Thread by @homemadeguitars

True donkey story: 🧵
There was a spot on the road near home that Clara was afraid of.
Some scumbag had dumped a big old overstuffed recliner in the ditch there, and the way it had fallen there was a big black hole in the middle. Scared Clara something fierce.

2. I was going to take her on a lead rope, and take a pocket full of goodies, and walk down there and spend some time looking closely at it, let her see that it wasn't a threat, but the county finally came and hauled it away. So I thought it was all done.

3. As it turned out, though, between the fencerow tree line the neighbor's row of big bales in deep shade on the other side, the general darkness of the area, and the memory, she still always shied away from the spot. It's along part of our farm, so it was a recurring problem.

4. The way to get them over fear is by taking them to the scary thing, and slowly approach it, talking gently and feeding treats, and spend some time there with them until they realize it's not going to get them.
So, we had time the other day, and I haltered her and took her out.

T. With any team of working equines, if you take one team member out and leave the other behind, the one left behind feels picked on. It's one common source of accident and breakage.
Took Clara, left Missy behind.

6. There's a gate between the yard where I let them graze, and the outer world, that I usually keep latched with a chain so Bandit can come and go but the girls can't. I didn't bother to latch it, because I had Clara, and Missy was behind gates and fence in the dry lot / stall.

7. (By the way, I just went out to take that pic and Bandit came out to make his cameo appearance. Really.)

8. So... anyway...
I took Clara down to the trouble spot, and we hung around for a few minutes, walked back and forth, cuddled, ate goodies, looked closely, sniffed the ground, got ourselves all fixed, and went back home.
Missy was out in the outer yard, past the green gate.
Um.

9. "Well, shit," says Jeffie, "what did I leave open?"
Nothing.
Every gate was closed and latched.
As it turns out, the only reason Missy had been staying behind the fence all along was because she chose to.
When she chose not to, she didn't.
Oops.

10. There was a place where a railroad tie fence post had rotted off at the ground and fallen partway over, and the fence was pretty low. I'm not sure that's where she got out, but it seemed likely. Day before yesterday I went up there with the girls, took some tools and t-posts.

11. Back to the day of the event, though...
When Clara and I walked back up the drive, Missy was there. She gave me one of Those Looks, like "Gotcha, old fart," and went back to eating.
I gave her a few goodies, and she followed us back in.
Well.

12. While I'm grateful that they mostly choose to stay in when asked, I'm not sure that's the ideal.
So day before yesterday we did some fence fixing.
I don't guarantee they can't get out somewhere else, if the urge strikes them. This is unsettling.

13. To work on the gate I took the girls, the work cart, the tool box, a couple T-posts (steel fence posts), a post driver, and a log chain.
I can wrap a chain around the cart axle, hook it to a log or old fence post, and they can drag the log by pulling the cart like usual.

14. I have a sort of a patio around the water tank so that area won't be a mudhole when I change the water or when it rains.
Donkeys don't like mud. So I figured I'd drag the post in there and add it to the patio. It's the shortest closest one here.

15. Missy dragged all the longest ties in here up from where they were on the other side of the road, by herself, so dragging this smaller one wasn't a big deal, but I was still impressed with the way Clara put her heart into the added load and got right up in her collar pulling.

16. Every day is a new lesson. It's taking them a long time but they are getting me trained.
Later, y'all.