So on Dec 21st I made the fateful decision to take a free donkey, sight unseen. Was told her feet were bad, and needed a trim, but she moves good. She was friendly but standoffish, a herd donkey for sheep and the farmer had 2 intact males, it was getting too hard to keep them separated. Hooked up my trailer after digging it out of a snowbank and off we went. Turns out she was 3 legged lame and had a bad case of slipper feet (her hooves pointed out like elf shoes from being overgrown). They had to use a pulley rope to get her out of the "stall" then out of the barn and into the trailer. His last words were "don't stand behind 'er, if she has legs she'll kick". Drove her home and the inside of the trailer looked like a sauna, she was dripping wet and the trailer windows were covered in steam.
Had to pulley her off of the trailer, wary of a kick/bite that never came, and discovered she would walk to the new barn if someone stood behind her, from a distance of course. Had a barefoot trimmer with slipper foot experience trim her up some, made her look 100x better. Kept her on stall rest for almost 3 weeks with a goat as a pal until the goat made fun of her ears, SO said the goat was hiding in corners and shaking, that the donkey was chasing her around pretty badly. Goat went away and she was introduced to the horses as she is mostly sound.
So far the donkey hasn't kicked or bitten, or threatened to kick or bite a single time through this entire ordeal. She was been dewormed, vaccinated, hooves trimmed, blanketed (sort of), led, brushed and is working on having her feet touched without showing any aggression. She now leads fairly well and has even started to stop if I stop instead of charging ahead. She goes out in the day and in at night, she walks right up to me to be caught both in her stall and in the pasture.
She is quite personable, she nickers/soft brays at feeding time, she sticks her tongue out after she drinks, for over a minute it just hangs there. She LOVES having her ears scratched. She has decided being domesticated isn't so bad, there is GRAIN and warm water (brought from in the house, especially for her), someone will scratch her ears and brush those itchy spots on her back.
I am very happy my rescue is turning out to be so great, one more unwanted animal has found a good home.
Aww that is fantastic!! I also rescued a donkey about a year and a half ago. He's only been with me a year because he was supposed to belong to my dad, but he didn't have time to work with him and I needed a companion for my colt so he came to live with me in January 2010. I can still barely touch him! He's not gelded so that probably has a lot to do with it. If I corner him in a stall I can put a halter on him to worm him, but I haven't done anything else because I wanted him to come to me in his own time instead of cornering him and forcing myself on him. I'm going to try to win his trust this year because I'm hoping to have more time. :) I can't wait to hear more about your new donkey.
ReplyDeleteThanks for being my first follower! My trick to win her over has been sweet feed. She could have breakfast and dinner, but she had to eat it near then next to me. Then she had to eat it out of my hand. She was stalled for the first couple of weeks so it made it much easier, she couldn't run, but that was my trick. Plus being with horses who come when I call and are eager to be around me. Good luck with your donkey!
ReplyDeleteThanks! He let's me touch his face and scratch his ears but he doesn't like me stepping toward him or touching his shoulder. I have touched his neck before though. I'll keep trying to win his trust. :)
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