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.