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Donkey Tales
The true story of Big Ears by Louise Whyte
In 1992, the Whyte family decided to make the first tentative
steps towards horse ownership. As we both worked, and I commuted
to London, we were unsure whether or not we really could afford
the time to keep a horse at home, so thought we would have
a trial run - with a donkey, to see how we coped timewise.
Although
I had shared horses in the past, they had always been kept
in livery yards by their owners, so all I did was show up
and ride but now we had a small paddock, stables were erected
and we were ready to go. First find your donkey - not all
that easy to find these days. An inspired approach to the
local council to find out if anyone had a concession for beach
rides and we met up with Big Ears, a brown donkey of short
stature but huge personality.
Big
Ears had been working on a local beach for a number of years,
but was the only donkey, and 'available'. A suitable sum of
money changed hands and a few weeks later, this petite donkey
tippy toed her way down the ramp of a large horsebox and inspected
the premises as if royalty was visiting! Her erstwhile owner
gave us only one piece of advice 'don't let her get the upper
hand'. How right that proved to be!
By
now we had realised that one donkey bad, two donkeys good,
so we had set about finding a friend for Big Ears - this is
how we met Mouse (aka Linda but Mouse suits her much better),
a very wild and frightened donkey owned by Sussex Horse Rescue
Trust, based in Uckfield. Linda was at the opposite extreme
of the height spectrum, a very large grey girl with no confidence
in herself and a complete terror of people. A few days later,
a steaming overwrought donkey charged down the ramp and the
two donks met - love at first sight. Big Ears was delighted
to find she wasn't the only donkey in the world, and Mouse
was relieved that there was only one donkey - they rubbed
noses and got on with the business of grazing, firm friends
instantly.
While
Big Ears was of the been there, done it, seen the video (actually
she was on the postcard herself and had done theatre!), Mouse
was totally unhandled and picking out feet was a two hour
job on a bad day, and often ended in mum being dragged down
the field on her bottom, vainly holding onto a charging donkey.
Don't laugh - a terrified donkey in full flight is a very
strong creature! Gradually Mouse gained confidence and began
to trust us, submitting to rugs, worming and all the usual
equine requirements. She even managed to be driven in harness
which was a huge achievement.
Big
Ears of course was unflappable. Completely self confident,
she would have ruled the world if there had been a vacancy,
so she had to make do with us. The battle of wits began. She
worked out how to open stable doors and gates - just rattle
it until the bolt moves - and one fine achievement was letting
herself out of the field into our garden and polishing off
around £150 worth of herbs. We could have spit roasted
her that night. Another good game was to remove all the blocks
holding down the tarpaulin over our hay - at that stage we
didn't have a barn - and inserting said donkey (with help
from assistant Mouse) under tarpaulin. We came home to find
two very contented tails sticking out…
So a new career had to be found for Big Ears - as fund raising
donkey for Sussex Horse Rescue Trust. Based at Uckfield, the
charity has more than 200 horses, ponies and donkeys in its
care, and operates a loan scheme, though many of the rescued
animals are unsuitable for rehoming and spend the rest of
their lives at the sanctuary. All funds are raised by the
charity itself, so it is a major responsibility to raise enough
to support all the equines in care.
Firstly
we tried the donkey rides circuit at fetes and local s hows
- but Big Ears made it perfectly clear that when she agreed
to a transfer to our care, retirement was part of the deal
and there was no way she was going back to work. Privately,
I had to agree with her as it is a lot of donkey rides to
raise £50! A new route was tried - street collections
in town centres.
This appealed to our mini moke as she was the centre of attention,
and only had to stand for a few hours, eat lots of polo mints
and accept any other gifts offered. Nice work if you can get
it, though she made it clear that there were some locations
she preferred. She loved Brighton, where there was a lot of
activity and music and would tap a toe and watch it all -
but sulked the minute she arrived at another town which was
not to her liking.
For
several years, she raised £2-3,000 for the charity and
enchanted her audience. She had a particular rapport with
handicapped children and adults - one memorable day she was
hugged by a handicapped adult, and stood there, for ten minutes,
as he cuddled her. Not the least bit afraid, she sensed when
people needed her - but a bumptious child would be vigorously
butted and sent flying. She was also incredibly accurate at
head butting men in sensitive places - a donkey with attitude
certainly.
We
would return home so proud of her, as she really was a star
plus she raised so much money. I used to say to my husband
'appreciate her while you have her, as we won't get another
one like this' and it proved so true as two years ago, we
lost her.
On
the Friday night she went to bed, right as rain, Saturday
8am colic, vet arrived by 830, in hospital by 1030, operated
on at 1pm, dead 1am Sunday. Even now, I cannot believe the
horror of that day, the utter disbelief that this was happening.
The vet had said if she gets past 2pm, then the operation
is going well, and we waited and watched the clock, hardly
daring to hope. But when the call came, it was bad news -
although she had been brought round from the operation, they
had not been able to reach whatever was causing the blockage,
and it was doubtful that she would make it, but they would
give her a chance. We visited her that evening, hugging her,
piling rugs on her as she was so cold and shocked but at 1am
the call came, the colic was back and there was nothing to
be done.
I
will never forgive myself that I wasn't with her, but I suppose
I had dared to hope she would live, and after all, we had
to cope with Mouse, and Molly our horse, and the hens and
the cats and the other responsibilities in our lives. But
I will never forget the phone ringing in the night and knowing
that the only reason the vet had said they would ring was
if she was worse. I just howled when he told me she had to
be put to sleep, and worse, I couldn't even be there, as she
was suffering and it wasn't fair to wait the ten minutes till
I got there.
Of
course that left us with one dead donkey and one devastated
lonely donkey. We took Mouse to see Big Ears the next day,
and she seemed to understand and stopped calling for her.
We then went to find her a companion from the sanctuary at
Uckfield, and returned with Fergus, an even smaller brown
donkey, who was less than impressed with this huge donkey
who wanted to smother him with nuzzles and affection. Within
24 hours, he was settled and content and Mouse, the poor terrified
Mouse, showed extreme courage, coping so well with her loss
- we worried so much about her as she and Big Ears were like
a long married couple, they had their bickering days, and
their you stupid donkey days, but they were so bonded and
had been so happy together that it was heartbreaking to see
the partnership broken.
Fergus
settled in well and in time we thought that perhaps fund raising
might be a job he would take on - he is a placid, gentle little
chap, and seemed laid back enough but sadly, he didn't take
to it at all. Loading was a real problem, and despite lots
and lots of practice, he was too unreliable. On one memorable
occasion we got completely stranded with him and had to walk
him home, in the rain, and ultimately in the dark - not the
safest thing I have ever done! Another time, he had a complete
panic attack in Brighton - reversing into vendors' stalls
and doorways, lifting his tail (with the inevitable effect
of being nervous….), and then planting himself and refusing
to move. That day it took almost two hours to get him back
in the trailer, and we had only collected for an hour before
he panicked. After that we decided that it wasn't going to
be for him, and it was too much of a trial for us, the uncertainty
of how he would behave and load - it only brought home to
us how good Big Ears had been as she was utterly reliable
regardless of where you were.
With Fergus 'retired', but still wanting to continue fundraising
we bought Amy, a racing donkey. She is the most 'in your face'
little poppet you could meet, with 'me, me, me' stamped on
her forehead, certainly one to go first, not last. A beautiful
coloured donkey, she has lovely markings and exceptional eyelashes
- but her previous career of donkey derby activity had not
prepared her for standing still! We are still on that particular
learning curve but she is now able to contain her enthusiasm
for 3 hours before we have to give in and bring her home.
A
complete extrovert, she is less confident and experienced
than Big Ears, but more like her in character. Again, she
is a great opener of anything she can, including climbing
through fencing if necessary, she possesses a huge buck, and
is more like a pony club games equine than a donkey. Fergus
and she adore each other, and play like a couple of kids,
with Mouse looking on as the wise old donkey, even though
she is the youngest!
Although
Amy had been used to travelling to events - in a horse box
with her friends - she decided that going into a trailer was
a bit beneath her so we were back to square one. Anyone who
hasn't tried to load an immovable donkey may roll their eyes
and think we are complete wimps, but a planted donkey is a
very solid and hard to move object. The main difference was
that Amy was having us on, while Fergus was genuinely frightened
and distressed. We have now found that a rope fastened to
the trailer entrance and brought round her bottom, while I
hold her front end and encourage her, will convince her that
the struggle isn't worth the effort, and she walks straight
in.
She
has, after a year, begun to take to her new career. At first,
she refused to stand still at all, and was a bit untrustworthy
at the rear end, but now she has resigned herself to the fact
that if she just joins in, it isn't too bad. Her most impressive
appearance to date was at Fontwell Races, where she was very
keen to talk to all the racehorses and be interviewed on the
Racing Channel - Amy, star of betting shops throughout the
country. It was hilarious - the TV company were close by and
every time they tried to interview a jockey or trainer, Amy
would ad lib in the background, till eventually they gave
up and interviewed her personally. She had us all in stitches.
We are amazed that Fontwell Races have been kind enough to
invite us back this year as we were so embarrassed at her
taking over of the proceedings.
The jump racing public are very generous and we have a wonderful
chat line as if they are going to bet on a donkey, they might
as well give the money to us in the first place! Some of the
trainers and jockeys tend to agree with us!
2002
will be a busy year for Amy as she has many visits to make
including some special Christmas events which we hope will
be very successful. As the foot and mouth crisis and bad winter
of 2001 have blighted the horse market, the pressure on the
sanctuary to take in more and more unwanted horses - or having
our own ones returned - makes it all the more important that
Amy does her bit - anyone who would like to make a contribution
can send a donation direct to:-
Sussex
Horse Rescue Trust
Hempstead Farm
Brown Lane
Uckfield
East Sussex
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