Donkey panniers

The Donkey Sanctuary have been a great help to us over the recent months setting up the project. Lionel Ford and Liz Ellis came to visit with a couple of pannier options in order to do a trial run. This one is a very ethnic woven type which looks pretty but wouldn't hold much.

These panniers are the business! They are designed to hold things piled onto the donkey's back and round the sides. This will enable Teddy to go up narrow paths with a load of logs no problem!

Donkey Portraits

Teddy!

Chester!

chalford donkeys at the village shop

The Chalford donkeys have been down to the village quite a lot recently. On Saturday 16th of August they mooched down to the village store to hang out for a while and were much admired by passers-by. Its great that we can finally get the donkeys down to the village so that people can see the whole idea is actually getting to be a reality!

donkeys and kids

During the school holidays the donkeys have been entertaining many children. In fact they went on a summer camp for a week in the middle of July where they were petted and fussed over by a fantastic group of kids, who learnt about many aspects of donkey care and handling. They were in the capable hands of Piers Clifford who used to work donkeys at Ruskin Mill. Piers walked from Westley farm in Chalford, all the way to Horsley with Teddy and Chester, who apparantly enjoyed the trek. When the donkeys returned to Westley farm a week later they had grown and developed well from the experience. Chester will allow his back feet to be picked up(before he would kick), and Teddy can now be ridden. And to top it all, Piers has made us a fantastic harness from cow hide that we can attach panniers to.

Chalford Street Party

Chester and Teddy came to the Chalford street party on July 5th. They got to meet many Chalford residents, which was very exciting for the donkeys and the villagers. Despite the threatening weather there was a good turn out and over £300 was raised for the Chalford Donkey project through our recently launched membership scheme. The street party committee also gave us £150 which is fantastic. So thank you everyone who has supported us.