Is It Too Much To Ask?

You would think that by taking such good care of your animals...

spending countless hours each day providing for them...

keeping their welfare in the forefront of all that you do....

that for the small fraction of time that you ask them to cooperate,

they would be only too happy to oblige.

After all, you love them...

so shouldn't they return a little of that love in the form of cooperation

or possibly obedience??

Is it asking too much?

Really? 

"HAH!" I say....

"Dream on!"

You'll notice that my dear Sammy is wearing an extra collar.

Yes, that is a shock collar.

I keep one on hand for emergency training....

like "no, we don't chase deer through the woods"

and "no, we don't chase chickens".

And usually, I don't have to use it at all.

And when I do use it, I rarely use the "shock" feature,

but prefer to use the warning "tone"...

that's usually enough to get Sam's attention.

So why is Sam wearing the collar now?

Well, do you see that ridge beyond the arena?

This past Sunday, Sam decided to visit the family that lives over that ridge.

He stayed for 4 hours.

They brought him home by car.

That was after many attempts at calling him to come home.

Monday morning the collar went on.

He hasn't left my side since.

Now for those of you who might think me barbaric in using a shock collar...

I assure you it is a very good collar.

It allows you to use a tone, or just the very mildest "nick" of a shock....

it is quite humane...and best of all, it is quite effective.

And Sammy is one of those boys who needs effective training...

or Sammy runs amok!

Do you see this sweet eye?

You would think that a creature with an eye as kind as this would be an easy ride...

willingly obliging with anything asked of him.

Not so....no this is the eye of a little stinker who tries to get away with 

anything he can possibly get away with....

from bucking to just plain refusing to do what is asked.

"I'm just too tired to do that," he sighs.

I have a confession.

After last week's bucking incident,

I found every excuse in the book for not riding this past week.

Yep, that old evil "fear" crept back into my bones.

That is until yesterday's lesson.

Yesterday we walked, we trotted, we worked on the basics...

and we never got beyond that because Mr. Stubborn decided he wasn't in the mood to work.

I have this one question for you, Moonbeam....

"What if I weren't in the mood to feed you?"

As if that would ever happen.

So really....

is it too much to ask for just an hour's cooperation every couple of days?

Oh, and the pigs decided to run all over the pasture yesterday 

instead of returning home to the barn for dinner.

Yes, they ducked under the fence to the right and ran around like maniacs.

I may have pulled a little of my own hair out yesterday...

it was a long day.

 I guess if we had complete cooperation, life would be dull...

which it never is...

at least not here on the farm.

And today's another day.

PS....3 days and counting....

donkey bliss is getting closer!