I brought Veronica home on Saturday after about an hour of working to catch her. Turns out I just needed to act like I was leaving or something and she suddenly wanted to be caught. Go figure. Did you know that mules generally get attached to their people pretty easily? Yeah she's sort of attached to my neighbor.. I digress.
Her home for the next two weeks is a 18 foot by 6ish foot stall. I need her to set her little brain to this is home, or at least hopefully set it to that. If she really does is another matter, but for the time being it sounds good to me. The front of the stall that is the door is a standard livestock gate. I have hung her food bucket here. To the left of that gate are carriage bolts that hold the gate on and I have her 5 gallon water bucket hanging there. The hay holder is on the back wall opposite the gate. Now that you know the layout of the stall, we can talk about my mornings that are starting to evolve.
Veronica now is getting used to the feeding schedule, which is in the morning and at night. Since she has no forage at the moment she is getting a little less than 2lbs of grain twice a day and 3 flakes of hay. That should be more than plenty for a equine her size. She now slightly nickers? not sure what I would call the noises she makes when she hears me coming, but she gets EXCITED.
Let me tell you who else is excited about what is going on... Butters. My fat pony. He has figured out in the mornings the feeding routine and generally waits by his food bucket at 6:30am nickering away at his displeasure that his life is confined by this stupid fence that doesn't allow him uninhibited access to the grain he desires. Since Veronica has appeared he has quickly figured out that she gets grained before him. How dare I. Seriously, how dare I not feed him first.
So now he waits by her stall door in the mornings. Seriously, it took his fat butt 1 day to figure out that he needs to be in front of her stall instead of his bucket. Here is where the comedy is coming into play... he tries to get in the stall with me in the mornings. The stall that already contains 1 mule. Why? In Butters mind, the tragedy of me not feeding him first can be fixed if he gets in the stall with me to eat Veronica's feed. My morning routine is like a horrible comedy. "Butters get back" "Butters I swear to God" "Butters this isn't your feed" "Butters that's ENOUGH"
This morning I carried down the hill the 5 gallons of water, the feed, and 1.5 flakes of hay. I put the water bucket down to unlatch her gate being careful that she doesn't ram the gate open when I do in her excitement of food. All the while I have Butters standing just outside of my range of smacking with my hand nickering at me. I enter the stall, Veronica is EXCITED. Like pacing OMG ITS BREAKFAST TIME! I set the water bucket down right in front of the gate, still holding the grain, turn around to put her hay in the holder, and Veronica knocks over the 5 gallons of water all in her stall. She then takes off in a panic at the bucket issue. So much for "mules don't run from danger"
I'm pissed she spilled the bucket and at the same time trying to figure out if she's going to kick while I'm in a confined spot. Then there is Butters. Sweet Butters. Who is now pushing on the gate door, Veronica is coming back to the feed bucket, and Butters is trying to shove his fat head in-between the bars of the gate to get to her feed. Veronica bites Butters, Butters squeals in protest, I drive off Veronica so I can put the feed in the bucket and exit the stall.
Butters is now in my face. Breathing like a fat guy that just walked up a flight of stairs and sighs like "well?" Yes, Butters, go to your feed bucket. I will feed you now. Here have your .5lbs of grain and water slush. Jerk.
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