We are excited to welcome Ass-Pirin Acres Tanesha to our farm. This gorgeous dark red, jennet is a daughter of Stoney Acres Pompei and Rolling Ridge Tamara. Thank you to Nicole Shultz for allowing this beauty to live in Tennessee. Tanesha was also owned previously by my friend, Jane Savage (Flight of Fancy Donkeys). Tanesha (also know as Strawberry) is due to foal the first of June. The proud daddy will be Cyder’s Mr. Madison. Can’t Wait!!!!!

We are extremely excited to add Cyder’s Mr. Madison as a herdsire at Legendary Farms. I did see Mr. Madison while visiting Cyder Bay Farm in Wisconsin and really thought he was beautiful at the time. Going forward a couple years later, here he is. Thank you Nicole Shultz for trusting us with this gorgeous jack. Mr. Madison has fantastic bone, is very stocky, beautiful topline, lovely legs and overall excellent confirmation. I absolutely adore his personality.  He is so sweet and gentle and loves attention. Can’t wait for future Mr. Madison babies.

As our business grows we have found it sometimes is difficult to work out deposits and time payments for owners who can’t or don’t want to pay all at once. It is important to us to have our little four legged kids go to a good home and that sometimes means we have to get creative with payment plans. Recently we added another option for families wanting to adopt one of our miniature donkeys.

We now accept all major credit cards in person or by email or over the phone. Regardless of how you want to pay for your animal you will receive a receipt. If you live in another part of the country you can call us on your cell phone, give us your credit card info and we will instantly text you back your receipt!

Of course you can still pay by cash or check but this does provide you with another option.

If you would like to know more just drop Richard an email at rfleener@comcast.net or call Katrina at 615-295-9804.

Technorati Tags: credit card, for sale, miniature donkey

Spring is in the air and newly born Miniature Donkeys are in the barn. We could not resist, as soon as the new babies and their mothers were ready we turned them loose to explore and learn what those legs are for. The light colored one is Calley and she was 2 days old when the video was shot just before Easter and the dark red one is Bunny. When we first saw her in the light we thought we had an Easter Bunny not a miniature donkey. Her ears were so big and white in the middle, just like a bunny.

Hope you enjoy this glimpse into the world of new babies.

Technorati Tags: at play, miniature donkey baby, new born baby donkey

In September, I was really looking forward to a new baby foal. The mother, Cobra’s Windy (Sire: Cobra’s Windancer and Dam: Cobra’s Ginger) is a dark brown (NLP) 32-1/2″ very stocky jennet. The only red in Windy’s background is her grandfather, Cobra’s Red Man. The father of this September foal is Springlake Razmataz, who is light sorrel. I told everyone that I expected a dark brown foal and though it would be really neat to have a NLP (no light point). Well, “mother nature” had different ideas and we had a bright red jennet with a small star on her forehead. What in the world!!!!!! I never expected this baby from this combination. Not complaining, she is beautiful!

Below is a photo of Legendary’s Southern Belle at one month of age.

We had a hectic summer and I cannot believe it is now fall. Our final show for the year, which happens to be an NMDA show is the Tennessee State Fair. After this show,  I scheduled surgery on my hip with a recovery period of approximately 6 weeks, therefore, this show meant a lot to me.

In the Weanling/Yearling Halter – Geldings and Jacks class, we showed Li’l Angels Playitagain Sam. He’s a beautiful boy and I feel he will have his day but I really had not worked with him and he is such a “baby”. I was tickled, despite wiggling and constant squirming, Sam received a 5th Place ribbon in a very large class.

I then showed our spectacular jack, Short Assets Firetruck. The first time I showed Truck, I was so nervous I felt that I hampered his chances by in-turn making him nervous. Today, I was much calmer. Firetuck walked away with Reserve Grand Champion – Jack for the 2012 Tennessee State Fair. What a thrill!

Firetruck

In early 2012, I decided to show a beautiful Cobra jennet that has an exquisite head, beautiful top line, perfect legs and lovely feminine outline. One problem, she was terribly shy. When we first acquired the Cobra herd from Texas, Cobra’s Windy Lue (“Lue Lue”) was definitely afraid of people and had a constant look of terror in her eyes. I really don’t think she was mistreated, but she had not received much attention from humans and just could not trust anyone. I spent countless hours (over a 2-1/2 year period) sitting in the pasture, talking to Lue Lue and trying to get her to understand that I would not harm her. Initially, the only way I could touch Lue Lue was to isolate her in a smaller area and basically trap her in a corner. She trembled and looked up at me with HUGE eyes, petrified. Wherever I touched Lue Lue, she would cringe and move away. If I touched her legs or hindquarters, she collapsed to the ground. After 2-1/2 years of talking to Lue Lue, feeding her treats, multiple attempts of massaging Lue Lue and telling her how beautiful she was, one day she walked up to me and bravely was seeking attention.

From that day forward, I have told Lue Lue every day how pretty she is and thank her for trusting me.

Never being halter trained, I got Lue Lue to understand walking and trotting on a halter. In the Spring of 2012, I bathed her and show shaved her, evaluating whether she could be shown this year. I knew I was asking a lot, but even if she showed terribly, I really think she is so pretty and deserved to get out and trust people. Our local donkey club, Tennessee Donkey Association holds a novice day each year. I loaded Lue Lue in the trailer and took her approximately one hour from home to experience being in a public setting. It was overwhelming and all Lue Lue could do was stand at our trailer, trembling. Did I push her too hard and make a mistake trying to show her?

I decided to not show Lue Lue at the larger shows and only take her to two local “fun shows”. At her first show, the Bedford County Fair, Lue Lue had a melt-down. She would not trot past the judge, trembled, moved away from the judge whenever she got near Lue Lue and was obviously terrified. However, something interesting happened. When she exited her halter class, she realized that she survived this activity and no one harmed her. I then took her back into the Solid Color class and she received a 5th Place ribbon and actually showed well.

At her 2nd Fun Show (Wilson County Fair), Lue Lue was frightened (however less so) and would not trot past the judge in the jennet halter class. However, she stood well and did not shy away from the judge. The judge even commented on how well trained she was, I giggled, if he only knew.

The show season was winding down and the last show I would be attending was the Tennessee State Fair. This is a highly competitive event with large entries and NMDA (National Miniature Donkey Association) sanctioned. I had no intention of showing Lue Lue, but at the last minute decided, the worst that could happen is Lue Lue might not trot and would move away from the judge.

The big day was here. Oh no, in the arena were “dark wood chips”. My husband, Richard, advised me to walk the Donkeys in the arena and get them used to the difference in color and texture. Everyone did fine, except Lue Lue initially refused to step onto the chips. As I walked her around on the wood chips, the strange surface became more familiar.

Our judge, Ron Thompson was a very kind man that made the Donkeys and exhibitors feel at ease. When her class came up Lue Lue entered the arena, walked towards the judge, trotted away perfectly and stood squared off with her head up and ears up looking at me. When Mr. Thompson approached her and gave her a good look over, she stood still and did not move away. Thank you Mr. Thompson for being kind and making our animals feel comfortable.

Lue Lue was awarded Reserve Grand Champion Halter Jennet!!! Lue Lue is very, very special and worked so hard to trust me. I could not be more thrilled!

Lue Lue

Technorati Tags: Lue Lue, miniature donkey show, NMDA, Tennessee State Fair

Let me introduce Legendary’s I Love Lucy. Lucy , a stunning red jennet (birth height of 21″) was born August 23, 2012. Her father is a beautiful red Cobra jack (Cobra’s Haileigh’s Comet). Comet is a medium red, with a white blaze,  31-1/2″ jack that is out of Cobra’s Red Man (dark red, 30-1/2″) and Sunset Acres Red Ruby (medium red 32″). Lucy’s mother is an older Cobra jennet, Cobra’s Natalie Cole; who is a direct daughter of Cobra’s Arthur (30″ gray dun).

I suspect that Lucy will remain small and has the sweetest personality and looks forward every day to her hugs.

Also born in August (8/29/12) was a red jennet with a large white star, Legendary’s Reba whose father is Cobra’s Haileigh’s Comet and mother is Designer Donkey’s Macy Lee. Macy Lee is an NMDA champion jennet who is out of Circle C Corona and Big Woods LN Miss Berri. This little baby was 22″ at birth and already is very out going like her mother.

Technorati Tags: baby miniature donkey, Baby Miniature Donkeys

A few months ago, two beautiful jennets (Legendary’s Minnie Pearl and Legendary’s Hot Summer) left our farm and took a long journey to their new home in Redmond, Oregon with Nicole Samuel. Nicole is getting established in Miniature Donkeys and is passionate about showing in Halter and Performance and establishing a quality herd. She has been training Minnie and Summer in “In-Hand” Trail and went to her first Miniature Donkey show and exhibited in this tough, competitive event. I was shocked when Nicole told me she entered In-Hand and showed. I have not yet showed in In-Hand and I am so proud of her. She showed Summer who was very scared at her first show, but improved immensely at her 2nd show.

Nicole showed Minnie in Halter at the Pacific Northwest Miniature Donkey show and placed 4th. Both of these girls will keep getting more beautiful as they grow up. WOW! Great job!!!!! She also placed with two little jacks. Great Job, Nicole. We are so thrilled for you.

It was also very exciting to see Kenny and Sherry Puckett at the Wilson County Fair with Comet (Cobra’s Haileigh’s Comet). They acquired Comet from us approx. 2 months ago and I was thrilled to see him. Comet is the sweetest, most gentle jack and I miss him terribly. But he has a wonderful home and the Pucketts really love him. Comet received a 4th Place in the 2 Year & Older Jack class. Congratulations!

Second Show; Second Top Overall Halter Donkey!

Although there was a miniature donkey show only 30 miles from our home in TN we decided it would be fun to pack up the motor home and go to a show out of our normal area. One of the best parts of showing these terrific little animals is the opportunity it provides to meet new Miniature Donkey enthusiasts. We love to see Donkeys in person that we have only seen in photos. Meeting their owners, trainers and breeders is also a joy…most of the time!

Although a long drive we headed north to the 2012 Wisconsin State Fair. This was their very first Miniature Donkey Show at the Wisconsin Fair and they did a terrific job. The biggest difference we found with this fair from others we have attended was the requirement to have your donkeys in the Fair Horse Barns for an extended time prior to and after the actual show. We were scheduled to arrive on Sunday after noon and depart on Wednesday. However, our plans changed.

In route on Saturday we received a phone call on our cell phone regarding a small scare in the new horse barn that the day; a Clydesdale in the horse barn was showing signs of a respiratory ailment. The fair quarantined horses on site (we were not yet on the grounds, or permitted to enter); had veterinarians quickly examine the subject horse as well as all others in the immediate area. Within 24 hours it was determined that the horse had influenza and after suitable observation, all horses were allowed to leave.

This unfortunate delay provided us with the opportunity to spend an extra day with Jenny and Ben Eastep on the Lil Angels Farm. Their hospitality was outstanding and they treated us to some wonderful food. We especially enjoyed the time we had to be entertained by their terrific 3 year old son, Waylon. We tried to trade a couple of donkeys for him but there was no way they were going to let that happen. Instead they convinced us to bring one of their baby donkeys home and we did. We will tell you about that later.

Once the horse barn was cleared we received a second call with instructions on when and how to bring our donkeys to the Fair. We were also assured that every thing possible had been done to ensure our animals would not encounter any possible exposure to the “flu”. As an extra precaution, we were moved to a completely different building and the horse barn remained closed for an additional 24 hours.

We really appreciate and applaud how the fair handled this episode. All was well for our show and it was wonderful. This was the inaugural Miniature Donkey show for Wisconsin State Fair. It is a tremendous honor that our Donkey, Legendary Top Hat (Topper) will go down in the record books of the Wisconsin State Fair as the Grand Champion Halter Miniature Donkey for the very first show in 2012. We should tell you that although this was the inaugural Miniature Donkey Show the competition was fierce and the entry contained spectacular animals.

We are also very humbled by our special little gelding who has now been shown in only two show, The Celebration and the Wisconsin State Fair and came home Best of Breed in both shows!

Oh, one more thing. If you have never been to a State Fair in the agricultural parts of Country you don’t know what you are missing. Although our free time was short you do have to eat….so….we ate our way though the Fair. We had melt in your mouth wonderful rib eye steak sandwiches, but these were out done by the Wisconsin breakfast pastries and deserts. Then there were the Wisconsin Cheeses, deep-fried anything and the list goes on and on. Just writing this makes me want to make reservations for next year!

Technorati Tags: Best of Breed, Grand Champion, Legendary Top Hat, miniature donkey show, Toppera, Wisconsin State Fair

By Richard

It is not often that a newspaper calls you up and asks for an opportunity to do an article on you and your wife. As a City Planning Consultant most of the time in the past when I got a phone call from a newspaper or TV station they were looking for a sensational story on a new land development project or blighted neighborhood. However, the local Murfreesboro newspaper, The Daily News Journal, recently called and wanted to know about our farm and Topper’s big win at The Celebration. Once they discovered I also worked with the miniature donkeys and that Katrina also likes the cars we collect they wanted to do a feature on us.

Wow, was I surprised when I opened up today’s paper and there at the top of the front page was me and one of our cars! Now, the rest of it was more of a SHOCK than a surprise. It seems that after spending an hour or so on the farm and taking lots of photos and recording the entire interview the reported took this opportunity to let me know that Katrina is married to James! I always thought she was married to me!

Ok, so it was a typical newspaper mistake….remember don’t believe everything you read. Other than that one glaring error the article was very flattering and very appreciated. Since I am not worried about our marriage or some guy named James, I decided to share it with all of you. Hope you enjoy what our local paper had to say about us.

Just remember, where ever it says “James” it should say “Richard.”

Technorati Tags: Daily News Journal, DNJ, miniature donkey, miniature donkey show, Shelbyville, Topper