keeping horses with donkeys

[floppy]

It is always said you shouldn't keep horses/ponies with donkeys because of worms. But then you have cross breeds from horses and donkeys. whats against keeping horses and donkeys together?

Im having serious problems at my current yard and have decided that the best solution is to move my horse. At the moment my horse is playing with a stallion ;) and in 2 weeks i have to pick her up and then in novmeber she will go back there for the winter and next year to have her foal.

That gives me 5/6mths where i have to keep my horse temp. elsewhere. but the only friend i can offer her is a donkey :o :( i feel really bad about having to do it. But if she stays at current yard i will end up with a horse with laminitus. because no matter how hard i tell the YO my horse isnt allowed on the fields - they keep letting her out all night on high grass. (my horse is a very good doer. She just looks at the grass and gets fat:p my saddle that fitted her nicely while she was in training last year doesnt fit now...i have to keep the weight off her otherwise i can enjoy buying her a new saddle every year which i really cant afford) )

The only yard with the possibilitie to keep her in an open box and limited grass access cant offer me one at the moment because their boxes are all full with the young stallions that are being started.

So all i can do is keep her with a donkey...what do you all think? any suggestions?

appreciate any help or advice

[becs]

I thought you could get a vaccination for lungworm (the one donkeys can carry) so it wasn't that big a deal.

Where's Big Ears' expertise on this? Doesn't she have both??

[Big Ears]

it's a total myth.

if both are wormed together then donkeys DO NOT get worms - in fact when Mouse donkey was losing weight earlier in the year, we had a dung test done which showed she was completely worm free.

the reason people are concerned about it is that probably, in the past, donkeys were not looked after correctly and not wormed, and if they did contract lung worm, for some reason they were able to cope with it better than a horse and not show symptoms. the horse would show the symptoms and the donkey would be blamed, but really it was the fact that neither were on a proper worming regime.

but if they are wormed accordingly to a proper regime, then there isn't an issue - i have 3 donkeys and 2 horses together and never had a problem, they just get wormed at the same time and with the same products as the horses. we have had worm tests done from time to time on the horses for various veterinary reasons and again they have always been clean so it does work.

from a sociability point of view, donkeys generally prefer donkey company and may not bond with a larger horse, particularly if they are afraid of it. Aimee donkey is completely unconcerned about the horses and will nick their bucket and run off with it, Ferguson is neutral and Mouse doesn't trust them

so they may not socialise but you do get some that are very fond of their equine friends. big ears donkey came from a field of ponies and had a special friend, a white pony, so they do make good relationships

in terms of management, then if your horse is a fatty and needs strict regime then a donkey is ideal as they should live on very little (mine are too fat) - the worst case scenario is a skinny tb who needs loads of food turned out with a donkey who needs hardly any

but they aren't hardy, so if you get lots of rain they really need to be rugged or have access to a field shelter and not be bullied out of the shelter by the larger horse. they need feed trimming every 6-12 weeks depending on how good their growth is - 2 of ours do 12 weeks but one is every 6 weeks as she grows good horn. they can get sweetich and all the usual horse things

they are great to look after and amazingly intelligent and canny and I adore mine.

[floppy]

ahah! well the donkey isnt that much smaller than my chubby horsey - my horse is actually an icelandic (139cms.):D I have a second icelandic, but i intend to import her when my mare comes back after her foal and then i will have 2 horses and a donkey. But i just feel real sorry for my mare...in the aspect. She lives normally together with 2 geldings and at the moment she is having the time of her life with 4 other mares and a stalliona nd she just adores the other mares and plays with them and her best buddie is the stallion!! and i have never seen her ''look'' happier! with her two geldings she just mopes around and eats all day.


hmm..as to the worming rountine my horse is wormed 2x a year. (have had her droppings checked out and she is ''clear'' ) as the fields and paddock are cleared everyday. If she were to live with a donkey woudl i need to increase the wormers?

[Pink's lady]

Having just got a donkey - they don't seem to make good company from the horsey point of veiw. Pink is now in with Bertie donkey (both on a diet togethers ;)) and doesn't even register him. Bertie is kinda interested and like to stay close-ish, although he doesn't get too close. But Pink doesn't think of him as a horse at all and has no interest.

The only horse (out of 8) who has shown any interest is Brodie - he's deteremined to protect him girls from this strange noisy thing :rolleyes:. To the others Bertie might as well be a cow :rolleyes:

[michie]

What kind of worming regime do you use? I'm just wondering because 2x a year seems awfully low. I worm Otto every 8 weeks in the winter and every 6 weeks in the summer; switching off between Zimecterin Gold and Strongid.

[Big Ears]

Molly cob is attached to the donkeys, she waits for them to come over every morning and herds them - Rosie ignores them totally. Not sure she interacts with them at all, but as long as she has food she is quite independent.

[floppy]

worming. like i said the fields and stables are de-heeped everyday. we worm here in may(spring) before the horses go out on the fields, then we worm again in autumn. My horse and the other two have their droppings checked every so often und they are all clear.

hmm im interested to know how my horse will react to the donkey.

[Greentchr]

I have a sicilian donkey that was my first horses only companion for a year, and they bonded quite well. The newest horse was quite brutal to the donkey at first, biting and lunging at him, so we kept them separated for more than a week with just a fence between. The horse got used to him and now treats him as one of the herd.

Strange horses that come to ride around here are very nervous of the donkey. I would suggest introducing them carefully.

I agree witht the care suggestions- be sure the donkey is on an eternal diet- their metabolisms are so much more efficient and they get fat easily, which is a bad place for a donkey to be. They were 'designed' to live in desert regions, so living in lush areas tends to cause health problems. Grazing muzzles are a donkey's best friend:) .

[floppy]

well im glad to hear that!!!!!

my horse will benefit from having a partner that has to be fed carefully. That is the reason my horse has to move in the first place because there is no way to do controlled grazing and controlled feeding because she eats twice as fast as the other horses. And the people just dont care. i have even offered to drive down extra at night time to let my horse out of her stable but they just wont do it. They think its stupid etc.

I have ordered a shires muzzle to try out on my horse but have serious doubts that it will stay put on her nose!

Turns out the little donkey is a boy and not a girl..bit disappointing because i dont really want him playing around with my horse :eek: but i will check out what it would cost to castrate him.