On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 13:59:29 -0500, you wrote: >well what would you suggest. she's already carrying an aluminum >baseball bat into the paddock with her. and using it. She handed me >a fly swatter, which worked pretty good actually. He needs to be >gelded for one, and soon, and i think she is working on that.
It's a really hard one. This is the orphan mule, isn't it? Is he still being fed milk? I think if he was mine I would try my hardest to get him into a larger herd of horses/donkeys/mules, with some more foals, youngsters and adult horses, so they could teach him that he's not King of the World. Then I would try to restrict human contact as much as possible until he's learned more about herd status generally and his place in the herd. We have a similar thing nearby - a friend used my stallion on her mare, and the foal is now a yearling. When she was a baby she was handled a lot, and not in a good way (in spite of warnings!). She was taught to play with people, never really corrected, turned into a big pet puppy dog which was fine when she was tiny, but now she's a strapping big yearling over 13hh and you have a carry a whip when you go in the field or she jumps all over you, bites, kicks, yuck. My friend would like to sell her but as you can imagine nobody is that keen. I suspect I will probably end up buying her and rehabbing her which is sad considering she's such a baby.... : ( Mic Mic (Michelle) Rushen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Solva Icelandic Horses and DeMeulenkamp Sweet Itch Rugs: www.solva-icelandics.co.uk -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
