Crappy vid. but this is why I love this donk. He hasn’t been handled in 10 yrs. Only been out here for 5 days, already knows his new handle (or more than likely my voice) look how he comes trotting down that hill when I call him <3
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He is precious!!!
LOL, no, I don’t ride him, he’s pretty much just in charge of security LOL
I know!!! Isn’t he a cutie???
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He is so darned cute!
Rebecca
My donk is turned out with two horses. One of them considers her to be her buddy; the other doesn’t particularly like the donk. This is probably because they are both rescues, and they are from the “this could be my LAST meal” club. In other words, they will both try to get the last crumble out of whatever bucket isn’t licked clean- particularly if it isn’t theirs.
The gelding periodically runs the donk off, and every once in awhile, he bites her ass. He has never broken the skin. They part ways, at that point, and leave each other alone for awhile, and then do it again.
If the donk would give up being a crumb snatcher, she probably would not have any trouble at all with the gelding.
However, I do not see that happening! :lol:
I hope that they work things out- he is just HUGE!!
We got a mini donkey several years ago. My horse was on small restricted turnout, healing from a ligament injury, in a temp fenced section of the paddock. He took one look at donkey, jumped out of his enclosure and ran to the furthest part of the paddock, terrified. I put him back in, and same thing happened again. The donkey’s stall was to be next to his, so I had to swap him and the other horse we had here out of fear he would literally break out of his stall (other horse warmed up to donkey immediately).
It took about a month, but he came around. Now many years later, those 2 are best buds. I would make sure both are safe for the time being, and give it time. He may come around.
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We had our donkey in with our goats, but she started picking up the two new baby Nubian Alpine crosses by their ears and flinging them around. :eek: She adores our older goat but hates the babies. Now, she is moved in with the older Shetland Pony, who is quite protective of her senior feed, now that she is missing teeth and can’t eat her hay properly. I hope it works out well, because we give the pony hay to nibble, but she wastes it. If it works out, the donkey will have plenty of low cal hay, but won’t get to the high carb senior feed.
When it comes to donkeys, horses are all over the place. We had a gelding that raised a donkey weanling and played with him as if he were his own son. We had an older mare that thought every donkey was a baby foal that needed nurturing (she would nicker like crazy and try to get to them). We have a gelding now that doesn’t know what to make of them at all. It just depends on exposure, I guess.
Walter is adorable!
My one mare took years to accept donkeys. She was born on a farm with donkeys, shared a fence line with donkeys for a number of years at one boarding farm. She even lived out in a massive pasture with about 4 other mares and 4 donkeys at another boarding farm; of course they stayed like 2 separate herds since the pasture was so huge.
So when I brought my first donkey home, I really wasn’t anticipating this mare to have an aggressive reaction towards the new donk. Oh, how wrong was I?!? The first time I turned them out my mare double barreled the donkey so hard I was worried about broken ribs. It was ugly.
I left the donkey turned out with her only because there was my other horse in the field who totally protected the donkey (and I didn’t really have a backup plan since I was anticipating such a problem). But the mare glares persisted for months. What actually caused my mare and donkey to bond was the death of the other horse about a year later, but even that was more of a tolerance/temporary truce type response.
They’ve been living together for almost 8 years now. In that time, I’ve added new horses and another donkey, moved states, etc. The mare finally acknowledges the donkeys as part of her herd, but still spends most of her time ignoring them unless there is something to gain from interacting.
My other horses are obsessed with the donkeys. I swear they think they are foals to be doted upon.
I think Walter is in a terrible place, and will never get along with your horse. I will volunteer to take him off your hands.
:lol::lol::lol:
My horse had a really difficult time accepting non-horses. He has been absolutely freaked out by cows, donkeys/mules, and minis. For HIM, he needs a long time to adjust to the sight of them (we’re talking days). THEN, when comfortable being close to them, he really needs to put his nose on and smell them (he’s very sight and smell oriented). If he can take the time to really smell them after becoming OK with being close to them, he relatively quickly becomes OK with them.
Alternatively, if your sheep are OK with it, but your sheep in with your donkey or your donkey in with your sheep so your horse can accept them as “together”, rather than feeling the need to protect your sheep from this donkey. I agree that Walter might need a friend.
Of course, none of this will work so I’ll plan to show up with a trailer soon. :lol::lol::lol::lol:
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Donkeys do prefer their own kind, but will resign themselves to living with a horse if they must.
We once had friction between a new and an old gelding, over the resident mare. This went on a couple weeks; it was a drag. A rancher friend suggested we put the two boys and the mare in a trailer and take them for a ride around town - to the grocery, school pick up, whatever - just keep them out for an hour. The idea is that horses will bond to each other in the shared unease about the trailer. It worked!
I wonder if such a thing would be fruitful for your situation?
Also, donkeys can sometimes be funny about baby creatures. You might keep a careful eye on Walter if your sheep have lambs…donkeys are just so curious, they’ll pick up or stomp on about anything, just to play around.
Walter is such a cutie! I love his markings.
I hope your (gorgeous) horse will get used to him eventually.
My Tb mare is obsessed by our barn’s mule. When I ride her by his paddock, she has to stop and stare at him. If I let her she would go right to the fence and just stay there and STARE. She is also fascinated by mini donks. Will go sniff them and squeal but I wouldn’t trust her not to rough-handle them if given the opportunity.
LOL too funny 
I’m just about to the point where I might just let you take both of them!!!
My horses have absolutely no problems with mules. We really don’t see donkeys that much, but i wouldn’t think it would be a problem. My paint mare was fascinated by the mule at first. Now she just gets annoyed because if we ride with the mule, she has to stay in the back and she really doesn’t appreciate being behind anyone. She pouts the entire time.
That said, my paint mare is incredibly opinionated about new horses. I brought home a Paso Fino and she took one look and was ready to Kill him. I was shocked because we ride with Pasos all the time, and my one friend gets a new horse every few months. She has never had a problem with his continual supply of new horses.
She hated the Paso i had. She wanted him Gone. Right now! She nearly kicked my fence down. I had to put up an electric fence and keep 2 fences between her and him. I turned her loose one day on pasture and she ran to the gate to the Paso’s paddock and double barreled it with both hinds. She would herd my other horses away from the fence and not let anyone near him.
It took nearly 3 months for her to tolerate him (without breaking any more fencing) and I never tried putting them together. I didn’t dare. He was super timid, bottom of the herd, and insecure. She was boss mare. After he went to a new home, I’ve had 2 new Pasos come, and she had no problems with them. It was just him. For whatever reason, he was not acceptable.
I would give it another 3 months… They might never become friends, but they may learn to tolerate each other.
I haven’t read all the replies so this may have already been suggested, but there’s a fun way to do this with clicker training that involves connecting the treats to the donkey.
The way I’d do it is I’d bring Hudson as close to the donkey as possible without provoking a reaction, and then I’d start feeding treats. I’d give him small treats at a high rate as long as he was non-reactive toward the donkey, and then I’d either lure the donkey closer (put treats in a pan maybe) while rewarding Hudson for allowing the donkey to approach him, or I’d very gradually bring Hudson closer.
I don’t think it matters whether the donkey approaches Hudson or the other way around, because the idea is that the treats will be connected to allowing the donkey into his space. So the message you want to send to Hudson is that he only gets treats when he doesn’t threaten the donkey (allows him to be closer).
I use this strategy whenever I want to pony one horse off another, and it doesn’t usually take more than a few sessions for the horse I’m riding to start to want the horse I’m ponying to come closer.
The ones that stomp varmints sometimes see any unfamiliar animal as a varmint, and that can include small humans, too. My donkeys and mules get used to my dogs and chickens, but will chase unfamiliar ones out of their territory until they get used to them being around.
OMGoodness, I wonder if this is the famous “Walter” who was rescued in Sorrento, Fl. Walter was sort of abandoned in
a small field and a bunch of suburban families started feeding him and the news got hold of the story. Word was a donkey
rescue took him, originally supposed to go to Texas, but then that changed to Va. Not positive where he ended up. This
all happened in the last 6-8 mo.
Walter was very famous on our local TV and newspapers. Maybe you have a STAR.
Here’s a followup story on Mr. Walter from Fl. He did go to Va. to a rescue and had the surgery on his hind leg where he
had a growth removed. He still gets letters from school children who used to give him treats.
Our burros never chased the chickens and tolerate the barn cat, but will make mean ears and charge our dogs, even though they’ve all known each other for years and the dogs - not even once - have never pestered them. The dogs scoot through the gate and duck into the safety of the adjacent pen when we feed in the mornings.
This dog-hatred has come in handy. I once looked outside and saw a strange Labrador - a dog not from our neighborhood - creeping up very intently on our chickens. The two donkeys waited until the dog was a certain distance and charged and chased that sucker to the far end of the pasture. They would’ve killed him, I’m certain, but he slipped under the fence at the last second…never to be seen in these parts again.
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We’ve only had one fatality (a mule stomped a baby duck), and the rest were all mostly chasing and maybe rolling the victim, but no real damage. It could happen though, if a longear managed to kick or step on his target just right.
