This is Seymour

This is Seymour’s story, so far.  I’ve known him for about a year and a half, but I don’t know much about Seymour’s life before he came to me.  I met Seymour briefly in his paddock with his friend Dorothy and talked with their owner briefly.  The 2 donkeys desperately needed help, especially with their long overgrown hooves.

Once I decided to bring Seymour and Dorothy home with me, getting them on the trailer was traumatic for everyone involved, most especially for Seymour and Dorothy.  It was hot, humid and we were all sweating and exhausted by the time they were on board the trailer.  Rather dramatically, we drove through a big storm and arrived at my place to flooding rain and torrents of water running across the ground.

We walked 2 shaking, sweaty, shocked and now drenched donkeys to their new paddock.  They refused to cross any of the rivers created by the storm, so we had to keep backtracking until we could find a safe way forward.  Dorothy kept stopping and would not budge and we would change direction to get her going again.  Seymour seemed to walk much better than Dorothy, but he was shaking like a leaf, no doubt still in shock.

We finally got them safely into their paddock and made sure they had lots of hay.  We showed them where their water was and had to leave them to deal with our flooded home.

Over the days, they seemed to settle.  They lay down and rested a lot, which I assume was their way of coping with the shock of the move and how they got there.  But they were eating well and really enjoyed the branches and weeds I picked for them.

I already had a plan etched out in my mind and I started to enact it from day one.  This was because I had seen how Seymour and Dorothy behaved in their old home, how difficult it was to catch and halter them, particularly Seymour.  The owners had to creep up and throw a rope over his neck and when he froze, they forced his halter on.

The plan was that I would arrive, bring nice hay and greens that I had foraged, check their water, pick up manure and leave.  I would call out gaily to them “helloo!” every time.  I didn’t expect them to do anything for the food and I consistently ignored them and went about my business.

At first, if they were nearby, they would scoot away and wait until I had left before enjoying my food gifts.  After a while they started pricking their big gorgeous donkey ears when I called out gaily, but stood cautiously at a distance when I brought their hay and other surprises.  It didn’t take long before they were waiting at the gate when they heard me coming, but still scooted away to give me room.

I started to note that Dorothy appeared much less scared than Seymour and it didn’t take her long to creep closer and closer when I brought their hay.  Eventually she was brave enough to stay at the gate and even block my entrance in her enthusiasm to get to the food I’d brought.  Seymour always stood well back and scurried away when I moved around casually, doing the same thing that I did every day.

In Dorothy’s enthusiasm for the food, I started to get to know her, was able to hand feed her and eventually touch her.  I found out very quickly that she loves scratches and was not shy in coming forward and asking for them.  Seymour always stayed back and watched from a distance.

It took some time, but eventually Seymour started coming forward as well and he would carefully take branches from me at a safe distance.  With even more time, he started to take food from my hand.  But he was very frightened and head shy and any kind of movement on my part would send him scuttling away.

I continued to be predictable, consistent in my routine, always brought them nice things to eat and moved slowly around them. 

Eventually I got to a stage where I could hand feed them both and started to train them to touch their nose to my hand in a formal training session.  Once I started doing this, they both became very enthusiastic to participate and there was also a fair amount of bickering and resource guarding.  I set up a barrier for Protected Contact to keep myself safe, but I could also move them a little further away from each other as well, using the nose target to direct them.

It became apparent very quickly that Seymour was massively head/ear shy.  My hand or arm movements caused him to flinch uncontrollably and repeatedly.  It was very distressing to watch and at times made it quite hard to train him, as I needed to move and offer a nose target to begin with and had to do it all in slow motion.  Now that he was closer, I could see how truly overgrown his hooves were.  I could also see that his legs were covered in bleeding sores from repeated fly bites.  But the good news was that he wasn’t running away anymore and was quite enthusiastic about training with food.

Now the real journey with Seymour could begin.

I started training him to move towards a rope – something that also really frightened him. But my training always allows him to do as much as he feels comfortable. Having that control and the clarity of this type of training, meant it wasn’t long before he then poked his nose into a loop of rope and then later, into a large sized halter.  Despite being head and ear shy and also being very afraid of ropes, he made great progress.  He did so well that he came to love his halter and he would come when I jingled it.

Slowly but surely the flinching and twitching of his head started to subside.  I deliberately didn’t set out to cure him of his fear around his head and ears.  Instead, every single time he chose to move towards my hand and arms holding out the halter, he chose to brush against me, including his beautiful big soft ears.  Every time that happened, his behaviour got reinforced with food, as well as being able to control how much or how little he chose to offer.  His fear was also countered with pleasure from the food.

In contrast to his friend Dorothy, he nearly always remained quiet, wary, even suspicious.  I was not allowed to touch him unless it was within a training session and the most interaction he would offer me was to sniff my hand.  Yet he made great and consistent progress in his training.  Ducking his head in his halter, then adding the lead rope, then using the target to shape forward movement, transferring the walk cue to the lead rope and also walking at liberty.  We worked on touch acceptance all over his body, beginning with a soft duster for the harder to reach places and my hand for his neck and body.  I shaped him to step up on a mat and then later on a raised pedestal.  Then I systematically desensitized (SD) and counter conditioned (CC) him to my looking down at his feet, bending down and then finally touching his legs and feet.  I could not even take photos of his feet in those early days.  I worked within his comfort zone, below his fear threshold and paired every tiny touch and step with food.  Finally, I could start shaping hoof lifts!

It was an extremely long and sometimes frustrating process, with many set backs along the way.  First of all I had to SD and CC everything!  Myself, my movement, my tools, such as the duster, the look, the smell, the touch of it.  Using the duster as a nose target and also methodically touching, stroking, tapping, poking him (simulating what might happen during a trim) and working my way all over his body. I conditioned myself, the duster, my hand and their touch as an appetitive stimulus, it only ever meant good things happening, ever.

I ensured I was able to touch him all over with the duster and also with my hand and that he was comfortable with various kinds of touches. The next step was that I would then touch and pause either with the duster or my hand and click and reinforce any weight shift or movement.  I merely paused my touch, asked a question, left a little space for him to insert some kind of behaviour and when he did, I marked it with a click and reinforced it with food. I flipped things around so that I encouraged him to move and offer behaviour that I could reinforce with food.

I shaped his hoof lifts from that first small weight shift.  Finally, when he was reliably lifting his hoof, I added the cue.  The lightest touch of my hand on his shoulder and then lightly running my hand down his leg, became a cue for him to lift his hoof.  There was no pressure, no pinching or squeezing, I asked and he offered.  If he wanted to or was scared enough, he could have kicked me in the head, but he didn’t, because I never pressured or caused him discomfort or held on to the hoof.

What he learnt to do as well, was communicate with me and I listened.  Whenever I asked too much, he would let me know.  From a full on kick out with the back hoof, he graduated down to slowly lifting his back foot to let me know I was asking more than he was ready to give.  We went back and forth, we had a conversation and a negotiation.  He also offered me a Start Button very early in the training.  This is a signal he gives me when he is ready for the next repetition in the training.  Starting with a very big nod of his head where his nose nearly touched the ground, he now gives me a barely perceptible nod.  It has been immeasurably useful in the trimming process.  My trimmer watches for his head nod, which gives her the green light to proceed each time.  It’s truly amazing that I can enjoy such a dialogue between Seymour, myself and also others involved in his care. Seymour had his first trim of just the one front hoof, 9 months after his arrival.

I would also spend time sitting in the paddock with both of them on a little stool I sometimes used for training.  It was really pleasurable and soothing watching them eat, roll, bicker, snooze and on the rare occasion, even play. There is something about donkeys that is truly good for your heart, I always walked away from my time spent with them, feeling lighter.

Dorothy was quite confident in coming up to me and sniffing me and requesting scratches.  Seymour stayed back most of the time, except a few brief times he came up and stood quietly resting companionably next to me, at a distance. Once he came close enough to sniff me very gently and carefully and brush me with his whiskers.  Another time I dared to touch him and instead of moving away, he positioned himself where he wanted to be scratched, which was behind his elbow.  That was a rare treat indeed for both of us.  I glowed afterward with the sheer thrill that he felt safe enough to stand so close to me and let me scratch him.

Fast forward and Seymour and I recently passed a couple of huge milestones in his training and care.  I did enough training to prepare him to have his teeth floated by a mobile dental vet.  He needed to feel comfortable being haltered and tied, have strangers moving around and near him and after lots of practice on my agility course, he walked voluntarily into the mobile crush.  It turns out he’s quite needle phobic and we were unable to sedate him in the crush.  We had to quickly release him as he was panicking and trying to escape and could easily hurt himself.  A change of plan meant I set up a training session where I could introduce the vet touching him, introduce the needle and eventually have him sedated in his neck muscle.  Finally, he could have his teeth floated and vaccinations given and this happened 15 months after arriving at my place. He reacted very strongly to the vaccination needle as well, even while he was still sedated.  But I successfully trained and gave him his follow up booster vaccination injection myself weeks later.  I also successfully trained him to lift all 4 hooves willingly and voluntarily and hold them up with enough duration for me to clean them.  He’s also offered to lift his hooves for my trimmer and allowed her to trim all 4 hooves. Finally the last back hoof was trimmed 1.5 years after Seymour came to me.  He lifted them gently, knowingly and willingly for my trimmer, with me providing a continuous flow of food and encouragement, with a tiny joyful tear of relief in my eye.

I’ve succeeded in training amazing and life changing behaviours that enable Seymour to participate in his own care.  But he is still an enigma.

He’s learnt to feel relatively safe, to trust my consistency and predictability, to have control, by being listened to when he ‘talks’ with his subtle behaviour.  He’s learnt to gradually de-escalate the way he communicates, because he knows he has a voice.  He’s slowly learning to be curious, to be bossy at times to Dorothy and even sometimes initiate interaction with me.  He’s learnt that not all people are scary or need to be chased out of his paddock.  But he still needs more time to really like people, even me.

It’s hard not to take it personally when he doesn’t want to interact, accept affection or be touched, or even vocalise and speak to me.  But I understand that all the things I’ve trained him to do, are of no value to him.  He doesn’t understand that he needs his teeth floated, his hooves trimmed regularly or his eyes cleaned.  That’s of no value to him. 

But he does value all the food I give him to counter his fear and reinforce his participation.  I’m a patient person and he’s a donkey who deserves that and more.  He’s given me so much, the skills and experience I’ve gained in his training has been life changing for me, as well as him.  The pleasure and satisfaction I’ve gained in seeing him transform physically has been hugely rewarding and reinforcing.  I’ve also made a very special friend.

I cannot wait to see his transformation mentally and emotionally as well, when he truly believes all people and all things are good and wonderful. That life is wondrous and also, I hope, pain free.  When I get to meet the real Seymour waiting quietly, or maybe not so quietly, beneath the layers of literally years worth of fear and pain. 

I cannot wait to see when he can choose to interact without suspicion or fear.  When he can show his enthusiasm and love for training, without scaring himself.  When he feels safe enough to ask for scratches and show me where he wants them, with no fear of the consequences.

When I can show him how much I love him, without scaring him away.

But maybe I’ve already shown him and now all he needs is time to heal and then he can reveal his own heart.

Pauline Keil