Iron Brook Donkeys - Our Jennies

 

Our Jennies - Lola

Lola is our little chocolate fluff ball. She is like a miniature wooly mammoth, and cuddley like a teddy bear. With her very long, thick coat, many would probably call her a "woolly" donkey. I just call her fluffy.

She has some Irish Donkey in her breeding which is, I believe where the thick brown coat comes from. Lola's nose is not white like our other donnkeys, but it is not very dark either, it is a creamy brown and very soft to kiss. :-). Lola is currently smaller than Mouse, at just over 29" tall, but at only a little over 1 year old, she may still have some growing to do yet.

Lola also shines at going down the main street of Warburton, and being a cuddle machine at local community events. She is very quiet and patient. She received a blue ribbon in the foals class at the Yarra Ranges Donkey Festival.

 

Our Jennies - Mouse

Mouse is our littlest jenny. She is otherwise known as Grawood Sugarbaby.

We just call her Mouse because she is so little and gentle. She has a very soft, quiet temperament, Grawood are currently producing some of the best miniature foals in Australia, and this is obvious by the number of blue ribbons they are receiving by their new owners all over the country.

Grawood SugarBaby is of this calibre. She is a lovely, well formed little girl. Her father, known as Clinty, is a very popular sire, and our Mouse has many of his attributes, particularly the shape of his head. Mouse has a fine short grey coat with sorrel highlights particularly around her face and ears.

Her mother was sorrel which is possibly where these highlights have come from. She has produced one foal for us so far, being little Fiesta (born the day of the Donkey Festival).

Little Fiesta is almost a replica of her mother, with the red highlights only more obvious, and richly red ears. Mouse is having a rest now, but we look forward to seeing her foals in the future.

Our Jennies - Sable

Sable is our delicious black jenny. In summer she has a rich and shiney, flawless black coat. In winter she has a very thick and fluffly black coat which is highlighted with a deep mahogany.

She is a very forward moving jenny and loves to be active. She was a bit cheeky when young, but as soon as I started to long rein her and give her things to do she became very settled, confident and dependable. She thrives on having a job to do, and will therefore continue her training to be our cart donkey.

She has produced two wonderful foals for us, being the very beautifully patterned Piccolo and now a dark smokey grey/brown filly called Paris (see our foals page). Sable is 37" tall at mature height, which puts her at 1" taller than miniature height.

Sable's mother was one of our other jennys, "Ruby", and her father was Poplargrove Midknight Affair, who was also jet black, and miniature. She has a lovely pace and looks great in harness. So far Sable is producing lovely miniature foals from our Banjo.

Our Jennies - Ruby

Ruby is a lovely chocolate jenny. She has a very nicely balanced body shape and conformation. Her coat is quite short and brown, and in summer she gets a lovely gloss to it.

At 42" tall, she is a small standard donkey. This makes her a nice height for a small rider or pack saddling. I am currently teaching her to be a pack saddling donkey behind our Murphy. She is very buddy with him and seems content to follow him anywhere, so this is going well.

Ruby has had a rough time in the past, and so when she came here we gave her a few years of recouperation, rehabilitation, trust, training and love. We take things slowly with Ruby and she responds well to this. Only when we were truly satisfied with her progress in all of these areas, did we decide to put her in foal.

As it turns out she is a fabulous mother, and very protective of her baby. When Ruby first came to us she had Sable at foot, so she is her mother too, but this is the first time she has had a foal with us, and she has produced Iron Brook Tango. He is an exquisite little foal, already progressing in his own training. See Tango in our Foals Page.

Iron Brook Spice

Spice is a lovely, pale coloured, Australian Jenny. She stands about 13 hands high. She was originally a wild donkey from the desert in Fregon in South Australia. Friends of mine had taken her on and had done a magnificent job on starting the ground work. I went to help with the training and fell in love with her. She is very affectionate and just loves a cuddle. When our training session ended, I was leaving and we were watching eachother and I thought, "I really like you." . And so when she came up for sale, I jumped at the chance. Here at Iron Brook, she is continuing her training to become a riding donkey. I am hoping that one day she will join Murphy in his role in the Magical donkey rides business.

Iron Brook Raven

An Australian wild donkey, in training and rehabilitation. These donkeys came to us with halters on their faces so tight that they were unable to eat properly. They had sores all over their face from where the halters had cut into them. They were supposed to be straight wild donkeys, but we have noticed from their fear and behaviour, that they must have been very poorly handled along the way. We had to remove the halters from them, which would have caused significant pain, and then we had to regain their trust. We have taken a much slower and gentle approach with these two, which is now bringing great results. Raven was pregnant on arrival and has recently delivered Iron Brook Char, who is a delightful, charcoal coloured filly. We are working with Raven and Char together, to build their trust, love and health. They are both coming along beautifully.

Iron Brook Spook

An Australian wild donkey in training and rehabilitation. She was the shyest of the pair when she arrived, hence her name, however, she is becoming the cheekiest, and I look forward to continuing her training. When Spook was first tied up, she was terrified, more than you would expect from an unhandled donkey. She would squat low and tremble all over. She was terrified and it was really sad to see. I just kept working with her and tiuching her gently and it has really won her heart. Now I can put her halter on in the paddock with just one slice of carrot as a treat. I have led her up through the state forest and all around our garden and orchard. She now approaches me as soon as she sees me. The stages of building the relationship with Spook have been very rewarding.