Turns Out Two Donkeys are More Than Twice the Work

If there is a theme to this blog, it is the law of unintended consequences. By which I mean, every "improvement" I've made has presented new problems to solve. Acquiring a second donkey, which I wrote about in this post, has proven to be no exception. I've already encountered a few issues:

1) Donkey messes

One great thing about Dominick, my original donkey, is that he's quite tidy. He likes to poop mostly in one pile (a side-effect of his late gelding, I believe) and doesn't step in it on purpose. It's funny how when you start keeping your horses at home their stall habits and cleanliness suddenly go from something you never really thought about to a top priority and source of frustration.

On the other hand, my new donkey Lancelot's favorite pooping spot is "while walking." To make matters worse, the donkeys have several adorable-but-messy play sessions each day, during which they trample their manure, grind it into tiny pieces, and scatter it in all directions.

After a few weeks of cleaning shards of donkey poo out of all my expensive stonedust twice a day, I decided to move the donkeys into their own area that I wouldn't have to pick daily. Sorry donkeys, you've lost privileges!

I thought about fencing a whole new area for the donkeys, either beside the barn or in an open area near the pasture. Those spots would keep them near the horses to provide companionship and would have easy access to water and electricity. However, neither of those spots seemed large enough or flat enough, plus I wasn't sure I wanted to commit to spending money on new wood fencing yet.

To test the donkey paddock plan, I decided on the easiest and lowest-cost option: to use Horseguard electric fence to create a corridor in the pasture between the dry lot and the old run-in shed, an area of about 225'x25'. The donkeys now have shelter as well as plenty of room to run and play. It didn't require any permanent changes and I had already most of the materials I needed for the fence, which they respect very well. The one catch is that they don't have access to the Nelson waterer, and there's no nearby spigot or electricity, so when winter comes I'll have to figure out how to deal with providing water.

Twice a day I hang a fresh hay net on the wood fence. Underneath and in front of the hay net I placed some spare rubber mats to mitigate mud. Now the rubber mats and the shed are the only places I need to pick manure, and I don't feel like I have to clean every shard like I did with the stonedust. Every week or so I drag the rest of the paddock to break up the manure. They tend to poo along the path that they've already worn between the shed and the hay, so the grass along the exterior fence remains uncontaminated and good for nibbling.

It's a small enough area that Dominick no longer has to wear a grazing muzzle, which is good because Lance likes to use it as a handle. Which actually brings me to issue #2...

2) Donkey roughhousing

All of a sudden, after almost three months of peaceful coexistence, Dom started biting Lance's neck and throat hard enough to draw blood. Lance returned the favor, not quite as badly, on Dom's crest. I don't know why they were suddenly at each other's throats (literally) but the vet who runs the donkey rescue said it could be spring-hormone-related even though they're both geldings. I was able to observe them a few times and it mostly looked like mutual play. Although Lance didn't look super enthusiastic when Dom latched onto the side of his neck, as soon as they split up he'd come back for more.

The battle of the majestic mighty stallions.

I couldn't muzzle Dom because Lance would just use the halter/muzzle to drag Dom around, and I couldn't muzzle both of them because Lance is still scared of everything and would probably have a donkey heart attack.

The first time I turned Lance out back in January I left his halter on to make him easier to catch. Within an hour I had to go outside and save him from Dom, who was dragging him around by it. Donkeys are so naughty!

I've put toys out for them that they largely ignore, including a Jolly Ball, a damaged plastic gutter downspout extension, traffic cones, and our Christmas tree. Thankfully the worst of the wounding has died down now even though I still see them playing, so hopefully they've worked through whatever was going on there.

They look soooooooo innocent...