How High Can Donkey Sales Go?

Look what has recently been sold from your store!

Got a pleasant surprise the other evening – I checked my email just before I went to bed, and I had received an email from the Zazzle Team headed ‘Your recent sales’!  This told me that I had sold a postcard of a sleeping donkey – and not just one postcard – I had sold five!  This made me happy out of all proportion and thank you very much to the person who purchased these; I hope they will bring you great joy!

Cute Donkeys

I have a Pinterest Board entitled ‘Cute Donkeys’ and this is by far my most popular board (vying only for top spot with ‘Cat Illustrations’).  There are a lot of people who like donkeys.

Fostering a Donkey

I once nearly owned a donkey – well, I once nearly fostered a donkey for the winter.  When I was about 9 years old we went on holiday to Lincolnshire and, to my greatest delight, there were plenty of donkeys on the beach giving donkey rides.  I spent a large amount of the holiday helping, as the ‘donkey man’ would let us lead the donkeys up and down when we weren’t paying for rides.  The donkeys appeared in excellent condition (to my then untrained eye) and my favourites were Tommy, a big grey, and Sandy who would jog for the whole ride.  Their names were emblazoned across their browbands.  The donkey man told my father that he was looking for homes for the donkeys over the winter; if we had a big enough garden and a shed or outbuilding where the donkey could be stabled he would deliver the donkey to us along with tack and we could look after it and he would collect it the following year for the summer season.  Of course, being 9 years old, I really really wanted to look after Tommy all winter and pictured myself riding him up and down the local streets waving to the neighbours as I passed by.

Now, having owned horses, I realise what a blessing it was that I wasn’t allowed to have the donkey as it would have been a total disaster.  The garden would not have been big enough; the donkey would have churned up all the grass and eaten my mother’s flowers and no doubt he would have objected to leaving his friends and have been very vocal in his disapproval.  In all probability the neighbours would have reported us to the council.

If I had my own land I would keep donkeys but of course it is not advisable keeping them in the same field as horses owing to the problems with lungworm.

New Forest Donkeys

There are plenty of donkeys in the New Forest, England and if you ever get the chance I would encourage you to visit the area – but be warned, you must not approach, feed or encourage the animals in the New Forest.  This is partly for your own protection as the animals are wild and also to try to prevent animals being killed or injured on the roads.

A byelaw forbids feeding New Forest ponies and you can get fined £200 and receive a criminal record if you are caught breaking this law.

When we first arrived in the New Forest we stopped by a lake where there was a visitor area and plenty of people.  A bay pony approached us, and my niece held out her hand to pat it, whereupon it attempted to bite her, then turned around and kicked out ‘giving her both barrels’.  Fortunately, it didn’t connect with her but for the rest of the holiday we kept firmly out of reach of all the ponies and actually turned around and went hastily the other way if we saw any!

Donkey Foals

However, when we stopped near the village of Beaulieu there were plenty of donkeys and donkey foals everywhere: on the common and on the streets.  We had to step around them to enter the shops.  These donkeys allowed you to stroke them, although we let them approach us and didn’t feed them. I am planning to do some paintings of donkeys but for now I have a selection of products on my Zazzle store with designs featuring my New Forest donkey photographs.  Click on a design below.

Cute chocolate donkey baby foal sleeping on yellow
by Myhorsegatsby

Little Chocolate Donkey Foal Scratching Ear
by Myhorsegatsby

Cute Little Grey Donkey Foal Laying Down Asleep
by Myhorsegatsby

Cute Little Grey Donkey Baby Foal Sleeping
by Myhorsegatsby

© Michelle Le Grand