If One Donkey Is Good, Two Are Better!

Dominick the Donkey has been part of my herd pretty much since I brought my horses home, in August 2014. I found him on Craigslist and brought him home from an unsanitary horse dealer's lot where he was living in a large concrete pen with a couple dozen other equines, picking straw and hay out of muck piles. :-( Amazingly, despite coming from a bad setting, he had obviously been well cared for in the past because he was in good weight and had healthy, well-managed feet.

For 5.5 years, Dominick has enjoyed being one of the gang with the horses. Unfortunately, horses and donkeys (especially miniatures like Dom) have very different nutritional requirements. My large, hard-working horses do best with free-choice forage, whereas Dom needs his intake limited. In the summer this is easy because the gang comes into the barn for the day to avoid the heat and bugs, where each stall/run is stocked with the right amount of hay for its occupant (full hay nets for the horses, and a single flake for Dom). Overnight while they're turned out on grass, Dom wears a grazing muzzle.

Winter has been a bigger challenge because full-time turnout with unlimited hay is easiest for me and healthiest for them, but makes it difficult to manage Dom's weight. He tolerates a muzzle 24/7 but I hate that he doesn't get a break from it, and even with the muzzle he tends to come out of winter fatter than he went in. I can't separate him from his horse friends to give him a break from the muzzle either because he will freak out alone, even if they're still in sight.

So, I finally decided to cave and acquire a buddy for Dom, so that he can be dry-lotted with a friend and appropriate forage while the horses are turned out 24/7. Which leads me to...

Welcome home, Lancelot!!!!

Mr. F says, "Mom, I don't know if you realize but there's a small gray thing in my stall..."

Lance came from a wonderful Maryland rescue, Lost and Found Horse Rescue, which despite its name rescues primarily donkeys. He is about two years old and was born to a feral herd, so although Ashley at LFHR has done a terrific job getting him healthy, he is still very timid around people and easily frightened. Thankfully he is also highly food-motivated so every evening I hold a bucket with some Triple Crown Senior and while he eats I scratch and groom him. We're also working on giving to pressure and leading properly, because right now leading involves me luring him from one place to another with a bucket of grain. Thank goodness he loves his food!

After only a couple of days together, Dom and Lance are sharing a stall and a hay net. I think they will be inseparable before long! I also think Dom will be a good influence as Lance is already getting braver around me while he watches Dom approach fearlessly for treats and attention. I love that Dom will have a friend his size to play with because he clearly enjoyed playing with my yearling a few years back, but hasn't had anyone who will play with him since.

What I've learned from this is that although donkeys are wonderful, they are not ideal companions for horses unless you can limit grass/hay or separate them at least part of the time. When I first got Dom I was stalling my horses during the day in summer and overnight in winter, which worked well for him, but as my horse management practices have evolved I've had to adjust my donkey management too. I hope that having a buddy brings Dom joy and helps keep him healthy for years to come.