Yeah, so I've been busy. Work, showing my donkey, camping, and just generally living my life. As a result, I haven't really posted anything in a while, but then, I'm not sure it matters since I've only got 6 page views and most of those are probably me. Oh well. I'm still enjoying writing on this thing now and again.
So, I now owe you an accounting of my first big donkey show with my donk, Bailey. First things first though - a little background. Bailey was my very first breeding project. We aquired her mother, Fiona, as just a pet - a little donk to play with and have around because donks are probably the best equine pet ever. But it turns out that Fiona is a well built little donk and we wanted a second donkey, so we decided to cook one of our own. We did some research, looked around, found a REALLY NICE jack with a successful show record and some really nice babies on the ground, and then we put down some money for a breeding. 12 months later, RedMuleRanch Irish Coffee aka "Bailey" was born. (Donks take 12 months to hatch a baby.) Bailey is a Miniature Mediterranean Donkey. She's also evil incarnate. :-)
Bailey fears nothing. She's made a trip to the Equine Expo every year since she was a yearling. Every year, she's happy that all those people come just to see her. As far as she's concerned, the world revolves around her and I am a part of that world. I was the first person she ever met. We made it up to the barn when she was about 20 minutes old and I went into the stall first. I sat down and she got right into my lap and laid down. Bailey has been my donkey ever since. When she gets nervous about something, she'll hide behind me and look out from around my legs. She'll do anything I ask her to do and she'll definitely do anthing for a treat. Whenever I walk into the barn, she's right there waiting for me and I MUST say hello to her first or I'm in Big Trouble. She's never bitten my butt, but she's bitten other people's butts for not paying appropriate homage, so I always do hug on her first.
She's also bred to be a performance donkey, so she's athletic, intelligent, and a little bit high-strung. (Yes, donkeys can be high strung.) So, bottom line is that Bailey is a straight up Diva. But she's a Diva who will do anything for 5 kernels of grain. She's aquired a few tricks. If you present her with a box or platform of any sort and tell her "foot" she'll stand on it. She also knows "Stand" (aka Stay), Back up, Walk, Trot, she comes to her name, plus we're working on some other stuff.
She's my little girl and I love the stuffins out of her.
So that's a little intro to Bailey. Next time, I'll tell you about her first real donkey show.
