Meet the Barn Animals

If you caught the post about our dogs, you already met the most useful animals on our farm so far. While we have great aspirations to obtain additional productive animals such as chickens and guineas for eggs (and bug control), sheep or goats to make milk-based soap, and a cow for dairy products, we haven't gotten that far yet.

We do, however, have 3 fairly useless barn animals that bring us lots of joy (and some serious headaches). These boys are quite a bit of work and cause a decent amount of trouble, but boy, are they cute. Let's meet James, Leroy, and Teddy.

We'll start with Teddy, the newest addition to the farm. Teddy is an off-track thoroughbred that I got as a coming 3 year old about a year ago. He was unraced but track trained, lightly restarted, and then let to sit in the pasture for a few months. When we got him to the farm he had some pretty terrible, and sometimes downright dangerous, behaviors. He's had some light riding and ground work so far, but mostly the past year with Teddy has been spent working on his ground manners and letting him figure out how to trust us. He's very spooky and clearly didn't feel safe when he arrived. Now he's mostly just a goofy 3 year old, but still has his moments. This year I hope to get him consistent on the flat and work our way up to learning to jump.

Now on to James and Leroy, the real stars of the show. James and Leroy, like Teddy, are 3 year old geldings. But they aren't horses, they're MINI DONKEYS. We got James and Leroy from a donkey rescue in rural Missouri a few months after we bought our house. They're a bonded pair that had been abandoned in a field as babies. They'd only been handled under sedation, and only a few times. When we got them, we actually had to sign a contract stating that we knew these donkeys were completely feral.

Since they've become more comfortable in their home we have been able to really get to know them. James is more stand-offish and prefers to take what he needs from us and then be left alone. Leroy, on the other hand, will follow us around until we give him scratches or cookies or a good grooming. These little fellas are great companion animals for Teddy, and they keep most of the critters out of the pasture (think coyotes, deer, raccoon, even bobcats).

Look for updates on the 3 amigos, from Teddy's training to fun donkey escapades, here on the blog and on Instagram!