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| Name: |
Bailey
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Age: |
Four years old
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| Gender: |
Female
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Kind: |
Standard Donkey
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| Home: |
Davis, California, USA
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Bailey's
mother was a feral donkey. She was captured by the Bureau of
Land Management in 1997, and adopted by a family who did not realize
she was pregnant. So Bailey was born in captivity and has no idea
that she could have been a wild donkey! I bought Bailey seven months
ago. She was friendly and trained to be led with a halter and tied up
for grooming. It took me about three months of daily work to train
her for riding. Sometimes it takes a long time to explain something
to a donkey, but once it understands what you want it will try to
please you (if it likes you!).
I board Bailey at a barn full of horses. At first they were afraid of
her, but now they all think she's cute. We go trail riding almost
every day that it isn't raining. She wears rubber boots to protect
her feet from rocks. Bailey is very brave - she crosses railroad
tracks and bridges, and walks through freeway underpasses, and
sometimes has to pass very scary-looking farm machinery. One day I
strapped sandwich board signs on her, and tied two teddy bears on her
back, and we went to cheer for a friend of mine in a running race.
All the runners waved and clapped to see a donkey on the sidelines!
People think that donkeys are stubborn, but they are just cautious.
They are too smart to go somewhere they think is dangerous just
because a person tells them to. It takes time to get a donkey to trust
you. The most important thing you need to train a donkey is a good
sense of humor, so you can laugh instead of getting mad.
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