"Donkey" is the name we commonly use to refer to animals in the species "Equus asinus". Donkeys come in many different sizes and breeds. In the United States donkeys are usually classified by size as Miniature (up to 36" tall at the shoulders), Small Standard (36 to 48" tall), Large Standard (48 to 54" tall for females, and 48 to 56" tall for males), and Mammoth Jackstock (54" and up for females and 56" and up for males).

The term "Burro" is the Spanish word for donkey. In the United States, it is typically used to refer to the Standard size of donkeys - the most common type of donkey seen in south and central America.

The word "Burro" is not generally used when refering to miniature or mammoth donkeys or to other specific breeds from other parts of the world.

So there you have it! Burro is just another word for Donkey, but is usually only used when refering to the medium sized donkeys in the USA, and in Spanish speaking countries.

Kristie Jorgensen
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So give your donkeys and mules an extra hug today!

Kristie Jorgensen
LongearsMall.com

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There are several popular donkey story caracters that your child may want to be dressed as. Two that come to mind are the Shrek donkey and Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh.

I found several links for Eeyore donkey costumes:

Toddler Eeyore Costume

More eeyore costumes (even one for your dog!)

Or if you are handy with a sewing machine, and would like to make it yourself, Simplicity costume pattern #9378 includes donkey patterns. It looks like this pattern may be out of print now, but I found quite a few on several sites like eBay.

If you are looking for something more like the Shrek donkey, there are plenty of options there too:

Shrek Donkey Toddler or Child costume

More donkey costumes

Or if you're looking for a hat with donkey ears, here's a pretty good option:

Donkey Ears and Teeth Kit

Now it's time to add the finishing touches on your donkey costumes, and wear them with pride! Have a fun and safe Halloween!

Kristie Jorgensen
LongearsMall.com

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These long awaited changes are finally complete and up live on the Donkey Tree website. Yippie! I have been able to go through the backlog of donkey updates that were submitted prior to the middle of August, and have made all of those updates and additions in the Donkey Tree. I will continue to process new submissions every couple of weeks now that I have the new tool to make that job much faster.

Another change that you will notice is that we have changed the format of the Donkey Tree ID numbers. They are now in the format of DT##### instead of I#####. The DT stands for Donkey Tree, and is much easier to distingish than the "I" which was easily getting confused with a number 1. The number portion of their Donkey Tree IDs has not changed. Just the letter prefix.

Now for the fun part! This is like Christmas time! We have added a cool new Fun Donkey Facts section to Donkey Tree. Here we will be adding new statistics we have gathered through the data in the Donkey Tree. The first donkey fact to be unvailed is Donkey Colors. Check out the cool charts showing the color demographics by donkey size range.

Check back soon for more fun statistics and donkey facts as we add more charts and graphs.

Kristie Jorgensen
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I started two young jennets this summer. They had both had a little handling, but didn't really understand being led, much less anything more sophisticated. So I started with the very basics with them. I do the same with all donkeys I start. If a donkey already has some training, then I'll make it through these steps pretty fast and on to the fancy stuff. But if there are holes in their training, this is a good place to catch and fix them.

Probably the most basic principles of donkey training are:
1. Break everything down into itty bitty baby steps
and 2. Always remember to reward your donkey for his efforts, even if that reward is just a release on the pressure of the lead rope when he takes a step forward.

So how do I start training a donkey?

The first step is for the donkey to know you are his friend, and someone enjoyable to be around. Spend some time out in the field with him. Pet him, brush him, rub his shoulders, back and neck. Donkeys especially enjoy the rubs. You don't have to spend a long session with him. Just start building a routine and positive relationship. 15 minutes of loving once a day is a good way to start. If he isn't already, he will soon be anticipating your visits and coming quickly everytime he sees you come out.

Once your donkey has learned that it is enjoyable to be around you, you can introduce him to the halter. Let him look at it and sniff it. Rub it all over his back, neck and sides as you scratch his back. He'll learn its something nice to have around. Then quietly slip it on and off of his nose a couple times, giving him plenty of good shoulder rubs in between (or wherever you have found to be his favorite spot). Don't try to tighten and buckle the halter just yet. Just put it on and take it off without actually buckling it. Once he is relaxed about letting you put it on and take it off of him, then you can buckle it and leave it on for a few minutes while you groom and praise him. Then take it off, praise hime, and repeat the process a time or two more. Quit your lesson on a good note, and leave him wishing for more. You can be sure he'll think about it all night while he's waiting for his next lesson time, and might even surprise you with how quickly he figures it out the next day.

I also like to teach my donkeys the command "Where's your nose?" somewhere about this point. Once they start looking forward to and enjoying "halter-on time", they are eager to get their halter on. Now instead of pulling the halter up onto their nose, I just hold the halter open but below their nose waiting for them to put their nose into it. I give the command "Where's your nose?". If they have learned to enjoy having the halter on, they will probably grow impatient and start looking to put their nose in it pretty quickly anyway. With even just the slightest sign of them moving their nose closer to it, I pull it up onto their nose, buckle it and praise them lavishly. It usually only takes a few times, and they start searching for it with their nose as soon as I say "Where's your nose?"

I don't always use the "Where's your nose?" command when haltering them, but it's a good way to see if they are focused on me, and to start their lesson with an easy game that they can feel good about.

Start practicing these steps with your donkey, and soon he will be easy to approach and halter. Next installment in this series I will talk about start to train your donkey to lead.

Kristie Jorgensen
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I took many photos at the show. Here are some of my favorites.

Kristie Jorgensen
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Asinerie du Pays des Collines - Belgium

Asinerie d'Embazac - France

The donkeys at these farms are milked every day, and unlike dairy cows, the mothers are still allowed to raise their babies. Moms and babies live together like in any other donkey herd. When the babies are two or three months old, the farms start seperating them from the moms for a couple hours each day. They are still within sight of each other, just in a seperate pasture. While seperated, the jennet's udder fills with milk, then after a couple hours, she is milked out, then returned to her baby for the rest of the day.

The milk that these farms collect is used in the production of soaps and skin care products, candies, as well as for raw consumption. I have read that the nutritional make up of donkeys milk is very similar to that of human breast milk, and they are finding that infants who are allergic to cows milk based formula do quite well on donkeys milk.

Robert Jonasson has been studying donkey milk production and learning from the donkey milk farms in Europe. He is currently working to educate people in the USA about the value and uses of donkeys milk. He shared this with me recently:

Most donkey milk research is going on in Italy. There is a symposium in July on donkey's milk in Bianello Castle, Montebucco, Italy, in connection with the second annual Asinodays Celebration. One of the languages is English, so Americans can go and hear what the researchers have to say. (Their main website is in Italian, but you can view it in English by selecting EN in the language drop-down box in the right side near the top of the screen.)

For now all donkey milk research and field trials are taking place in Europe. I want to change that and get initial trials of donkey milk under way here in the US as well.

We do have a small historical usage here in America as shown in this picture I found.

Grandpa Wilbur milking a donkey back in 1953

I am very interested in instructing ranchers about donkey milk production and I will work with any interested persons. Try donkeys milk yourself. Then go on to promote and offer donkey milk samples to other people.

I have several future projects planned, including extensive photography and videography of the Belgian donkey milk farms and French farms so that I can do presentations at donkey & mule events around the country.

For now, I'd love to find out, have you tasted donkeys milk? And if so, are you using a milk jennet for you or your family?

Here is a photo that Robert sent of Heidi McCarty milking a jennet in January 2008. This jennet gave over 1 quart of milk.

So let us know, have you tried donkeys milk? What did you think of it? Do you want to learn more about how to start your own donkey milk farm?

Robert is also starting to hold demos of donkey milking and share his knowledge about donkey milk farms. He attended the Minnesota Horse Expo in April, and exposed donkeys milk there for only the second time in U.S. history! Thank You to Gary Wagenaar for providing a lactating jennet, Maggie, for the demo. Robert gave talks on donkeys milk at stallside and handed out information about its uses. Robert also plans to attend the Shelbyville show this year, and hopes to teach more people about donkeys milk while he is there.

Kristie Jorgensen
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There are almost 2500 photos in the gallery. They are seperated by event. Some of the gallery pages may take a little longer to load since some events have quite a few photos.

Were you in some of these events or do you know someone who was? I know it is always hard to get good photos of your animals while you are in the arena competing. You may purchase high resolution digital or printed 8x10 copies of these photos for a very reasonable prices. For more details, check the Photo Gallery page.

Kristie Jorgensen
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The morning started off at 8:00am. There was Cow Cutting, Cattle Sorting, Log Skidding and Weight Pulling in the main arena. At the same time Mule Halter classes were taking place in the East Arena 1. In East Arena 2, the farriers were busy at work competing in Eagle Eye Shoeing, Quality Mule Shoeing, and Forging Contests.

If you desired to, you could also attend Cowboy Church in the auditorium on the fair grounds at 10am.

Then we had a quick break for lunch, and started back again at 1:30pm. The afternoon classes in the Main Arena included Hidden Creeks Ranch Jumper Classic, 400 Yard Western Race, Youth Box Hitch, 4-Up Mule Hitch Class, Youth Costume Class, World Champion Diamond Hitch Contest, Priefert Team Roman Riding, Chariot Straight Away Races, Mule Keyhole Finals, Team Packing Contest, Borax 20 Mule Team, Team Roping Finals, Dolly Parton Race, and Team Packing Scramble. In the East Arenas there was Bridled Mule Trail and Donkey Trail classes.

I showed my gelding, White Knight, under saddle in Donkey Trail. He did very well considering this was his first time in a trail class. He went through the gate like a pro, side passed along the log very nicely, trotted through the cones then backed around them beautifully. He just needed a little more control in his lope. But not to bad for the first time on a show trail course! He took 9th place in his class of 18 donkeys.

The evening show in the Main Arena started at 7:30pm, and included many world champion award presentations, Bridled Reining Finals, Bed Roll Race, Mule Days Drill Team, Priefert Texas Thunder team demonstration with their wagon, Musical Tires, Budweiser Clydesdales Team, Chuck Wagon Races, and the Team Pack Off. What a weekend! As you can see, there is a lot going on - never a dull moment!

Here are a few of my photos from today's activities:

AMA Halter 2 Year Olds

Heavy Teams Weight Pulling - If I remember correctly, this team shown by Kathy Davis won the class with pulling over 150% of the team's body weight! This photo was of their winning pull.

4-Up Hitch Teams

Youth Costume Class - Smiling Safari girl with her "Zebra" mule

Youth Costume Class - "Budweiser" mule, "dalmation", and trusty grooms.

Meredith Hodges with Jasper the Mule visiting with people near the vendor stands.

Lead team in the Borax 20 Mule Team

Now it's time to pack everything up, and get a good night's sleep in preparation to hit the road early in the morning for a long drive home.

I hope you enjoyed Bishop Mule Days, and will join us again next year! Now its time to get ready for some more summer fun as soon as we get home and unpacked. Check back in a few days for more great articles and a gallery of more photos from Mule Days!

Kristie Jorgensen
LongearsMall.com

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But for those looking for activity, here are some of the events of the day. The morning was dedicated the the parade, which ran through downtown Bishop, ending in a Grand Entry at the fairgrounds Main Arena. The afternoon show and evening shows included:

Adult Costume Class
6-Up Mule Hitches
Coon Jumping
World Champion Pack Train Trail
300 Yard Western Race
World Champion Packer Contest
Run, Ride & Lead
Pack Team Scramble
Green Mule Trail
Youth Trail
Donkey In Hand Trail
Speed Shoeing
Donkey Racing
Mule Days Drill Team
Mule Polebending Finals
World Champion Box Hitch Contest
Chariot Straight Away Race
Ranch Roping Finals
Chariot Stear Stopping
Most Unusual Load Pack Contest

And the evening show also featured the Priefert Hitch Roman Riding again, as well as the Borax 20 Mule Team.

Or if you wanted to do something a little different, there is also a street fair in the park in downtown Bishop during the day.

I enjoyed my break away from the busy bussle, and will be back at 'em again tomorrow morning!

Kristie Jorgensen
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The mule events were numerous. They included:

Gambler's Choice Teams Driving
Mule Barrel Racing Prelims & Finals
Chariot Barrel Racing
Ranch Roping
Farm Class (driving with farm implements)
Western Riding
Mule Reining
Gaited Mule Halter
Gaited Mulemanship
Mule Western Pleasure
Cow Working
Youth Leadline
Youth Western Pleasure
Youth English Pleasure
Youth Hunter Hack
Youth Ride-A-Buck
Mule Keyhole Race Prelims
Mule Polebending Prelims
Americana Driving Class
Western Pleasure Stakes
200 Yard Western Race
Gambler's Choice Singles Driving Finals
Youth Diamond Hitch
Youth Individual Pack Contest and Scrambler Contest
Non-Pro Box Hitch and Diamond Hitch Contests
Non-Pro Packing Class

In addition, they brought out the Budweiser Clydesdale team and the Priefert Texas Thunder Hitch (roman riding style) for the evening show.

Between running around showing Knight in his classes, I did get a chance to get some photos of a couple of the other events. Here are a few of them:

Cow Working

Youth Ride-A-Buck

Americana

Western Pleasure Stakes

Kristie Jorgensen
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Meanwhile, starting at 8:00am, there were other fun events going in the Main Arena. First we had 2-Up Hitch Mule Teams. What a fun assortment of vehicles and beautiful mules to watch!

That class was followed by the Youth Driving class. This class is for all youth driving entries regardless of whether they are driving donkeys or mules, singles or teams. There was a nice array of entries in this class this year. The drivers ranged in ages 4 to 15 years, and were all accompanied by an adult groom riding beside them incase they needed help.

Next came Miniature Donkey Driving.

That concluded the events in the Main Arena for the day. The rest of the afternoon, stage equipment was being set up in the Main Arena in preparation for the evening Joe Nichols concert.

But there was still plenty to watch in the East Arena and to do around the fair grounds. Once Dressage was finished, we had a short lunch break, then it was time to get ready for Halter. My first event to compete in was Donkey Halter 3yrs & Up. I showed my beautiful white gelding, White Knight. He stood like a good boy during the standing-still portion of the class, but didn't think it proper to trot when the judge wanted him to trot. Ah, you gotta love them...

I was busy running around showing Knight, then cleaning up and putting my stuff away afterwards, and didn't have a chance to get any photos of the other afternoon Halter classes.

I did catch Video Mike filming some of the events during the day.

And for those who got tired of watching the show, a lot of the vendor are now set up and you can stay busy for hours browsing through their selection of goodies and visiting with them about mules!

Well, enough for one long busy day. It's time to get a good rest in preparation for tomorrow when the show really swings into action.

Kristie Jorgensen
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I spent the morning working with my gelding, Knight, and riding him around the fairgrounds in preparation for his events later this week, so didn't get any photos of the Hunter/Jumpers this year.

This afternoon I had the pleasure of watching the Mule Gamblers Choice Driving Prelims and Donkey Gamblers Choice Driving classes. It is really a treat to watch these versitile equines go through their paces in completing these challenging obstacles! Here are the top two placings in each of these two classes:

Single Mule Gamblers Choice Driving Prelims (finals will be later this week):

Tuff Stuff driven by Tim Phillips

Apples Peaches & Cream driven by Dawn Marie

Donkey Gamblers Choice Driving:

Redman's Back N Black driven by Tim Phillips

Sycamore Springs Jake driven by Dan Holland

Tomorrow morning starts bright and early (6am) with Mule Dressage in the east arena. Check back soon for more fun photos and updates!

Kristie Jorgensen
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Then we had the pleasure of watching the 2-Up Donkey Teams. This was a cute team. And someone had some fun with the sign on the back of their cart.

Donkey Pleasure Driving finished off the morning. With 15 competitors in the class, there was some pretty good competition in this class.

The afternoon classes included:

Sidesaddle

Green English Pleasure, Green Amateur English Pleasure, English Pleasure, Amateur English Pleasure

Green Hunter Hack, Hunter Hack

Donkey Hunter Under Saddle

The vendors are starting to come in and set up their tents.

Kristie Jorgensen
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After many more hours of driving we finally arrived in Bishop, CA Sunday afternoon about 12:30pm. Our last stop for fuel before arriving in Bishop was at Bridgeport. Here is the pretty view from the gas station parking lot there.

Like many other people, we spent Sunday afternoon getting unpacked, setting up, and settling in at the Tri-County Fairgrounds in Bishop, CA.

Those who got set up early enough and still had energy left to ride were out having fun in the evening after things cooled off a little.

Today, Monday, has been hot and sunny most of the day, although it has cooled down a little this afternoon. I rode my gelding, Knight, this morning and he was pretty sweaty when we got through. He was happy to get back to the cool shade of his pen.

Tomorrow the show begins at 8:00am with Pleasure Driving! Then in the afternoon there will be English Pleasure and Hunter Hack classes. Check back soon to find out how those events went!

Kristie Jorgensen
LongearsMall.com

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