Donkey - loading advice?

[OverandOnward]

Transporting a donkey (average donkey size), don’t know her trailering experience except that she has had at least 2 past trailer rides, the last one about 2 years ago. My limited information is that this donkey has not had a lot of handling in the last 2 years, and maybe not ever. She is at least moderately tame to living in a shed-pasture and getting daily feed. Donkey is a rescue, law enforcement seizure, so nothing is known about her past other than severe neglect (but she’s been cared for the last two years).

I know donkeys aren’t always motivated or think the same as horses. But that’s about all I know about donkey psychology.

I’m experienced with horses, including reluctant loaders. I use calm encouragement and enticement (bribery). No horse left behind.

Unfortunately I will not be able to do any advance work with this donkey. It’s a one & done, day-of-loading training.

Trailer is a two- horse straight load ramp, with escape door in front on either side. The middle divider can swing out wide. The front bar can be lowered so person can walk through in front. Have long lines. Don’t have a stock trailer.

I’ll get there for pick up at 9 am and have all day to work with her. But we do need to make the journey that day. There should be one other person to help, but probably not experienced with loading equines.

Transport day is Friday, 6 days from now. Rescue donkey is going to her adoptive home.

Are donkeys more transactional, or more emotional/trust? Or __ ?

With luck she is willing and walks on easily! But want to be prepared for anything.

All tips & advice appreciated!

[goodhors]

Well if she lays down, dribble some water in her nose! That should get her back on her feet! We had to do that with a mule colt I bought. While not “nice”, you can’t do anything with one who is down unless you have a winch. A winch is recommended equipment on trailers for untrained donkeys and mules!

One idea is asking people to not feed her that morning. Tell them you want you tempt her into the trailer with food. Perhaps THEY would lead her in and tie her, she knows them. I would recommend patience and bribery in TINY bits. You can fill them up before she gets cooperative. They can be suspicious of unknown people, unwilling to trust them for long times. Won’t do as asked for strangers.

Watch for kicking, they can “stroke” from nose to way behind with a hind leg in the blink of an eye. Wear a helmet during loading and until you shut the last trailer door for the last time… Lifting a hoof to move her forward is NOT recommended!

If she has a friend, maybe load friend first, get donkey in, tied HARD AND FAST with a big snap, heavy rope and halter. She may fight when you remove the friend. May not. But better to have her well anchored if she fights staying inside. Donkeys can fight very hard, quite determined, so you do NOT want anything breaking in the fight. Cover any windows so she doesn’t try going out that way.

Best of luck getting her loaded and moved. My friend used to buy auction ponies and horses to train and resell. We had a boatload of loading tricks! Had to beat the men away who had rough methods of loading that wanted to “help us”. We got them all loaded without injuring them or us and they loaded well before selling them.

[Texarkana]

I always say horses are like dogs and donkeys are like cats. Horses, being herd animals, have a desire to follow the alpha. Donkeys, being social yet generally solitary animals, assess a situation by asking, “what’s in it for me?”

I find you generally have two options to get something done with donkeys.

Option 1: this applies to donkeys who generally trust humans and will do things like lead. In these situations, the best you can do is go painstakingly slow. Do not try to force the donkey. Do not get in a battle. Do not try to assert dominance by getting them to move their feet or work. All of that is counterproductive with a donkey. Ask the donkey to load. If they don’t, then just stand there and wait. Incentive/bribery in the form of food helps a lot-- pick up a bucket of grain and shake it and see if the donkey moves forward. If not, just set it back down inside the trailer and give them some time to think about it. When they feel safe or they feel the benefits outweigh their concern, they tend to hop right on. You might use a dressage whip for the tiniest amount of encouragement, but constant tap-tap-tapping or anything you might do with a horse will just annoy a donkey. You will probably be looking at a loooong morning of the two of you just staring at each other.

Option 2: this applies to all of those difficult donkeys or donkeys with minimal handling. You basically have to give them no other option. Ideally you can create a chute and chase the donkey in. They are smart in the sense they can tell when hopping on the trailer is the path of least resistance.

Hopefully she is calm enough you can just go slow and she will walk right in.

I might remove your middle divider if you can, or keep it tied back during transport to make a box (if you can do it safely). That’s generally recommended when transporting anything with limited handling, as dividers just complicate things on multiple levels.

Good luck!

[OverandOnward]

Thank you so much for these tips. Will definitely take them all into account.

Will wear a helmet – thanks for the ‘heads-up’ on the kicking range! I know where a horse can reach, I had no idea donkeys had that much greater range. And I’ll check on what can be done with the divider. And the rest.

I started communications with the current foster home to find out all I can, in advance. They don’t have a lot of resources for this, taking this one was a sort of “she has no where else to go” mercy thing, and that was some time ago. But they do care about her and the information is flowing.

Apparently donkey is very attached to a companion donkey. They think this is going to matter a great deal to loading / not-loading. Maybe companion would like to go along for the ride, and then come back home.

Keep the tips coming! Thanks!

[chai]

You are so kind to help that donkey. I’ve had the wonderful blessing in my life to have had three donkeys: 2 minis and a standard. They are incredibly smart but they are also very sensitive and they are surprisingly strong - even the mini variety.

I second the suggestion of food. Please ask the person who is holding the donkey to withhold grain the day before (but definitely do not withhold hay or water) and then have the donkey’s food on hand with a scoop that makes a lot of ‘food is here’ noise when shaken and that should do it.

I also second the suggestion that you set up the situation so the donkey has no easy escape route if he/she decides to pull and run. A chute-type set up is best. When I had to move my standard donkey from Maine to MA, I actually set up a portable pen around the entrance to my trailer and made it smaller as the day went on until I got him in then wha-bam, the ramp went up and off we went and he rode like an old pro.

So basically, bribery and no other options to say ‘nope’ and you should be good to go. Best of luck - please let us know how it goes!

[Abbie.S]

I taught our two mini donkeys to load using what most people would consider “bribery”. But for a donkey, with the way they think and process a request, it wasn’t ultimately bribery but a tool to show the donks that there was something in it for them. They now self-load - we point, they hop up without a fuss.

Donkeys don’t respond to pressure the same way horses do - their high level of self preservation (much, much higher than a horse’s) means they are far more likely to stop and think heavily on something and take a long time doing it, and will fight pressure/push into it versus yielding to it. You’d best let them think, lest you want to prove to them that what they think might be concerning actually is.

With our guys, I cut up a bunch of carrots into small chunks. We led the donks up to the trailer, let them take a good long look, and when they were ready went to load like they’d done it a million times. When they stopped to look more, we let them look, offered a carrot when they looked to us to say “ok, ready” and took a couple more steps. Rinse, repeat. When they got front feet on the ramp, they got a carrot. When they got a four feet on the ramp, they got a carrot. If they got a bit stuck, we offered a carrot in front of them, and they’d inevitably stretch forward, pitch their weight over the front feet and come loose in their hinds and step forward. Then they’d get the carrot. Bribery doesn’t have lasting results so when you remove the bribe, the animal won’t perform the task. Ultimately, our guys understood pretty quickly that if they loosened up their feet in the direction we were asking them to go, they got a carrot. But we were very careful not to reward them if they stood fast or pulled. We let them look all they want and when they were ready we made the ask, but the reward always came AFTER the correct response, not before.

[OverandOnward]

The foster says that carrots are important in this donkey’s world. And hay. And she likes human affection. The foster mom has a pen that we can put to use.

Keep it coming!

This is educational. I can see why people who are familiar with horses feel like they hit a wall with donkeys.

[Texarkana]

Anytime I have to approach an unpleasant situation with my donkeys, I do it with a pocket full of treats. A lot of horse people hate that! Especially since I reward them more frequently than you would a horse-- basically a non-reaction gets a reward just like a positive reaction. The rewards stop coming for negative reactions and that’s when my donkeys reconsider their behavior. They are solitary animals who are wired to please themselves first-- you have to make a situation worth their while or else they will just say no (unless you have a rapport established).

This is part of the reason clicker training works really well. I just tend to be too scatterbrained for effective clicker training.

[candyappy]

My limited experience is with mules but maybe given your constraints you can make a small pen off the back of the trailer with a couple round pen panels and maybe just make it smaller and let her just kind of load herself as you get her toward the trailer?

I did this with my extremely young mule and it worked great. He just kind of fell in as there was nowhere else to go…

We just went slow and steady and he was very calm and I think he thought it was his idea.

[OverandOnward]

Thank you for all the tips. I am re-wiring my brain to donkey-mode, as much as I can.

Chatted with the foster mom today who has spent some time learning about donkeys, and allowing this one to teach her. (She has another couple that she got about the same time as this one.) She says all the same things - no pushing, just make it appealing and wait. She said that the donkeys decide what they will and won’t do, so you sort of have to sell them on the idea. And try to remove any alternatives.

She said the jenny is actually rather sweet and will follow her around. So long as the jenny doesn’t feel pressured or stressed. There is a chance that she will follow foster-mom right into the trailer. There is also a chance that she won’t.

Taking a bag of carrot bites + real whole carrots. Among other things. Will wait out the little donkey for as long as it takes.

[SLW]

A curious donkey makes it easier to do things. A donkey that has shut down is immobile. My experience is this: a donkey is more like a dog, it has to trust you before it will work with you. You and I know we can “man handle a horse” to get what we need from it. A donkey that doesn’t trust you will stand stock still, forever.

From your information I would have the divider in the trailer open and the chest bars not in place. If you have half doors over the ramp I would leave the donkey loose during transport with both escape doors key locked. If it’s open above the closed ramp then tie the donkey very high but dang that could get messy if it’s never been tied.

Have the foster Mom try to have the donkey follow her into the trailer first. If the companion donkey is needed then do use it to your advantage to load rescue donkey then return the companion. I’m guessing the donkey hasn’t been taught to lead but put a halter and lead rope on it so you can slow it down if it scoots. A donkey uses it’s head/neck to gain control over a handler. In the beginning, my 12.2 donkey could “run away” with me at a walk by dropping her head and turning away from me. It was the craziest thing. For awhile I had to have a chain lead rope over her nose to give me leverage but mercifully she has outgrown that trick.

If rescue donkey shuts down and time is getting short then use a butt rope and inch it’s little feet forward and forward onto the ramp and into the trailer. Or as others have said some panels can be used to make a chute but you’ve still got the issue of motivating the donkey’s feet to move which is why I like a butt rope.

Tapping it with a crop/dressage whip won’t do a thing to move the donkey unless it’s been trained to “move away” from the tap.

I agree with the others to withhold any grain rations the morning of transport so that you have that bait to use without overloading the donkey’s gut.

Good luck with the mission! Donkeys are fabulous creatures.

[skydy]

Good luck!
Please let us know how it goes tomorrow.

[moonlitoaksranch]

I’ve had several donkeys that were bad loaders when I first got them.

Walk the donkey a bit first. Establish a level of trust. Use a longer lead rope attached to her halter.
Ask the donkey to do something, like walk over something, as you’re leading, and then reward her with a treat. Have a handful of treats ready. Do this a few times to show the donkey that you will keep her safe and that you have tasty things. Then, lead onto the trailer that same way. Keep your frame of mind the same. If she balks, run the lead rope around a post on the inside of the trailer and then return to the donkey’s side with the end of the lead rope in your hand, and use a pull and release/reward method to gently coax her into the trailer. Donkeys are very strong, so the trick is to make sure she can’t gain any ground going backwards. Take your time and be sure to release the lead rope for any slight movement forward and into the trailer (enough to see slack). Have a jackpot ready once she gets inside and don’t be in a hurry to leave. Continue to talk to her and pet her for a bit to let her know she’s safe. Make sure she has grass hay to nibble and she’s comfy before closing up the back and driving away. Go slowly and stay relaxed. You don’t want her to shut down.

This can take from a minute to an hour. She might walk right in. Make sure that possibility is in your mind when you walk her up to the trailer.

-Don’t use another equine she doesn’t know to buddy load. It won’t work and is more likely to scare her.
-Lounging probably won’t work because donkeys tend to shut down if you force them to move for no apparent reason. They have to be taught to lounge and it takes time…
-Treats can be loose oats, bread pieces, carrot slices, etc… (low calorie).

[StormyDay]

Can you park the trailer in the turnout of the donkey? Sometimes they will load just out of curiosity. It has to be their idea though. Put some food in there, stand by the back door, and wait.

[OverandOnward]

Not using names, including the donkey’s, to avoid identifying … will call donkey “Jenny”.

Jenny is on the right, showing her small size in comparison with her companion, at the foster home. Learned today that she is 15 yo. Don’t know the details of her history, but she was a law enforcement seizure. She has clearly recovered a long way from the neglect.

I will cut through the suspense: Loading took roughly 10 seconds.

Foster mom got the halter on her and walked her right out of the pen and straight up the ramp onto the trailer. Cheers all around for foster mom, and for Jenny.

This little jenny is one of the sweetest, kindest, gentlest, most adorable creatures I’ve ever met. She was a rock star all day.

Foster mom had greatly understated her acquired understanding of donkeys, and how much progress she has made with Jenny, who had very little positive experience of people before landing here. Jenny follows her around. And, Jenny quickly warmed up to me and was ready to follow me around as well.

Foster mom said several times “the burros are the boss”. At first I thought this was just a nice thing that people say about their pets. Gradually I realized it was true! LOL Foster mom echoed everything said in this thread about burros. (She calls them ‘burros’.) She said she had been studying about them, but in truth it seems the burros themselves were her best teachers.

Little Jenny was a good teacher as to how we should do trailer-loading and traveling. She was consistent. She rewarded our good behavior with cooperation and affection. She removed our options to do anything she disagreed with by anchoring, or taking actions over which we had no control. With immediate release when we corrected our actions. She got everything she wanted. So did we.

As several folks had projected, yep all of the dividers had to come out of the two-horse trailer. Jenny rode loose with a hay net, and rode very well. The road was smooth and flat for the trip which I think helped a great deal. I was very careful with acceleration and deacceleration, and did not feel that she was ever off balance. In fact, the trailer was so quiet that 15 minutes into the trip I pulled into a gas station to stop and check on her. She was at her hay and looked at me like “I’m fine. Drive.”

With Jenny’s kind cooperation we were able to get the trip all done before 3 inches of rain poured down that afternoon! Thank you Jenny!

So, arrived at the foster home in the a.m. and was able to pull into the pasture where the pens are, and park and lower the ramp right in front of Jenny’s pen. Then foster mom was putting the halter on Jenny (that took longer than loading because Jenny is a bit wiggly about it) while I opened all the windows & air vents on the trailer. So that gave the two donkeys a few moments to look at the trailer while they were still quiet in their pen. Foster mom soothed them with one small carrot piece each. Companion donkey was moved to another pen (she’s rather bossy, according to foster mom). Both were calm.

Once the ramp was down, I swung the divider wide and dropped the chest bars so foster mom wouldn’t have anything in front of her while leading Jenny in. Escape doors open. With foster mom leading, Jenny went out of the pen and right up the ramp beside her and into the trailer. Got carrot piece. Then they both stood quietly waiting for what’s next. I let them stand for a short moment, and as all was calm, went ahead and raised the ramp and fastened it. They were both calm and copacetic with this.

The dividers are supposed to help horses stabilize themselves during the trip. But once we had all the doors closed and we were both in with Jenny, to figure out how to arrange her & the dividers, Jenny began to calmly walk in a circle around the interior, going under each divider in turn. To show us that these dividers were not going to work! LOL

(I had the divders lowered to ‘reining horse’ setting, down from 'TB/WB ’ setting. Jenny could still walk under them.)

So with the trailer closed up and both of us in it with Jenny (there was lots of room), we began dismantling all the parts, and passing them out the side door (opening & closing for each one so it didn’t look like something Jenny would want to charge out of). Jenny was fine with this activity and showed that she approved by standing close to us as we did this. By this time the lead rope was tied around her neck and she was loose. There was no point in leading her as she was only going where she wanted to go.

Foster mom got out to go get/do something for a few minutes. I was fiddling/twiddling with something. Sweet Jenny walked right over to me and stood very close for several minutes, with her fuzzy head almost touching me while I fiddled. She seemed to be showing her emotional support, or something. Her large woolly forehead is so pettable! She seemed to like being petted.

(Thanks for the tips on donkey kicks. While all the fiddling was going on, I was careful about where I leaned down to get things. Foster mom pointed that out as well. Jenny never kicked, but it would be an expected instinctive reaction if triggered.)

Foster mom gave her a very sincere goodbye, with good wishes for her future. Foster mom is reducing her foster herd, but it’s impossible not to be attached to each one.

Then we left for an uneventful 2-hour drive to Jenny’s new home with her permanent adopter. Jenny rode beautifully and ate most of her hay. When we arrived, adopter-mom got in the trailer with a few pieces of carrot and spent several minutes making friends. When they were ready, I lowered the ramp, and Jenny followed adopter mom with no problem to her new stall. Beside her two new donkey friends, and a couple of horses. (They live turned out most of the time.) The little farm has shelter, pens, good-sized pasture with grass, and some tall trees. It is lovely and seems to be well suited for the 5-6 equines living there.

Sometimes equines seem to have a sense of when they are moving somewhere good, that will suit them well. I had a feeling that Jenny understood this trip and was ready for it. How could she know that her life would change so much today? I don’t know if that is possible, but Jenny certainly did everything to make the trip and the transition go well. And when she could have been understandably fussy about loading or traveling, she calm and cooperative.

In my very brief time with her, Jenny sold me on donkeys. I know that donkeys can be difficult and obstreperous. And although I like their singing, it would be better if they didn’t tune up at 6 am like the ones down the road from where I grew up. But if tame, gentle donkeys are as affectionate and attentive as the charming, delightful Jenny, what wonderful barn pets they would be.

In this photo Jenny is beginning her demonstration of why these dividers & bars have to go … you can see her disapproval in her expression. Right after this she began walking under all of the dividers/bars in turn. (That’s foster mom with her.)

I wish I had thought to get a photo of little her loose and happily at her hay in this large, otherwise empty, horse trailer!

Jenny at her new home, with an experienced donkey-mom, and a better look at her markings …

So, an easy trip after all, and a happy ending today!

[SadieRidingHorses]

So fantastic of you to transport this lovely animal. I used to be very active in a dog rescue and our transport volunteers were critical - all the more so with horses and “burros”, I would say. Thank you!

[Texarkana]

It sounds like that donkey has been blessed some wonderful people in her life lately, including you! Glad it went well. She is adorable, I love the spotted ones.

I currently have both wonderful, agreeable Jenny and a gelded jack who embodies the term “ass.” The latter was unhandled/manhandled until he came into my life in his 20s, so progress has been slow. Yet even his difficult nature hasn’t deterred my love of donkeys. They are great companions!

[moonlitoaksranch]

Nice job!

I miss my burros. They died because of one person’s stupidity.

[Maythehorsebewithme]

I have been following this, and I am so happy the outcome was posted (and that it was such a good one!). I hope Jenny has a wonderful rest of her life. People involved in her rescue and transport have earned an infinity of good karma.

[OverandOnward]

Thank you, it really wasn’t a big job. Just a lot of planning!

Now I have to eat this big bag of carrot pieces by myself. I didn’t think to split it up between the burro moms!