Pasture Breeding Miniature Donkeys

Pasture Breeding Miniature Donkeys
by Theresa Ellinger

There are advantages and disadvantages to both pasture breeding and hand breeding Miniature Donkeys.  Many breeders have opinions as to breeding practices based on their experiences and personal preferences.

Here at The Red Gate Registered Miniature Donkeys, we pasture breed.  Our main reason for choosing to pasture breed is that we feel a jack is happier and healthier when he is allowed to actually be a herd sire - not just a breeding jack. We keep our herd sire pastured with our mature, breeding age jennets. Our jennets are put in the foaling stall to foal and if we decide to breed them back the same year, they are not re-exposed until after the second or third heat cycle – at the earliest.

We raised our first herd sire - My World Sidney from a weanling.  As a herd sire, Sidney let his foals jump on him and play.  When he had enough, he would chase them off to their mother and they quickly learned how to respect their sire.  In the five years we owned Sidney, he NEVER harmed a foal - even in the slightest way.  Many breeders would say this is rare.  It is not necessarily rare, but, you do have to devote the time to raise your future sire with strict discipline.  Most important, you must select a well bred, intelligent jack from strong, proven bloodlines - not only in conformation, but in temperament as well. Just as all jacks do not have the conformation to become potential herd sires, not all jacks have the intelligence and temperament to become potential herd sires.

Before making the decision to pasture breed you should realize that pasture breeding is not the easy or less labor intensive way to breed.  Just as in hand breeding, a successful pasture breeding program takes commitment on your part to train and discipline your jack. Rearing, biting, kicking or any other sign of aggression is not acceptable behavior and we begin to correct that an early age.  For the foal who is biting, I gently tap his nose and say “No Bite”.  Don’t say it so loud that you scare the foal, but with firmness in your voice.  Foals will rear and kick when playing in the pasture. If the foal kicks at you when you are handling him, then, you want to begin to correct that behavior.  For kicking, I gently smack the foal’s rear and so “No”, again in a calm but firm voice.

We pasture young foals with the herd which begins to socialize them at an early age.  We pasture our weanling jacks with mature jennets.  The jennets are very effective in teaching the young jack how to appropriately behave in the herd.  We have learned that the mature jennets are the best teachers!

At this point, I want to stress that if you are thinking about pasturing jennets and foals with your herd sire; you must KNOW and TRUST him.  Many breeders have successful pasture breeding programs where herd sires are kept with jennets and their foals.  However, these are no “ordinary” herd sires – they are extraordinary sires with the temperament and intelligence to understand their place in the herd.

We begin to introduce the halter and lead at about 2-4 weeks and begin regular lead line lessons after weaning. Further training for the show ring such as trotting, backing, standing, loading on the trailer and clipping will teach your jack patience and develop a trusting relationship.  While training your jack will help to some degree, temperament, as I’ve mentioned, is critical for success in pasture breeding.

Common Questions & Statements about Pasture Breeding:

I can’t pasture breed, my jack is too rough with the jennets.  When you pasture breed, there may be some amount of chasing, especially in young jacks. The jack will chase the jennet and then the jennet will turn around at times and chase and kick at the jack.  The jack will become aroused and could become quite vocal. The jack will also bite at the jennet’s neck in an attempt to hold her in one spot.  If the jack is leaving a sore or bite mark, then the jack is too aggressive and/or too undisciplined to be used to pasture breed. Young jacks, especially the first time they are introduced to jennets, sometimes can let the rush of testosterone take over. You may wonder – “what happened to that sweet, well disciplined jack I raised?”

We’ve noticed that in the well disciplined jack, from proven lines of gentle temperament, this animated behavior will lessen as the jack matures. The breeding muzzle is effective for introducing the young jack to breeding age jennets for the first time and will prevent the jack from causing injury to the jennet from biting.  We never just turn a new jennet out with our herd sire when introducing them for the first time.  We halter and hold our sire on the lead while bringing in the new jennet.  If he attempts to bite her, other then on the crest of her neck to try to hold her in one spot, we pull him away firmly and firmly say “NO”.  If we need to, we smack him hard on the rear or front shoulder with an open hand.  You will hurt your hand more then you will leave an impression on him, so don’t worry about hurting him.  It will send him a message that his behavior is inappropriate.

I have to hand breed because my jack is too unpredictable and aggressive.  If someone has an overly aggressive jack that they use to hand breed, I would question why they would choose to continue breeding that temperament into foals. I would also wonder, is that the jacks normal temperament?  Has that jack been kept alone and without training, which may have promoted the aggressive behavior?

When do I take my jack out of the pasture?  We don’t take our herd sire out of the pasture, he has “his” pasture and we don’t move him around.  Jennets are kept in with him (his herd) until about 30 days before foaling.  We have a large foaling stall with attached pasture right next to the main pasture.  This way, we are not taking his jennet(s) away completely, but allowing her a private pasture to foal where she will not be bothered.  This has worked very well for us and makes re-introducing the jennet to the herd much easier as they maintain nose to nose contact while she is in the foaling pasture.

How will I know when to predict foaling?  One down side to pasture breeding is that it is more difficult to pinpoint an exact date on which to predict foaling.  However, by carefully watching the interaction with your herd sire and jennets and tracking the jennet’s heat cycles, you will know the month the jennet is due.  Many times you will be able to pinpoint the week of expected foaling, sometimes to the day.