Donkeys

Hi, it has got cold here  - I just wanted to stay by the fire today...(no chance!) and I noticed it felt like it was getting dark as I went to the school bus stop at 4... yuck.. Oh and Beth has got the fever - singing Jingle Bells (loudly) at 7 this morning and all the christmas songs from school...   Mm.  And So It Begins.    However she is playing Mary in the play so there is that entertainment to look forward to! (it is Sally here, not Scrooge..)

So .. DONKEYS! (is there a theme here?)
We saw an ad in the local paper 2 years ago 'donkeys for sale' and immediately went 'oooh!' and phoned up.. (this was in our mad phase - the first year here, when we totally indulged our animal passion) We went along to a farm near Appleby and saw donkeys of all kinds - a cute baby one just born unexpectedly, black ones, coloured ones - heaven! The farm belongs to the people who rent out the field for the Appleby Horse Fair, which is a huge Traveller and Gypsy event that has happened every year for hundreds of years The travellers bring donkeys as well as horses with them and that's how the woman got involved (don't think her husbands so keen!) - she adores them but sometimes has to admit she's got too many....(lucky for us)

   And so we ended up with Billy.                                                           And Robbie....

       


         They are both just delightful characters!
           
                                       






Did we need them?? NO! but we wouldn't be without them and actually there is method in our madness because we want to train them to be able to pull dead tree trunks and logs. They will be able to get into the wood and manoeuvre around without doing too much damage..
Billy is a classic grey donkey - with the loudest bray you have ever heard! (poor people that stay here, with him and Cedric the cockerel in the morning....) Someone said to me that it is a strangely ugly sound to come out of such a beautiful animal! Robbie tries to bray but it is a pathetic srtangled sound.. He is more brown and white - and always looks scruffy! He is the BIG personality, playful and friendly.






Robbie on the left, Billy on the right. The woman asked us to take them together because they have been good friends since they were young..

 I was amazed to watch them play - they are like dogs somehow.. They nip each others legs, gallop round the valley chasing each other making a terrible racket, they play tug of war with whatever they can find and carry things in their mouths! They love people and will hang around you just for the fun of it...

They never fight over food (like horses do) and even let Arthur the goat share their hay (more about him another time)

                                                               'Funny old life, in it?'


Bye until next time.. Will probably have some Pickles the Pony news next..