Month: December 2018

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Goat Drama

Elka’s Obsession

We love our three goats, Jasmine, Jade and Jessica. They are extremely sweet goats, enjoying being scratched and pet, coming to us eagerly when they are called. However, there is another side to goats. They are PUSHY! Horses can be trained to respect the boundaries one set, waiting patiently while I bring out the hay without crowding me, waiting until I set the grain down before going for it. But goats cannot be trained this way. If you come into their stall with grain they’ll jump up on you, ram each other out of the way and do whatever they can to get at that grain. They will try to bolt out of the stall or into a stall if they think there is something in there for them.

Jasmine, Jade and Jessica

We were pleased to invite Joshua over for a two-week sleepover with dreams of baby goats in the spring. We are confident now that he did the deed with all three girls. After a few days his randy behavior settled down and the girls stopped shaking their tails at him.

Mary Agnes, Whisper and Arlo

We got our three Gotland sheep 2 weeks ago. Arlo, Whisper and Mary Agnes are truly sweet, through and through. They also don’t have horns to use as weapons. We noticed immediately that Jasmine, our milker goat, was hostile to the sheep. When she came into a stall where they were passively standing, she attacked them agressively until she got them out of the stall. We thought she was simply establishing her dominance and that all would settle down soon. However, two days ago I observed her attacking Whisper with incredible violence. She jammed her horn into Whisper’s side and kept pushing it in and pushing her around. I was so glad I observed this and separated Jasmine from the sheep immediately. Whisper was quite hurt. The wonderful vet, Dr. Schmidt came over right away and examined the wound. There was a round hole on her lower abdomen near her utters. She was having difficulty walking. He shaved around it, washed it and gave her a 5-day injection of antibiotics. He could not be sure it had not penetrated through the muscles into the abdominal cavity so he advised me to keep an eye on her temperature, attitude, and appetite. This morning her temperature was normal and she is eating well. Phew.

In the mean time, Jasmine is having to spend her days in a stall now. She’s content there with her very own hay and no one to compete with. She can see everyone through the slats of the other stalls.

Then this morning I noticed what you see in this picture on Jade’s left upper and lower lips. I sent the picture to Dr. Schmidt and he said it was a virus that would most likely clear on its own. I asked about why she seems so much rounder than her sister, Jessica. He predicted that she is probably pregnant with triplets or quadruplets. Oh my!


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Dogs and more dogs…and more

Dogs are an important part of our life here at Ancient Ponies Farm.  We arrived here with Oscar and Pumpkin, neither of whom are useful as farm dogs, though we love them dearly!  
Last May, Elka joined our family.  She’s now 7 1/2 months old and is starting her training as a herding dog.  In the video below you can see her first encounter with sheep.  She is showing some good instinct here, which hopefully we will develop over time….and with our soon to arrive sheep.  Yes, Maybelle, Oliva (Leicester Longhairs) and Mary Agnes (a Gotland- shown in picture) are being picked up, by Zoe and me, in two days time.  Since Jasmine, Jessica and Jade are all pregnant and due in the spring, likely with twins or triplet baby goats, we thought we’d wait to breed sheep until next year.

With all of the prey animals we are now responsible for (3 sheep, 3 pregnant goats, 15 chickens and 3 ducks), we’ve been thinking a lot about getting a guardian.  A fox already took one of our ducks in broad daylight while I watched.  We tried two lamas but they didn’t work out.

So meet Nel.  This photo is Nel at 4 weeks so you can imagine what she will ultimately look like.  She is a Maremma, which is an Italian dog, bred to guard livestock.  She will ultimately live in the barn with the animals and guard against fox and coyote.  As we are learning to train Elka for herding, we are also reading up on how to help a livestock guard dog be the best and happiest she can be.  She comes next week when she is 8 weeks old.  

She will look something like this: