Wild End baby

 

Donkey walks!

I'm sooo pleased with my boys!
I'm now able to take Luca & Henry on walks, together and on my own!
I walk them 50m down the lane to my 'big field' on most days but attempting a walk down the village when we were both quite green with each other was a bit of an embarassment, so it took me some time, and some work, to dare trying again.
After several weeks of practicing 'stop' we took our first walk down the village a couple of weeks ago, past a car, a tractor, a chatty neighbour and his stone lions(!). The donks were great, if a bit careful.
Every possible circular walk out the door here involves crossing a stream or two, so the footbridge was our next challenge. It took 3 walks down to the bridge until they felt comfortable by the gushing stream, but then just 5 minutes to tempt Luca to cross the bridge. He then kept going back and forth over it as he done nothing else his whole life, while I was trying to persuade Henry to step on the bridge... took another 3 walks until he felt it was safe to cross. All the while was trying to be less clumsy with my bundle of lead ropes...
Today we did our second circular walk around the village, past gaggles of lambs, a friendly pony, and some not so friendly horses in a distant field making a racket as soon as they saw us - the donks perked up their ears but stayed very cool otherwise.
I can tell they love it - they actualy demand it now!

Donkey strop

Just when you think things are settling down nicely (finally...) there comes a new stroppy episode, to make sure I don't forget that donkeys do have their own mind.

Of course, it always is my fault. I was just going out on the big field to bring them in for the night (i.e. back to the small field where they have access to a field shelter. 

Mistake no.1: I forgot the treat bag. 

Mistake no.2: a friend (= a stranger, kind of) came with me

Mistake no.3: it was getting rather dusky already

Mistake no.4: I forgot the treat bag, despite all of the above 

So Luca decided he just would not let me catch him. And Henry would not go anywhere without Luca... And I almost got into a strop myself and let them spend the night in the field.  

Then C rescued me with the treat bag full of carrots and suddenly Luca was perfectly happy to be caught, and so we all went off happily (?) on the way home. 

This photo: Lenya Bass

Donkey conundrums

Having two donkeys to care for has been (still is) a steep learning curve.

Not being a horse person, I didn't have any preconceived ideas about donkeys at all, but also no previous experience of animals that big. A donkey running up to you is quite a sight, and quite a force to consider, just by sheer moving mass!

Are they happy to see me or are they trying to push me away? Or trying to stop me from leaving he field? Are they starving? Or just demanding? Do they need needing yet more attention? Or just throwing a stomping tantrum?
Their winter coats were clipped before they came to us to prevent lice, so they came with rugs to put on in cold weather. That throws up a whole load of different questions again: When should I put their rugs/coats on? How cold is too cold? If it turns cold but wet, can I put the coat on a damp donkey? How long should or can I leave it on? Won't they get itchy under the coat? Actually, how on earth do I put on a donkey coat?
It gets worse: Just the act of mucking out the field shelter brings up another barrage of questions: How much straw to put down for them to eat? How often? How much is too much and how much is too little? How much for bedding? How much old bedding straw should be removed and replaced? Dirty straw, obviously should be removed, but how dirty is 'dirty'? And how wet is 'wet straw'? And how do you test whether it's wet? (With bare hands? I have occasionally, actually.)
And all that has not even touched the tricky issue of feeding donkeys correctly - luckily it is getting into winter now, so at least I don't have to worry about lush grass, just yet.

And then there was that afternoon the other week, when, riding on a wave of confidence, I thought I'd take them up the road for a short walk. So up the road we went - they walked like a dream. But it was only meant to be a short stroll to test the waters, so we turned back quite soon. That's when they decided they would gallop off down the lane - I had no chance but to let the ropes go. They didn't stop by the garden  gate, they didn't stop by the field gate, they didn't stop at all in fact and kept up the speed. I was running down the lane behind them, having visions of disasters... 400 yards down the road, by the next property they finally slowed down - the neighbour heard the commotion and stepped out on the road, that made them stop and consider. Phew. Though my neighbourhood reputation as a donkey owner is now ruined.
Ho-hum... Never a dull moment!

This photo: Stefanos Pavlakis