had some one on one time to get acquainted and to learn to play together. April traditionally is the month for spring shots, equine dental work, blood work for Coggins/EIA testing, health certificates, worming on the full moon and basic conditioning as the weather allowed. This was the month for spring pasture cleaning and changing the water tanks to the ones without heaters.

May Turned out hot early, it was in the 90’s by mid month. Luc had some great drives and a few rides while Dev was away at spring training. Luc received his 30-day driving tune up at home.

The end of the May sent us back to Montana to retrieve our Devor. I drove him in the coal box buggy on our first drive in Montana, the next day we drove him in the Pacific Gig which we liked much better for him. We decided to switch bits from the ringed snaffle to a heavier 6 inch snaffle Liverpool as he seemed to be running thru the snaffle. I put the lines in the second slot giving me some leverage when needed. We had two good days of driving then we were on our own with the big guy.

June 2nd Jim and I hitched Luc to the 1906 coal box buggy. It fits him perfect and it rides so smooth. Jim drove Luc, who was a wound up little donkey boy that wanted to lope instead of trot. He was pretty excited about having his ole’ buddy back and someone to go with him on drives.

We hitched Dev to the Pacific Gig Cart and I drove him. The Liverpool bit was working well. This harness has longer line holders so I tied them down with string and added a crupper... both helped a lot.

Dev was a dream to harness and hitch. He quietly waited for me to get into the cart and he stood patiently while Jim and Lucers got ready to go. I liked that! We had everything adjusted just right before we headed out.

Jim left ahead of us so Dev had to slow down going down the driveway. We stopped at the road, Dev was like, "come on, let's boogie" but we took it easy to the top of the first hill before asking for a trot. He slowed to a walk easily and was happy to have a stop break at the corner. We did lots of whoas, backs and most of the time he was a good boy.

Our biggest driving challenge was a field of cows, calves and one big ole’ bull Dev did not like the looks of the calves running and playing. He was ready to quickly depart the scene; fortunately he made the right decision to stay on course.

We drove a couple of miles before turning around. Dev still thinks he can make all the decisions such as how to make the turn around. He almost got me into trouble when he would not go where I was pointing him. We had some obstacles to drive through and he was pretty insistent on where he thought we should go. It was a little rough but we made it, all this will get better as we get these little things worked out.

A diesel pickup passed us, Dev wasn't wild about that. He was harder to hold as we got closer to home but I put him directly behind Luc and that helped. We drove them side by side then passing each other. I was excellent training for both boys. Dev did get to feel the pull of the britchin as he climbed and descended medium sized hills; it was a great introduction to prairie driving.

Dev managed to test me a few times but I was able to come out the winner each time. It was just a nice short drive. Perfect evening... can't wait to go again.

Dev was reshod June 4th. He kicked at Frank with his hind foot, same side as the one Frank was holding up and working on. Dev received a verbal ass chewin’ and he settled down. Frank was impressed, never had that happen before.

Next item on our agenda was Montana Mule Days.

The weather turned off wet and cold until the 24th of June, of course this is our haying season. Getting the year’s hay crop in was delayed until we had warm days with dewless nights. When the weather settled down it was back to driving Dev who was finally ready to make his first trip to town. It took us a little over two hours to make the cross country journey. It was a good drive for him and he was ready to make this journey. This seven mile route has the steepest hills he had encountered so far. It's a muscle building trip so we took it very slow with lots of stops. Never did break a sweat on either Luc or Dev. Jim did say that Dev was damp close to the skin but that was all. I don't think Luc could break a sweat, he's in great shape. It must have been in the low 70*s but it felt warmer with the sun beating on us.

We did have an incident. This was the first solo drive for Erin with Luc in the four wheeled buggy. Coming down a hill I could see Border Collies running loose near a farm house with Bob turning hay in a nearby field. I figured he would see us in time so I decided to go ahead and chance it. Immediately all five dogs came running out to the road as soon as we were spotted. Dev wanted to go after them and I was having a difficult time holding him back.

A scared Luc backed off the road down an embankment with a sharp drop off and almost into a barbed wired fence. Fortunately they went off the road straight so they didn't flip the buggy over. When I looked back Erin was back up on the road but was out of the cart with one of the dogs sitting behind her. Luc, hitched to the cart with no one on board, took off running as soon as he saw the dog. He stopped along side Dev. Erin came running down the road towards us and I hollered for her to call out Luc and Dev's names so they would know who it was running up behind them. She could not hear me and kept coming. The boys must have thought it was the dogs so both bolted once more. Luc took off running down the road still driverless. I was able to get Dev stopped, fortunately Luc didn’t go far. Erin then let Luc know it was her coming up behind him and she was able to gain control once again.

The worst thing that happened was we lost the rubber edge off one of the wooden wheels.... try as she may Erin could not put it back on. She drove the rest of the way to town without it. It was noisy without the rubber trim but did not hurt the rim so no harm was done. I send it off to the wheelwright who took about ten minutes to remount it.

Good thing we drive donkeys, it could have been a whole lot worse. Erin and I talked about what she could have done to move Luc forward and that she needed to stay in the buggy as long as it was safe. If they would have backed off crocked I’m sure the buggy would have flipped over. At that point even I would have bailed out. At least no one was hurt and we both learned valuable lessons. The boys settled down after that for the long trip to town... except Dev who got the runs.... musta scared the crap outta him! At one point Dev lowered his head and lined out his body into perfect driving form, it was a thing of beauty to watch him effortless push into the collar and pull the gig down the road.

As we got closer to town we had idiot horses running up and down fence lines next to us, heavy traffic, girls riding double and mules thinking with horse brains... running and bucking. But we made it!

Into the town arena we drove making a couple of loops around the perimeter past the bucking chutes, and the stands. Jim met us with the trailer all we had to do was unharness, load up and drive home. While Jim was loading the vehicles Erin and I worked with Dev teaching him to cross the newly built wooden bridge used in horse shows. He was not sure he liked that, but he loved the apple treats that came with his efforts so he went for it. Good way to end his work day. His mountain riding this year will involve an assortment of bridges. This was a super way to acquainted him with them before we went trail riding.

The next morning I had a wonderful visit with Bob, the owner of the five Border Collies and the one turning hay in the field. He was feeling pretty bad once he heard what had happened! While he was there working he figured it would be a good time to let them out of the pen for some exercise. He never saw us until it was too late. In fact he saw the whole thing happen and had tried to call the dogs back but they weren't listening to him. The one who came out to Erin is a real sweetie and she just wanted to be by people. He was so sorry. Said he saw us stopped on the hill top and now wishes he would have come to make sure everything was OK, maybe he could have gotten the rubber back on the wheel for us. He has just moved out of that house. So who knows what the future may hold as far as driving that route.

June 25, 2006 Perfect.. Perfect… PERFECT! This was to be my first solo drive with Dev. Without Luc he listened and paid better attention to me. We only had to discuss the facts of his driving life and my safety a couple of times. One of the places he was concerned about was where dogs were barking inside a house. He was pretty nervous. I am sure he was remembering yesterday with the loose dogs. I made him stop every few feet past this place before proceeding. He calmed down and we went on. Stopping has always been an issue with Dev.

This five mile loop is loaded with roller coaster hills. The steepest ones are a quarter of a mile long. I used to long trot my horses on this route for conditioning and now I remember why! It warmed up from 75 when we left to 81 degrees when we returned; Dev hit the shade and took a nap as soon as he was turned loose!

June 30th Our daughter, Mitzi, came home for a short visit and she was able to go for her first ever donkey cart ride. Dev was wonderful and we had some quiet catching up time with no interruptions and only the rhythmic clip-clop of Dev’s hoofs striking the gravel roads.

For the rest of Dev’s summer and fall adventures check out the Riding and Accolade pages.

November/December Calendar notes: Following a cold snap Dev once again came up lame, same one as always; the front near hoof. After some research and discussion it was decided what we were experiencing was a transfer of cold thru the hoof wall causing a brief spell of lameness. What we did to try to keep this from reoccurring was to bed around the feeder with straw. This would act as an insulator between the cold ground and hooves. We were going thru three straw bales a week with temperatures down to 9* with no lameness and the boys had taken to bedding down around the feeder at night in the straw.

12/30/2006 I noticed the hoof wall was again cracked. This is Dev’s personal way to torture me! With this happening again I began to question everything from our feeding program to hoof trimming. There has to be an answer and I was bound and determined to find it! My 2007 New Years Resolution was to find out why and resolve this situation.