Working donkeys

[near horse]

“We had a “spook-in-place” occur yesterday …… Both boys spooked severely, as can be expected; but they didn’t bolt.”

Hey Moonshadow,

Glad to see you’re still in the “donkey business”:cool:

As I read this thread again it brought up a question in my mind – is being startled the same as spooking? IMHO, it’s certainly a natural response to get jumpy for a second or two after some birds flush (like you said, it startles us as well) but to me, if they 1) don’t try to run off 2) settle back in short order, I’m pretty happy with the whole scene. It’s about as much as I can expect.

What do you think?

[Robert MoonShadow]

Yeah…whatever you call it – I’m just glad its not a full-blown runaway or upset!
I guess I was just commenting that w/ most horses I’ve known, there would’ve been a lot more “activity”. But then again, sometimes when we’re going at “donkey” high-speed, I could wish for a little more of that horse-type “activity”! :rolleyes:
Being very inexperienced to it all, and the attendant increase in danger to being a neophyte, I find the size, speed, and mentality of the donkey to be just my thing – I can concentrate a bit more on “getting it right”; I don’t worry quite so much about blowups and runaways with a donkey. They seem to be much more forgiving of my screw-ups.
{Maybe its a sense of ‘kinship’ w/ this one-eyed jack…ass?}

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