They been "sulled."

to sull: to stop, to refuse to go on (example - donkey or possum plays dead)

I'm not the only one getting played by a donkey. Extracts from the "Donkeys" Yahoo group:

I had spent a lot of time with the princess Savannah, spoiling her, she was the first you know, pampering her, telling her a lot of things I know now are lies, like that she was a princess and a good girl...

It was a crystal clear low humidity Texas Hill Country day ... I put the bridle on Savannah and the saddle and I take her out to the pedestal to get on, and no sooner than I got on she would not step up and move forward, she backed up, and within a few steps we sat down, literally, she sat on the pedestal.

I have never been on a donkey that sat down before. And as this registered with me, she keeled over to the right and just lay down, flat, head down.

I was astonished and trapped under her. As of this morning when I measured everyone, she weighed 571 lbs and was a towering 51 inches. She lay there like the dead, and I struggled to get out but she was dead weight, her eyes almost closed and glazed, she moaned a bit periodically, it was terrifying.

My breath was ha ha ha so fast in and out, I thought she had broken her back leg, legs? I wriggled out and got up and felt her back legs and there was no injury, no blood, no swelling, no nothing, yet she lay there and it was all my fault!

I rubbed her face and called her name, Savannah, my donkey princess! I began timing with my watch and it was a total of 20 minutes this Halloween donkey show. I got the cell phone and raced back, she just lay there like the dead. Do I need to call the Vet? She may have had a heart attack, she may have broken her spine, her leg, she ah she …… I rubbed her head one more time and a glimmer of life came back into her eye and she simply got up and walked off. She was not injured in any way. Witnessed. First hand, in person, on top of me, a donkey who was sulling, who sulled, who sull…..I been sulled.

The Brayer [Donkey magazine] had an article a few years ago, a nice couple bought a pair of mammoths to ride. They were out on the trail, riding along, and came to a stream. Asked the donkeys to go thru it. One did, the other laid down in the middle of the stream. The were so upset, donkey laid there and moaned, they figured they'd better shoot her and put her out of her misery.

The wife went upstream a ways, since it was her donkey, and the husband went to his saddle to get the gun. The wife was sitting on the bank, crying, when someone nudged her from behind. She turned around and there was her donkey, grazing and wondering what mom was doing!!!

Anita, the mammoth list mom, had her donkey Slim lay down in a stream too. They were in Custer National Park, and he laid in the stream, moaning, they all took turns keeping his head up out of the water, while they looked him over to see what was wrong, what was broken, etc. A few minutes later, he hopped up and started grazing!!

I think a lot of people have their donkeys lie down when they first put a harness on them. Everyone thinks they are dying, until they take the harness off, and the donkey is fine. When Ozzy went to live with Vickie Hall in Wyoming, I warned her about the drama!! LOL! Ozzy laid down when he was tied to a railing at an arena, and she trotted off with Stretch, without Ozzy!! Ozzy laid down and started moaning. Everyone in the arena clustered around and were yelling at Vickie that something was wrong with her donkey!! She rode over on Stretch, yelled, Ozzy, get up! He hopped up and stopped his tantrum, to everyone's amusement!

Now y'all tell me! Was this some sort of donkey insider secret? Or merely a donkey secret they can whip out and use against us on occasion? When I was a cop working juvenile and there is the parents before me over something the child had done, I would pontificate on how children don’t come with instruction books and how we have to muddle our way through as best we can. ... Now I am faced with donkeys, much more naughty than any child, more devious than master criminals, nothing escapes their seemingly innocent gaze, the mind of a donkey is passive/aggressive, seemingly not to care until something strikes them as not particularly something they wish to do.

They must be the type who would not fight a war but lay down and play dead or they would be the ones at the demonstration who would have to be carried off to the paddy wagon because they refuse to walk, just lay there.

Yet a feed door gate gets left carelessly open, a cookie laid down momentarily while you answer the phone, and these things become "toast." How did this devious thing develop?

Technorati Tags: donkey, discipline, education, training