[Homestead] Equus Asinus

Lynda lurine at com-pair.net
Fri May 22 01:37:56 EDT 2009


Yeah, same beasties but slight differences if you compare what is here and 
what is there.  Thomasina came over a group of horses that were imported 
from Bahrain.  Pentaque was rounded up by the BLM up between California and 
Nevada.

Thomasina was much finer boned and Pentaque was stockier, not just the 
masculine/feminine thing.

Training to the cart was easy.  Just walked him around with the harness at 
first, then drag poles (PVC pipe works great, its cheap and if it breaks 
they don't get hurt and you aren't out the big $$) and then the cart.  Also 
"drove" him from the ground in the round pen (bridle, surcingle, over-check, 
crupper, long lines).  Then drove him from the ground behind the cart with a 
50# bag of feed in the cart, then 100#.  After a couple of weeks we were off 
and about.

>From there the training for riding is easy cause they are already use to the 
bridle, a cinch and going where you want them to go.  I broke all my horses 
from the ground and to cart first.  Tie a sack of grain on the saddle to get 
them use to the weight.  Plus we always used blankets with tennis balls on 
the babies so they were never touchy about their legs.  Because they were 
used to the "bouncing balls," the hanging human legs were no big deal.

I've never had an intact male donkey or horse bother the babies.  The 
weanlings, sometimes, but the babies never.  The only problem I ever had 
with an intact male anything was a Suffolk ram (I do NOT like Suffolk, btw 
<g>) and he would head butt the horses to get to their feed.  He stopped 
when an old gelding picked him up and tossed him.

Lynda
Members of Congress should be compelled to wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers 
so we can identify their corporate sponsors.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "EarthNSky" <erthnsky at bellsouth.net>
>
> This reminds me...someone asked me the other day what the difference was
> between a burro and a donkey...
> the magazine discusses this, but here is the scoop...
> The 'burros' of the Western US are not indigenous.  Burro is the Spanish
> word for donkey, and when Spain colonized the Americas, they brought
> with them the same donkey, the Jerusalem ass, technically the African
> Wild Ass (I just love that name!<snicker>) as a pack animal to mine for
> gold in Mexico and California, etc.  The donkeys were later abandoned
> and became feral 'burros'.  The term burro is not used for the mammoths
> or the minis, only the traditional size animal.  It would seem to me
> that if you got a feral animal from the BLM it would be a burro right up
> until you take it home, when it would become a donkey...lol...or a burro
> if you speak Spanish...lol..
>
> When you say you broke him to pull a cart...how did you do that and was
> it hard?  Or do you mean you broke him to ride and trained him to pull?
> Jack is independent and stubborn, but very sweet in a manipulative kind
> of way-quite pathetic and adorable....not mean at all.  One of the
> things I read was that they are great with kids and with the
> handicapped, so your experiences are spot on with both animals.
>
> The article says that you should not use an intact Jack as a guardian,
> that they are too aggressive.  I just don't see aggression in Jack, but
> then, I have never seen him react around lambs or kids.  All I have seen
> is his behavior with geldings/horses.
>
> -- 
> "The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public
> debt  should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered
> and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed
> lest Rome become bankrupt.  People must again learn to work, instead of
> living on public assistance."
>
> --Cicero, 55 BC
> http://erthnsky.blogspot.com/
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