new pony scared of resident donkey. any ideas?

[Firehorse]

my new pony arrived on sunday and took one look at our resident donkey and ran off!

there are 8 all living in a herd, one of which is the donkey. there is no way to seperate them or break them up. up till yesterday they had bene in a msssive field where my new one could distance himself. the grazing has been re-aranged which gives them less room. not sure if this is a good or bad thing! anyway, when free, if the donkey tried to go near my boy, he will panic and charge off. if tied up or held, he will start to dance and practically put himslef thru the fence in an attempt to get away. he has a few cuts and grazes, altho i know this is to be expected in the first weeks. each time i need to get mine in or out the field, i have to shut the donkey away, which is time consuming and down right annoying.

has anyone else experienced this? and if so, how long did it take for a newbie to get used to the donkey? if ever!!

 

[ladyt25]

Some horse are 'terrifed' of donkeys and their reactions are quite strange and somewhat dramatic. I am not sure whether they just don't get what donkeys are or sense they are a more intelligent equine!

All i would say is give it time - they will get used to the donkey and the nosies donkeys make but if they've never come across one before they will be wary. Once the new pony realises the others don't react the same i am sure it will calm down. You'll more likely find it'll become very attached to the donkey over time, our horses used to seem to worship the ground our donkey walked on. He could get away with sharing their dinners and everything (god help any of the horses if they tried to nick another's food though!)

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Don't react to his reactions either, just be calm and act as if nothing's out of the ordinary. If you fret about how pony is reacting he will just pick uop on that from you.

 

[Firehorse]

thanks, i've tried to stay calm and made a point of giving the donkey a cuddle while my pony watches. the donkey is cool, the others all love him to bits. he's the peacekeeper of the group. he wants to make friends with mine, but everytime he wandered over, ben has a hissy fit!! when ben goes into panic i'm scared he's gonna hurt himself, so naturally my heart starts pounding and i kinda wanna get out the way of a panicing pony too! so far its the only problem i'm having with him, as he is proving to be a fab pony. i so wish he'd get over this quickly before he injures himself.

 

[kate32]

seems like im not alone then with a horse thats got a huge donkey phobia . I learnt this after hacking past a field up the road were some of the blackpool beach donkeys live on both sides of the lane one in particular named Thunder! takes great pleasure in frightening gwilym by eaoreing when we aproach to the point he rears spins round shakes ,foams up and nearly falls over trying desparatly to get away ive tried everything even sitting there once for 40mins with him in this state untill the owner i know turned up and put the donkey away i still make a point of hacking past for the last 3yrs to think hed get used to them but no! otherwise apart from the odd scary horse and cart hes bombproof tractors ,lorries ,bags you name it hes fine .
Is just scared of the dreaded Thunder so ive come to the conclusion that untill thunder pops his cloggs (hopefully not with a child on board on blackpool beach may i add) gwilym 3yrs on still is no nearer to liking them!
you never know though your horse may suddenly become best of buds with yours if he lives with them give it time x

 

[fatpiggy]

Don't worry, he will get over his fear. My horse has been at her present yard since 2002 so is nicely settled, but then 2 donkeys arrived in the neighbouring paddock last summer. My horse's eyes were literally out on organ stops and she couldn't stop watching them. I even had to put her feeds where she could eat and watch the donks at the same time. The first time they brayed every horse panicked and bolted to the bottom of the field. My horse is nosiness personified though and eventually she plucked up the courage to TOUCH A DONKEY. Then of course, she was obsessed and wanted to go in with them ( she likes to mother anything small, old or young). For weeks she would only graze along the fence line and whickered and chatted to them constantly (she is a very silent horse normally). She still hates the fact that they stay on the other side of the dividing fence and if she can't see them because they have gone in their shelter, she looks worried. We LOVE the donks, they are so comical and so well behaved and sensible compared to horses.

 

[Slinkyunicorn]

Hehe!!

Donks rock!!!

As the others have said they will get used to each other in time - then you will have the opposite problem and they won't want to be separated!!

The 2 donks that were in with our horses were hugely entertaining - definately the more intelligent as well as being the most reliable weather forecasters - one drop of rain in the air and they would trundle of to their stable for shelter!! They shared a stable too - so sweet!!

 

[hussar]

Your pony will get used to the donkey in time. When I got my donkey 18 months ago the horses were absolutely beside themselves - took about 3 days before they would even sniff over the fence, but after that they mucked in together quite happily and now the donkey rules the roost. And he's cute too!

 

[Firehorse]

i'm so happy!!!!!!!!!! jst been down to give ben his tea and as i was coming thru the gate, ben walked right up to the donkey and shoved him out the way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! no more scaredey ponio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and its only day 4.

 

[Donkeymad]

Just leave them in adjoining fields, horse will very soon get used to donkey.