Hotel donkey stall flooded!

Thankfully the donkeys were out grazing, so they did not get wet.

I came back from town, and when I went into the tack room I heard a pump running and wondered what the sound could mean.  I slide back the donkey stall door and saw the stall was flooded with water.  The pine shaving bedding was soaked through and floating listlessly in the shining liquid.

Apparently Bruce started laying irrigation pipes and running water, and a flow surge blew out the pressure regulator in the donkey’s automatic waterer. The increased pressure blew a hose and water was pumping endlessly out of the bottom of the unit.

I had been thinking of removing the waterer, because Chippo won’t drink out of it, and so it has been sitting unused with the water in it covered by a thin layer of dust.

I ran into the pump room, and shut off the water.

Then I began the long process of using a push broom and manually moving the water and the heavy bedding out the door into the paddock.  A seemingly unending  task that soon had me drenched with sweat.

The stall was designed to drain in the middle, and strips of stall matting covered the drain, but if I pulled back the matting the bedding would certainly clog the drain, and I would have an even worse mess, so I pushed the water out.

Bruce came and took over the push broom while I dug a trench outside the stall and down into a lower field so the water would drain away from the barn.

Meanwhile the donkeys came back from grazing and wanted into their paddock, so I let them in to see what we were doing.  Chippo walked into the stall and stood in the water and peed while Bruce and I watched.  Who said donkeys are afraid of water? And don’t ask me the meaning of this pee-act.  I just laughed; Chippo walked back out into the paddock, and I returned to work.

I was able to get all the water out, and the floor dried very quickly. I called Chip, and he will be removing the automatic waterer next week.