Happy Birthday, Carmel!!

    It's Carmel's birthday today! He is turning two!  He is much taller and stronger than when he was one. ;) Probably more of a brat too.. he tried to jump a fence last night... But today is still his birthday!!

    Actually today isn't the perfect birthday.  Memphis was limping really bad yesterday evening, and we put Carmel is the pasture, locked out of the barnyard, so he wouldn't be in the way while we tried to pick out Memphis' hurt foot.  Carmel galloped around, neighing, and at two different times he almost tried to jump.  He came running up to it and halted right before the leap, and then the second time his confidence held out a second longer and he smashed into the fence. D= Bad boy!
 
    We have actually never picked Memphis' feet before. I've never picked them up. When we got Memphis you couldn't touch him. Now he is where most of the time you can love on him, but he was always touchy about the feet. I should have been working on those hooves more earnestly than I did.  Anyway it was stressful because we had never done it before, but now we needed too.  Memphis knew that fact and let us try.  I love that so much about him!  Back when Memphis was new to the farm, he got his halter stuck in a haybine. (I think it was a haybine, sorry I'm not really as farm machinery-savvy as I would perfer!)  ;P   He was really stuck.  We hacked at that halter with every sharp thing we could find and finally gnawed our was through it and he was free.  What impressed me, though, was that Memphis stayed calm and cool the whole time.  He knew he needed us and that we were there to help.  He trusted us.  He did the same thing last night.  I love that little donkey! 

     Only this time we weren't able to stop the limp.  One piece of his hoof had folded under and although  we were able to get that piece off he is still limping really bad.  The farrier is going to come over and give Memphis his first hoof trimming.  D=  Please pray that we can catch Memphis, that he will be good,  and that the farrier will be able to stop the limping!

   A post for Carmel's birthday and I spent it all on Memphis. ;P  I'll try to get some pictures of him up on here soon.  You know, the older he gets the more he is like his mother. Yikes. I hope not!

                                                               ~Julia L.