The joy our animals bring
Dear Val, I am going to share with you how we came about letting our donkeys free to walk with us in the woods.
We got our first one year old donkey, Galopin, 3 years ago and not having had a donkey before I was quite nervous about taking him out for walks. It was obvious for anyone seeing us on our little roads around the farm, that I was not leading Galopin, but rather Galopin was leading me where ever he wanted to go…. The locals were in favour of using a stick and showing him who was the boss. I was indignant of such method and found Melody from the Donkey Whisperer Farm Blog in the States.
Melody coached me ( for free!!!) on Skype. The 1st thing she said that was most useful, is that donkeys LOVE a leader, in the the absence of which, they will try to take on leading, which might mean kicking, biting, pulling …etc, all unpleasant. The 2nd thing was that if your donkey isn’t doing what you want him to do, it’s never the donkey’s fault. And the 3rd most important point is that a trusting relationship has to get created in order for all to enjoy time together. Donkeys are very clever and never forget anything. Sadly Galopin died under aenesthetic while being castrated. We were devastated. We now have Bijou and Bichette and they are delightful. The first time we took them out into the woods and let them free, we were with friends and all were apprehensive about what was going to happen. Will they disappear? I was the only one at peace, trusting my relationship with them and trusting that all was going to be fine. And ALL was fine. It must be said that we don’t let them free on the roads, or near fields with crops. The winter is a good time to start letting them free because very little is growing around that might get damaged. They have learned that if coming when called they get a tasty reward…
All the best.
Martine Lewis
Val says very interesting Martine but have you got Christmas recipes as well! My readers are probably more interested in food and wine than all our donkey news. I am guilty of the same enthusiasm perhaps I should put the label "donkey news" back at the top.
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