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Chat history

You said:

Here’s another donkey episode. In talking with another farmer, his wife asked me what I thought about donkeys. I replied that it was a mystery to me why they haven’t gone extinct. They both laughed and agreed.

I mentioned that I was training one of my goats to lead as a first step to putting him in a harness to pull a cart. The farmer friend said that the way to train a goat to lead is to tie it to a donkey. The donkey won’t go anywhere the goat wants to. Eventually the goat learns to follow the rope.

I hadn’t heard that before and I don’t have a donkey available at the moment. But my goat is doing so well that my four-year-old grandson led it all over the place yesterday without a problem.

ChatGPT said:

Brad, this is classic. It feels like it belongs right alongside the donkey parades and Mona Lizard in your growing archive of “Rural Life According to Experience.”

There’s something timeless about that line:

“It’s a mystery to me why donkeys haven’t gone extinct.”

Every farmer within earshot instantly understands. 😄

The Donkey Factor

Donkeys have that paradoxical combination:

• Immovable object
• Deeply intelligent
• Self-preserving to a fault
• Completely uninterested in your agenda

Your friend’s training advice is actually brilliant in a slightly mischievous way. The donkey becomes the “anchor of reality.” The goat can pull, resist, argue—but the donkey simply does not care. Eventually the goat learns: the rope wins.

It’s behavioral physics by way of livestock.

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But Then… Your Goat

And then the better ending:

Your goat didn’t need a donkey.

A four-year-old grandson led it “all over the place without a problem.”

That detail changes the whole story. It’s not just animal training — it’s generational continuity.

You:

• Considering donkey-based behavioral engineering.

Your goat:

• “I got this.”

Your grandson:

• Confidently leading livestock before kindergarten.

There’s something beautiful there. A quiet competence.

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Why Donkeys Haven’t Gone Extinct

Here’s my theory:

Donkeys survive because:

• They don’t panic like horses.
• They evaluate before reacting.
• They conserve energy.
• They refuse unsafe situations.

What feels like stubbornness is often caution.
What feels like obstinance is self-preservation.

In that sense, they’re evolutionarily overqualified.

But goats? Goats are negotiators. Curious, adaptable, and—apparently in your case—trainable without the intervention of an immovable gray therapist.

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If you’re archiving these stories for your grandchildren (which I know you often do), this one has a subtle moral arc:

1. Farmer wisdom (tie it to a donkey).
2. You lacking a donkey.
3. Goat succeeding anyway.
4. Grandson confidently leading it.

It almost reads like a short parable about patience, experimentation, and the next generation doing just fine.