"Maddy" is a Jerusalem (specific markings) donkey or burro (a burro is the same thing as a donkey, BTW) and was born in the Year 2014. She was completely feral and afraid of humans when I purchased her in May 2019, and I have been training her since. She is very patient and loves everyone that she encounters. She walked down a local church aisle to portray Jesus' donkey in a pre-Easter celebration recently, sporting her "poop bag" for indoor use and applications. She is available for parties and for games like "Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Live-Donkey"!
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"Lucky" is a non-registered Shetland pony and has tons of great personality. He will do anything for attention and loves going everywhere! He can also "bow" his head and do other tricks. He loves to climb on things and jump. He is rather small in stature, so he can only carry children that weigh up to about 60 pounds so as not to injure his spine or back. He was also born at the same farm where my sheep came from, in May 2016. I have done all of the groundwork and other training myself for Lucky, and his training is continuing now to teach him to pull a cart, which he seems to have a great aptitude for because he has such a nice temperament and willingness to learn new things.
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"Ivy" is one of our newest additions to our sheep, and was born in late December 2019. She came from a hair sheep farm in Clermont, Florida. It took about 2 months of constant socialization and training, but she is now pretty well bonded to me now, thankfully, and is listening to me in order to keep her safe when she is out of her stall, enjoying the world around her. She can jump up on command, loves to climb and loves to eat her grain, hay, grapes, tangerines, apples and green beans. She is still concerned about strangers, but she has been taken on many petting zoo jobs during the last two years and continues to learn and grow.
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"Blue" was born in January 2017 and is a hair (not wool) sheep breed known as St. Augustine. This breed was developed by a shepherd right here in Florida whose farm still actively produces this breed. Blue knows how to "give her paw" and backup on command and is very docile and loving to everyone. I bought Blue when she was one month old and have had her ever since. She is the very first sheep that I brought to our farm and I have learned so much about sheep behavior because of her patience, kindness, intelligence, curiosity and overall great personality that makes her "Blue." In the flock, Blue is the leader and most dominant ewe.
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"Belle" is Blue's mother and we believe that she is probably about 2 years older than Blue. She was essentially feral when I adopted her a few months after I bought Blue from the same place where Belle lived and she has come light years in her ability to trust people and allow people to touch her now. I can see a lot of personality traits that she and Blue share obviously, and both ewes are very chilled and happy. Bell is third on the hen-pecking totem pole of the flock as a whole, after Dixie (her other daughter).
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"Dixie" is Blue's sister and Belle’s daughter and I acquired her from the same place that Blue and Belle came from in exchange for rehabilitating the owner of that farm's Paso Fino stallion who was very gaunt and suffered from ulcers. So, the funds spent rehabilitating this stallion and giving him some basic groundwork training was the price of acquiring Dixie. Dixie came to me at about 5 months old and was suffering from parasites and worms and was very skinny. She had to have special injections and multiple dewormings to save her, but now she is the largest in size of all of my sheep!! (Big girls have big appetites and she certainly loves her food). Dixie is second on the hen-pecking totem pole, after Blue, and is about 6 months younger than Blue.
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She wore diapers while indoors and had to be fed bottles of milk every 2 hours when we first took over her care. It was a very interesting Winter at our house, to say the least. Our indoor cats accepted Savannah right away and became friends, believe it or not. Because I couldn't leave her in a vehicle when she was a lamb, I actually snuck her into our credit union (to conduct business), into the Sam's Club in Apopka (wrapped in a towel and riding in the child area of the cart) and Home Depot when there were errands to run and keep her warm and protected. Funny story about Sam's Club -- as I left the store with my groceries, the Club employee spotted Savannah and didn't even give me a hard time about it, which was nice of that person.
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"Savannah" also came from the same farm and I believe she shares the same father as Blue and Dixie. She was born on Thanksgiving week in Year 2017 and her mother had twins and ended up rejecting her, so she was brought to me to save her life because the owner didn't want her and she would have died at his farm from neglect from her mother. I offered to take her once I knew the situation and because of the cold weather events that occurred that Winter and because she was too young to leave in a barn with no winter coat of hair, she lived inside our home for the first 3-4 months of her life.
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"Secret" is one of the first horses that I ever bought and has been with me the longest. She and I both learned to ride and be ridden at the same time. Secret was 10 years old before she was formally trained and is now 19 years old and can be ridden by all levels of riders and is very safe. So, even older horses can be trained if you have enough dedication and desire to train them. She is an unregistered Quarter Horse mare who is very spoiled. My nickname for her is "the Princess," because she won't let me leave the barn for the day unless she has had her soft peppermints.
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"Mink" is the first horse that I did much of the initial training with when she was about 2 years old. She is a striking looking registered Tennessee Walking Horse who can rack, which means she is a gaited horse whose natural movements include the "racking" gait. This is a 4-beat gait that not all gaited horses can do since they have to be born with this ability. As of Year 2022, she is 11 years old now, and she trailers well and loves to go on new adventures. She can "bow" on command and also loves her peppermint treats daily. Mink even has some GWC (Grand World Champions) in her ancestry.
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"Dollar" is a non-registered Quarter Horse who could be up to 23 years old. I got him as a rescue from a woman who couldn't afford to keep him anymore, and, even though he was rideable, he needed more regular training to be able to use him in public on a regular basis safely, so I did all of the groundwork and rode him to get him back where he needed to be in his abilities. Now, he is great for beginner to intermediate riders because he is patient and reliable. His training, as with all of the other animals, continues on a daily basis, and he loves meeting new people and going on adventures in the trailer with me. He is great in that he is slow and steady, so that anyone can ride him, and he stands well with children around him so that they can enjoy him and learn about horses in general. He loves to carry brides into the ceremony area, too! Unique pictures!
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Ellie is a halter-trained Hereford beef cow crossbreed who is very silly, playful and still young (about 3 years old as of March 2022), so she is still learning how to be disciplined and behave well in public for safety, and we hope to train her to actually be rideable by children (always lead with a handler for safety) in the near future.
Ellie came from a farm in Lakeland, Florida and loves attention, our other livestock (especially “Ivy,” our sheep) and going on mobile petting zoo jobs to meet new customers. She helps us out with many of our local churches’ live nativity events annually in December, together with our donkey and all of our sheep. |
Lambert is a Katahdin hair breed of sheep. He is our only ram (male) and is about 8 months old as of January 2023. We found him on Craigslist and he came from Sanford, Florida. He started his working career at the very young age of only 6 weeks and has been making people smile ever since. His horns are now growing in to make him even more handsome! We plan on breeding him to two of our ewes soon so we can produce our own lambs to increase the flock for everyone's enjoyment. Stay tuned for Baby Bios! Lambs are the cutest things on the planet!
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These are our current chickens. One is named CiCi and the other is Chick-chick (both are hens). We usually provide one chicken per mobile petting zoo job, unless otherwise requested. At the job, the chicken can be removed and held by us for the guests to pet and experience. We do ask that no one remove the bird from the cage to handle the bird without one of our trained handlers, since we do not want the chicken to escape and become lost. Thank you.
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These are our current ducks, one male and one female. The male is named AFLAC and the female is Quackers. Their breed is known as an American Pekin duck. They are friendly and do not bite anyone. We usually provide one duck per mobile petting zoo job, unless otherwise requested. At the job, the duck can be removed from its cage and held by us for the guests to pet and experience. We do ask that no one remove the bird from the cage to handle the bird without one of our trained handlers, since we do not want the duck to escape and become lost. Thank you.
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