Today, nobody blinks when I wear pants — which is, regrettably, most of the time. I actually love wearing dresses. You’d never know, though. Rural Montana is a sore beast when it comes to opportunities to dress up. I have lamentations about this.

Anyway.

Clicker training — in the popular horse world — is akin to women wearing pants in the mid-20th century. I went many years under trainers who would chew you out for giving a horse a treat.

“They get muggy,” the trainers said. “You’re spoiling them.”

Food is Both Survival & Motivation

Under the circumstances, they weren’t wrong. Horses get intense about food when they’re fed on a regular schedule. If a barn feeds stalled horses every morning at 7am, feed them ten minutes late and catch the ruckus of the barn. Pawing, neighing, posturing. You’ll see it all.

Food is, after all, survival. It’s in a horse’s best interest to get as much of it as possible. But in times of plenty — as in domesticated life — we humans are tasked with managing their intake, lest they, like us, become fat off both the land and the hand.

But it remains that food is the primary motivating factor for 99% of equines. And, of course, many four-legged and even two-legged animals among us. My mom potty trained me with M&Ms. I still remember the colorful glass jar of candy sitting on the back of the toilet. The power of M&Ms compelled me. To date, I have mastered the art of using the bathroom. Thank you, Mom…and M&Ms.

A Mare Named Lou

A mare named Lou inspired me to get more into clicker training when I couldn’t get her past a sour attitude. I bought her for a song. And together, we learned the basics of horsemanship. I’d never worked with horses that weren’t “made.” That is, fully trained. Lou was what we call ‘green’ and she was, perhaps, the greatest teacher I’ve had.

I knew someone had clicker trained Lou a bit. When I bought her, she knew how to ‘smile’ and would show her teeth in a silly bid for a treat. I decided to give it a whirl, and a brand new horse bloomed in front of me. She was always good-hearted, but she became good-minded, excited to see me. She’d meet me at the gate to come play. I taught her how to hand me a bottled drink. I got her almost to the point where she’d get it out of the cooler.

Tricks are fun. But the better aspect was how smoothly our riding relationship bloomed when I added the clicker into her sour spots. After two years, I sold Lou at a decent profit to a cute family who wanted to trail ride, and she was a doll for that. I’m grateful for our time together, and for the gift that ‘smile’ gave me. An intro to ‘clicker training’ had begun.

Clicker Training 101

The history of clicker training started in scientific labs. Really, it’s operant conditioning — which is a branch off of classical conditioning.

Remember Pavlov’s dogs? That is classical conditioning. That’s akin to the horses causing a ruckus at 7am as soon as they hear the barn door open and a human walking toward the grain bins. They’re conditioned to the stimulus of both time and sound. I assure you, before that human walks in, there are expectations of arrival.

Operant conditioning is attributed mostly to B.F. Skinner, though a man named Edward L. Thorndike developed the initial theory of ‘instrumental learning’ and the ‘law of effect’ . Skinner, however, popularized the system.

At its most basic, operant conditioning is the notion that an individual will repeat a behavior that are rewarded and will diminish behaviors that result in unpleasant outcomes.

It relies solely on the operant — or the student, in my case, a wild donkey — to determine which behaviors he chooses to repeat. Choice is the most important word here, because it’s up to the trainer to set up the conditions for the student to make the best choice.

To me, choice is the most important element of this training tool. More on that in a bit.

Positive Reinforcement has Nothing to do With Positivity

There’s so much on the internet about the four quadrants of operant conditioning, and I encourage you to read up on them. But for now I’ll tell you that they are positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment.

The four quadrants can be confusing because we English speakers have preconceived notions about these words that don’t apply here. Positive and negative simply mean addition and subtraction. Reinforcement aims to increase a behavior, and punishment intends to decrease a behavior. Better put:

1. Positive reinforcement — adding a desired stimulus to increase behavior

2. Negative reinforcement — subtracting an aversive stimulus to increase behavior

3. Positive punishment — adding an aversive stimulus to decrease behavior

4. Negative punishment — subtracting a desired stimulus to decrease behavior

This gets confusing. Here are some clear examples.

1. Positive reinforcement: giving a treat after a dog sits on command

2. Negative reinforcement: the car stops beeping once you’ve put your seatbelt on

3. Positive punishment: getting a speeding ticket after, well, speeding

4. Negative punishment: Taking away a teen’s phone when they’ve broken curfew

This is where things begin to get fun.

Clicker Training, A Highly Effective Tool in the Training Toolbox

Clicker training as a tool uses positive reinforcement to increase behaviors. There are people online attach themselves to the idea that positive reinforcement is the only way because of the assumed positivity of the endeavor. This is a falsehood.

The issue is that I also use aids to get to the behavior. Halter pressure, for one, is an excellent tool to communicate. If I am putting pressure on the halter to encourage my donkey to back up, I can release the pressure once he takes a step back (negative reinforcement), mark the step back with a click (a conditioned reinforcer), and then give a treat to even more deeply reinforce that behavior (positive reinforcement).

Let’s say my donkey responds to the pressure by trying to bolt. I may have to dig my heels in, use an exorbitant amount of pressure to turn the donkey’s head toward me, and say “No!” to tell him that this is not acceptable. This is positive punishment (the post-behavior increased pressure & additive verbal cue) followed by negative reinforcement (the release of pressure when the donkey stops moving).

Releasing the donkey when he bolts is an unfortunate but sometimes accidental outcome. It provides the whole scale release of pressure following an unwanted behavior. This is negative reinforcement, to the nth degree. Moments like this are where we see horses learn to buck riders off, pull away from people, or worse. The release of pressure is so powerful a tool with equines that most people rely on it as their main tool — often without understanding the underlying construct.

Clicker training gives us a tool to do more with less. Plus, it’s fun.

I use clicker training to create a deeper understanding about pressure cues, to see pressure as a conversation rather than a tool, and to get an outcome that both of us are happier with. I have friends who are phenomenal riders and trainers with a tremendous amount of what horseman call ‘feel’. I don’t have that talent, but I can figure out the timing with a clicker.

How I’m Using It Right Now, with Brasso the Wild Donkey

The first step to clicker training is what clicker trainers call “loading the click.”

To teach the animal that a reward is coming, you use a marking sound in combination with a treat. I click my tongue, since I’m ADHD and lose clickers. You can also say “Yes!” or bang a drum. Basically, any sound you associate the treat with works. Blow a high C note on a tenor sax. Or say the word “Sick!” Anything works. Consistence is key.

Both donkeys are currently in a phase of ‘intolerance’ with humans. They currently have the choice to not allow me in their space, and for the most part, this is what they choose.

Brasso, the big shaggy donkey, belongs to my friend Elise. He’s more intolerant of me in his space, but is now conditioned to the clicker. If I click, he knows a treat is coming. Since he’s less tolerant of me, I’m training him through the fence, meaning he has the option to leave. But he will now touch a target — I use a long livestock whip — and follow it, touching it with his nose. When he touches it, I click then treat. I can also pet him with the whip, click a moment where I see him get more comfortable, and treat. This will lead to me being able to pet him, probably pretty soon.

But, giving him the choice means that we move at his speed. I’m happy to do that.

Kevin, A Different Kind of Wild Donkey

Brasso has been out of the ‘wild’ for a little over a year, he’s younger and more curious, but also more scared. At 13, he’s young for a donkey. They can live well into their forties.

Kevin, on the other hand, is 21. He’s been in captivity for three years and has a clear dislike for humans and a general curmudgeonly attitude with other beings, including Brasso.

Funny enough, Kevin is more tolerant of me in his space than Brasso. After a few retreat/approach sessions, he learned to like the feeling of the lunge whip petting him. He’ll now stand next to me, smell me up and down, and lean into me with his body. I can scratch his neck, pet his back, and feel comfortable with him in my space. Initially, if I turned my back on him, he’d pin his ears and stomp at me. He’s stopped that. He’s decided I’m his friend.

The one thing he isn’t interested in is taking a treat directly from my hand. He is scared of anything under his nose. His eyes sit high on his head, which means his eyesight is limited underneath him.

I have to figure out how to slow down my steps to help him feel more comfortable, but Kevin is also more tolerant of easy negative reinforcement. He is more resilient to pressure than Brasso. Remember, it’s not a worse sort of reinforcement. For him, I can do less training — in a way — and get the same result.

For now, Kev and I will work toward clicker training and live in a very intentional state of limited pressure and big releases.

Well, This Got Long AF, but Here are Some Resources

Remember when I said a lot of horse folk hate treats? Telling horsepeople that you clicker train can earn you an immediate ‘idiot’ status in the field. But, I think the results speak for themselves over time.

I also think they’re right. Giving a horse treats without conditions will illicit a response, whether you want it to or not. Oftentimes, that response sucks. Horses get bity, pushy, they ‘mug’ you as trainers say.

But clicker training induces the opposite. When I work with Seven — who is further along — she will show me every trick in the book trying to see where the ‘click’ will come in. She can ring a bell, step on a plastic bag, back up, move sideways, stop quickly, and more, and she’ll show you all of it before she’d ever think of mugging you for a treat.

Why? Because the ‘click’ indicates the reward. Instead of begging for treats, she begs for the conditioned reinforcer.

My clicker trained Boykin Spaniel is the same way. He’ll go through every trick in the book to see where the ‘click’ will come from.

And that’s where treat-aversive people are, in fact, missing an advantageous tool in a program. A conditioned reinforcer marks the exact moment a behavior occurs AND quickly communicates to the horse that it is correct. It’s an incredible opportunity for precision.

That said, I’m still learning. I’ve leaned on the following books. And I’m excited to keep the donkeys going. More to come.

Clicker Training for Horses — Alexander Kurland
Clicker Training for Dogs — Karen Pryor
Don’t Shoot the Dog: The Art of Teaching & Training — Karen Pryor (ignore the title, the book is great)

Today, I’m breaking down my health assessment of the fellas, where we’re at, and where we’re headed. You can read their origin story here, and I’ll be writing a more formal piece about these boys and the adoption process for the Summer Issue of The Westrn’s newsprint magazine — which you can preorder here for $10.

Now, on to donkmanship.

Names!

I’ve been calling my donk Kevin Franklin, after my family’s favorite Sinbad character in the cult classic 90’s movie Houseguest. (Why? Kev was born and spent most of his life in Sinbad, Utah!) If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend. Phil Hartman and Sinbad play off each other hilariously, in a hijinks film where Kevin Franklin gets in all sorts of trouble. Welcome to the family, ol’ Kev.

Elise still needs to name her dude, but I’ve been calling him the Shagamuffin. We’ll see what she goes with. He’s extremely cute, and the friendlier of the two at the moment. But Kev is comin’ around.

No Emergency Care Needed: Infections, Coat, Hooves

Some of the donkeys in the sale had obvious things that needed to be treated on what I’d call a close-to-emergency basis. Thankfully, many of them got adopted by people ready to care for them.

A BLM vet told me that many of the donks had flystrike on their legs — which looked wildly painful and is so gross. I don’t recommend reading about it. Some of it looked like scratches or mud fever to me, which would vibe with the time the donkeys had spent in Kansas mud prior to coming to Montana. These boys do have little bits of scabbing, but nothing compared to some others in the group, and they are healing nicely in their big dry run rather than — ick — oozing.

Their coats are both matted to some degree, though the nutrition I’ve been giving is helping shine them up and shed them out. Mules and donkeys shed later in the summer than horses, and I’m hoping that by the time they’re really starting to shed, I’ll be grooming them and getting their coat problems under control. That said, the mats don’t look painful, just annoying, and likely hot as the days are growing warmer.

Thankfully, DOGE allowed the BLM caretakers time to trim their hooves at some point in the past few months. Hoof care can become an emergency situation real quick if left untreated, but by the time they’ll need their hooves done again, I will have them both in hand and hopefully trained for my farrier. Thankfully, he is a very kind horseman happy to take his time with green — or less trained — animals. If they’re not ready, we have options to contain them and provide safe hoof care.

Deworming is not as Simple as Ivermectin

I do need to pick up a pack of edible dewormer to run another round through these boys, as they’ve only been given Ivermectin through the BLM. Though I personally don’t recommend Ivermectin for COVID treatment, it is great for killing a lot of worms, but a variety of other dewormers are needed to prevent tolerance in parasites as well as kill multiple varieties of worms.

Ugh. Parasites. Hate hate double hate. Deworming is a funny dance these days, with certain parasites growing tolerant because of over-deworming, and many horseman not doing it all. My mule Mojo likely has intestinal scarring from lack of deworming — which just means he farts a lot — but after an aggressive cycle over the past year, he is looking phenomenal. We’ll get these boys on the same track.

For now, I’ll buy dewormer available as a feed supplement instead of attempting to deworm them with a tube. It’s a great option for horses who are unhandled.

Colorado State provides exceptional guidelines on how to best accomplish a deworming schedule, and as an alum, I have to shout it out here.

Blooming Friendships, Accepted Frenemies

Donkeys are notoriously great at guarding livestock. We can also interpret this as the following — they are intolerant of a lot of small predatory species.

Read: they are wired to dislike dogs and cats. I have both.

When the boys first got here, they would stalk the dogs along the fence line with their big ears far forward, looking extremely friendly. Then, at the last second, they’d pin their ears back and stomp with both front feet as hard as they could. They almost got my poor feral cat Rickety Cricket when I couldn’t get there first — and honestly, I think they could have — but it’s sort of like a bluff charge from a grizz. Their hearts aren’t totally in it.

Yesterday, my spaniel Bob was in their pen, happily munching on donkey shit, and they cared not at all. I caught Butch the Border Collie in their pen once as well. I did have some worries about them hurting the small animals, but I think we’ve established that all the small animals here are harmless. They’re beginning to fit in.

Human Contact

Donkeys have less of an established flight mechanism with horses. They tend to be stand-their-ground sort of critters. This accounts for the dog stomping. It also means that you have to approach training them differently.

With horses, we tend to use their flight mechanism to work with them as that’s their more comfortable reflex. Flight isn’t super heightened. With donkeys, flight is not the norm. They’d rather figure something out than waste valuable energy running from it. From what I’ve read on donkeys, using their flight mechanism can actually make them more fearful, not less.

But, I’ve only worked with domesticated horses, mules, and, well, one donkey who is a perfect angel, so I’ve been looking for resources. A friend recommended trainer Juliana Ladenburg, of Hope, The Wild Burro Place. She’s tamed and trimmed many wild donks over the years, hopping into emergency care situations and getting shit done. It’s inspiring. I’m scheduling a tele-lesson with her to get a better idea of how to build a program for the donks.

I’ve also been experimenting and exposing them to normal life at my little farm. I clean out their pen, feed them, and expose them to little things where I can. I do what’s called approach/retreat work with them daily, and they’re both getting so much more comfortable with having people around. They sniffed my nephew, and he was so so excited about it — telling me he was the first to touch them. We’ll give it to him. They seem to like kids, which is a very good thing.

They both want to be friends, and they’re trying so hard. I’m looking forward to hearing from a pro on how to get them going, but I’m taking my nephew to Washington state this weekend for summer camp, so they’re going to have a bit of a vacation themselves.

Because of this trip, Week 3 might come later next week, but don’t worry — plenty to talk about.

Questions? Thoughts? Comments? Lmk down below!

Read More About It — In Print!

And I’m even more excited to write a big feature narrative about this in our Summer Issue of The Westrn’s quarterly print newspaper.

Get 10% off for reading all the way through here, or you can pre-order a single issue for $10 here to try it out.

I’d caution any reader that there are public-facing trainers and programs that inspire a lot of cult-like behavior, and as a kid who grew up in a toxic cult, it grosses me out. It’s profit-driven and ego-centered. You’ll find their hardcore evangelical followers on the internet, bumming everyone out with their comments. To me, that’s a big yikes.

So, I stick to the lanes where I feel most of the showmanship is pushed aside and advice is offered that can help me not only be in better relationship to my animals, but also helps me be in better relationship to myself and other sentient beings.

I love when things offer scientific backing to help us build toward our goals. Training literature, to me, is like a big beautiful apple tree in its ripest stage. It takes more than one apple to make a great pie. And I could list my whole shelf, but I simply don’t have time for that.

These books hit the mark. Each adds more than one tool into our toolkit as animal folks. I’d recommend them for any casual horseperson’s bookshelf, and I say that as an amateur who just likes to have fun communicating with my crew.

Also, hilariously, I realized these four books fit the mark of silly rhyme, so enjoy my take on that very weird organizing decision. L o L.

To be clear: Books are one piece of a big puzzle in learning about horses. No one should go off book-learning alone. The oral and physical tradition of mentorship in equine disciplines stretches back thousands of years. This is just one way that I enjoy learning more about my animals. I highly recommend working with trainers in person, attending clinics, using online video resources, and riding educated horses for at least a few years prior to working with young or untrained animals.

Four Excellent Books on Training Horses

Something Old: Think Harmony with Horses — Ray Hunt

Favorite Takeaway: The slower you’ll do it, the quicker you’ll find it. - RH
What It Is: A theoretical approach that, for me, continues to evolve into understanding over many years spent with animals.

Published in 1978, this book is — in my geriatric Millennial opinion — something old. Ray Hunt followed in the footsteps of Bill and Tom Dorrance, and there are books from each trainer on my shelf. But, to me, Ray’s book is probably the most intuitive. It’s short, and it offers a lot of ethereal wisdom close to the Dorrance philosophy, but it’s less mysterious while offering similar ideas.

Hunt’s book is less prescriptive than a typical training book. Think of this as a theoretical baseline for creating a dynamic, choice-centered working relationship with horses. It’s philosophical. He does, in the back of the book, break down certain scenarios and how to work through them. But ultimately, the 28-page philosophy is a short and powerful read, that, in my opinion, needs to be ready many times over a horseperson’s life.

The more I learn about horses, the more this book makes sense. And that’s after thirty years of a life adjacent to the big critters. (I wish someone had given it to me when I was a kid. Alas, it came into my life six years ago.) The other thing I like about this book? Pay attention, because Hunt provides a clear understanding of humans as well. And we could use a bit of his philosophy to make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult for all of us.

Beginners could certainly read this book. I think there are better places to start — like with my next suggestion.

Something New: The Principles of Training — Warwick Schiller

Favorite Takeaway: The Donkey Kong Principle
Listen to: If you’re curious about the principles, you should first listen to Warwick’s excellent Journey On podcast episode on The Principles of Training

I first encountered Warwick Schiller through a subscription called Horse.TV, where he hosted a television show called ‘The Principles of Training.’ That show changed my life as it relates to horses. What I love about Warwick is that — prior to breaking down the principles and stepping into a relationship-centered design in his training program — he was a world-class reiner where both he and his wife Robin competed at the top of the game.

There’s something to be said for what I’d call a proven clinician. If you can take a colt from start to finish and compete at the top level, the parts are in place. Schiller has since stepped back from high-level competing to focus on educating people more than horses. His humility in his own emotional remapping of his life with horses is one to follow.

The principles Schiller unravels are baked into everything we do with horses (and beyond). The book covers twelve in total, and the fun of understanding them is finding them in the work we already do — as well as learning to regularly apply them when things awry. Schiller also has an online video training community that is affordable and well-worth your time.

As a reader, it’s a joy to have them at my fingertips. Anyone who is interested in horsemanship should read this book, even established trainers — as I think it’s fun to find the principles inherent in the work we do to better our partnerships. At the very least, we should all know the Donkey Kong Principle. It’s elite.

Something Borrowed: Don’t Shoot The Dog: The Art of Teaching and Training — Karen Pryor

Favorite takeaway: ‘Positive’ and ‘Negative’ are not interpreted as good or bad, but as addition (+) and subtraction (-) of a stimulus.
What It Is: A theoretical, broken-down layperson’s read on operant conditioning — which anyone who owns a single animal should understand at its basic level!

I loaned this book to someone, and — miraculously — I got it back. I think that’s the first time this has ever happened. Therefore, it’s my something borrowed. Listen, the title could be better. This book was published in the 80s and clickbait didn’t exist then, but if it did….

Personally, this is a hardcore re-reader for me. Pryor revolutionized clicker training for the masses, and her work helped me train my Boykin Spaniel into a wonderful pet, aided me in providing a path forward with a mare who had soured on a lot of things, and brought the art of true operant conditioning into my life as a tool that really can redefine the way we approach both animals and humans. (Parents — this one’s for you.)

The book breaks down the four quadrants of conditioning: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment — and how all of them can be utilized within a smart and pragmatic training program. (Remember, positive is an addition — not a ‘good’ or ‘better’ way of training.)

Pryor really sets up the story, creates a fun read, and helps us learn how to better train and prepare our four-legged friends for a good life along the way. Her book on dog training “Clicker Training for Dogs” was a lifeline for me with a very intense and ridic spaniel pup who is now an excellent (and still ridic) companion, thanks in huge part to these two books.

Something Blue: Blue Creek’s Trail Riding, Packing, and Training - Blue Creek Outfitters

Favorite Takeaway: The hitches and knots section is easy to follow! I went through a few books before I found this. You can actually learn how to from the book, which is great.
What It Is: A big comprehensive guide for trail goers.

I think I’ve read all the books I can find on horse packing, and Blue Creek’s book stands out to me as the best resource. It’s large, comprehensive as it can be given that it’s a finite book, and it covers a lot of ground — from knots to safety — that you don’t find in many books.

It’s also comprehensive enough that if you don’t know what you’re doing, a book like this will help you understand the general amount of knowledge and work it takes to pack horses into the backcountry.

Though this book isn’t as theoretical as the other three, it provides something invaluable. The sections on packing and knots are the best I’ve found after looking for an in-house guide to practice knowledge I’ve learned that I don’t often have to use. It’s a great refresher resource for knots, in a way that no packing-specific book has offered.

This is great to have on the bookshelf for any trail-going horseperson, and it’s well worth the money.

A Short Primer to Purchasing Books Affordably

Though I link books out via Amazon, it’s only because it’s more simple and less time-consuming than researching the best priced books out there. I’ve done enough of that work! So here are my tips on how to find a better deal.

If I purchase off Amazon, I almost always use the “Other Sellers” box where I can find used books at a far better prices from independent dealers — often with Prime shipping still included.

Other resources I use include Abebooks, Goodwill’s online book shop, and Thriftbooks. I also go to in-person book shops and do my best to support independent small-biz dealers, but living in rural America has its downside. It’s hard to find what I want in a timely manner.

If you have any other tips or fave spots for online shopping for books, let me know in the comments! I’m always looking for better options.

A New Print Issue of The Westrn: Coming in July!

We’re developing The Westrn’s second newsprint magazine of 2025! It ships in July, and it will have more horse-centered content than our inaugural issue.

You can pre-order it here for $10 or subscribe to The Westrn annually via Substack.

For me, it’s always felt atomic. I’m not talking about anything explosive, but to a knowing that is held not in my brain, but in the makeup of my being.

For a few years, I’ve quietly called this thing ‘Atomic Knowing’ — it’s a sense that the smallest building blocks of my body have spent time in the universe doing many other jobs, and perhaps in my body, there is an abundance of atoms who have served the brains and bodies of dogs, horses, cats, and the like. It’s as if these building blocks hold innate knowledge that I now carry, and it’s up to me to continually discover, unwrap, and turn towards these knowings.

Maybe in another lifetime, after many apprenticeships, I could have been a professional trainer of a sort. But luckily, I’m a writer by trade. That means I get to be curious rather than prescriptive within a timeframe. I can screw everything up, start again, and frustrate only myself and my poor animals — my sole clients.

And I can tell you the story without the weight of judgment. I didn’t mistakenly train your dog to keep the bird rather than bring it to hand. No. I did that to my first gun dog, by accident, then had to figure out how to fix it. I also taught a quarter horse colt to retrieve a bumper in a few short sessions. I confused even myself with the ease of the latter effort.

Turns out, life gets funny when you get to playing.

Writing specifically about animals has been on my mind for a long time.

I don’t want to approach this with a specific plan. I just want to write once a week about what I’m learning, what I’m trying, or what I’m thinking about. This is a less edited and less curated space. I want to share resources that have been transformative in helping me build better connections with my animals and the work I hope to get accomplished with them.

I’ve spent more money on lessons, training, clinics, educational media, and attending competitions than most people, and I learn something every time. Why not share it?

And hopefully, I’ll be able to get ahold of some trainers and talk through their methods, principles, and ethics around helping our animal friends be in better harmony with us.

If you want to receive Four-Legged, good news!

It currently comes as part of your overall Westrn subscription. I’m hoping to publish every Wednesday, though sometimes things may go astray.

As I get deeper into the practice, I hope you’ll engage with the work, let me know if you find anything that works for you and your four-legged friends, and ask questions that I might be able to send to the real pros building the day-in day-out programs that lead to better lives for so many animals.

Thanks for being here!

I’d love to know if you have any ideas, comments, or questions you’re working to address with your own animals in the comments.

Nicole

Co-signed by:

Butch the Border Collie, Bob the Boykin Spaniel, Mojo Dojo Mule, Seven the BLM Mustang in training, Spots the Appaloosa, Rocco the mountain donkey, and Rickety Cricket the feral cat (who decided this little farm was his home)