Riding Lesson and The Donkey Sanctuary

At the weekend I went to The Donkey Sanctuary open day in Buxton, Derbyshire. I was hoping to take some photos for my blog but it was rainy and grey and I also forgot my camera so it would have had to been on my phone so I decided not to! The donkey sanctuary was a smaller branch of the one in Devon. They had put the older and well behaved donkeys in a paddock that the general public was allowed into so we could walk around and see them all. They had collars round their necks saying their names and ages which was useful. They were so sweet! There was a baby called Sven who was really cute and a bit cheeky. I actually learnt quite a lot as I was expecting them to be very similar to horses and they were quite different. I did not know that donkeys live to an older age than horses. They also had one donkey who was a certain breed (I'm not sure what) and he was about 14.2 hh which I thought was really big for a donkey! I am hoping to do two weeks work experience with them in a few weeks so I am able to learn about their nutrition and help out with them.

If you get the chance to go and visit the main donkey sanctuary or an open day at a smaller one I would recommend it. They hold a lot of events to raise money and it is interesting for all age ranges.

Here is a link to their website if you would like to go on it.

http://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/

Sven and his mother (photo from the donkey sanctuary website).

Today I have had a riding lesson on Trooper. It was my first riding lesson in a few months but he was really good. We did shoulder in, in both walk and trot. I had to do sitting trot which was very tiring so I kept having a rest and rising! I also had to do walk to "almost halt" and keep him stepping and not quite halting. This helped to get his hind legs underneath him and get him off the forehand and helped a lot. I also had to do some walk to canter and canter to walk on quite a small circle which he found hard and kept falling out. I had to try to imagine I was riding a square to keep hold of his shoulder more. I need to practice cantering on small circles and I am going to do more of the walk to almost halt as that improved him a lot after doing it.

Love Laura
xxxx