About Donkz Acres
We are sisters sharing a small duplex with 7 acres adjoining. The property has huge Florida Live Oaks providing a peaceful setting. It’s a little strange when I say Donks Acres because it all began with the adoption of a Mustang.
Memory Lane
I adopted a flea-bitten grey mustang who the courts had taken away from his owner for beating him I adopted Atlas, a 10-year old gelding who had a lot of trust issues. After a time he and I had built a bond and training was going well; however, he seemed lonely for a pasture mate. I mentioned to my sister that she should get a horse, then Atlas would not be so alone. Her response was, “It would have to be a Cracker horse (a smaller horse used for cattle drives) or a donkey,” she would not consider any other. About two weeks later I found a mama donkey with her 3-week-old baby for sale and she bought them. This was the start of Donkz Acres.
The Mama Donkey was huge! We had never seen one that was as large as a horse! The seller explained to us that she was a Mammoth—an endangered breed. Her baby was so cute that she was immediately spoiled. We played with her as if she was a big dog. She chased the wagon like a dog and that became a favorite game. We would run with the wagon and she would chase it.
We began reading everything we could find about donkeys, quickly finding that many, many people owned donkeys. We named the mama “Mama” (original) and the little baby Barz.
Owning a donkey is like lining up dominos: One leads to another. We thought we might breed Big Mama so I looked around for a Jack for breeding. I could not locate a stud so I decided to buy my own. After searching online, I found one who needed to be rescued and I had him delivered to a boarding barn because he could not be with the girls (we only wanted one baby). When the people delivered him, I did not say anything, but he was not a Mammoth.
I looked at him across the fence and said; “I do not know what you are but you are not a Mammoth!”
He was a large donkey, brown with white around eyes and nose a huge head, but his legs were stocky and not as long as Mama’s and Big Ole Ears and he had a mane and for lock!
I came home telling my sister how different he was and began an online search to match him with any other breed. Found him! He was a French breed Poitou—also considered endangered.
I am going to attempt to shorten this a little we named him Bugz keeping consistent with a “Z” at the end soon after, we bought a female version of Bugz and her name was Petunia (no way to put a Z on that) and later added one more Mammoth gelding we found online named Rosco We became members of the Florida Donkey and Mule Association, where we met other “longear” owners, but they all had the mini-size. As time went by we learned how to train for shows bought a used horse trailer and took Barz and Petunia to the State Fair to show. Atlaz was not lonely any more.