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Grooming and preparing your donkey for a show can be a tedious, time
consuming, and exhausting undertaking. In the end, however, you
will be excited to see what a beautiful animal that you have uncovered.
STEPS TO GROOMING
1. I begin by washing my donkey. I have always used
Main and Tale. You will need to first soak your donkey and then use soapy water to wash the donkey
down. If the hair is long it will take more time and effort to clean to the root. Make sure that you
rinse the donkey well. Any extra soap residue will inhibit you from attaining the desired outcome when clipping.
Sometimes I use a comb and brush through the coat as I wash them just to get to the root. I
have heard that some use dish washing liquid. It has been said that Dawn will keep lice, ticks, and
fleas down. I have not tried this, however.
2. Once the donkey is completely dry you will want to generously
apply show sheen to the wet coat.
3. After the donkey is completely dry you will be ready to start
clipping. Clipping a donkey is very similar to clipping a miniature horse. They too must be
completely body clipped. The following resources may help you to better understand how to clip correctly so you
can avoid or minimize trail marks left by the clippers.
3 Disk Set Horse Care Workshops: Grooming, Clipping, Hoof Care may help get you started in the right direction. Also, I have found the
following website to be very helpful:
http://www.lostspokeranch.com/cliptips.html,
http://www.unicornerfarm.com/faq-grooming.htm
4. When you are done clipping the body you will need to trim their
mane. This is done using two sticks of quarter round. The two pieces are fastened at one
end allowing the main to be placed between the two pieces of wood. Run your clippers down the wood
cutting away the unwanted mane.
5. Now you will need to clip their whiskers. This needs to
be done the day before the show at the earliest. You will also need to trim up with scissors the tail
and around their hooves.
6. When you are done clipping you will need to rinse them off to
get rid of the loose hair and reduce their need to scratch. When I do this I also spray more
Show Sheen and apply some Ultra Shield Fly Repellant. I like the
Ultra Shield because it has sunscreen in it.
7. I think the trick to doing the ears is to play with their ears
everyday and keep them desensitized to touching them. I also like to pretend I am clipping them
and give them a reward when they allow me to run the clippers along their ear. You need to be careful
not to let the hair fall into the ear. This is uncomfortable for the
donkey and is hard on their ears. To
avoid this you can put a cotton ball in the ear to catch the hair.
8. Finally, you will need to polish their hooves, spray a little
shine on them, put some Show Sheen on the skin in their ears and nose. Jacks could use a touch
of Vicks in the nose to help camouflage any smells that might allure the jack.
PRODUCTS
(Most of the products come from Jeffers)
Super Shine Absorbine hoof black
Vicks
Shoe Polish for areas of missing hair
World Champion Pepi coat conditioneer
Oster Blade Wash
Oster Cool Lube
Show Sheen
Mane and Tail Shampoo
Ultra Shield Insect Repellant
Santa Fe Coat Conditioner
CLIPPERS
I use the Oster Clipmaster and the Andis Super 2-Speed
Professional Clipper.
 
BLADE COOLANT
The
charcoal lighter will clean the blades as they run in the liquid and
because it is a petroleum product, it will leave enough light oil on the
blades to lubricate them. We just pour some into a coffee can, dip the
running clippers into the can for a few seconds, wipe them off and they
are clean and lubricated. We use compressed air to blow the excess
lighter fluid off the clippers. You might experiment with one of your
blow dryers. There are extra tips on this page:
http://www.unicornerfarm.com/faq-grooming.htm .
BLOW DRYER
I use this to blow the dust out of the donkeys and to dry their
hair a little faster. They learn that this is not something to be
afraid of. Don't tie them when you first introduce this as they
may get hurt. It is pretty scary to them and in an attempt to get
away they may get hurt. I bought mine at Jeffers Equine.
Jeffers has many to choose from. They are a little expensive, but
I have used mine and I am glad that I purchased one.
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