2004 NMDA National Champion Jack
2004 NMDA National - Best of Breed
2004 NMDA National Coon Jumping Champion

Star's War wins Coon Jumping by jumping 42"

Grand Champion Jack & Reserve Best of Breed
Great Donkey & Mule Celebration - Shelbyville, TN
July 2004

Setting the Standards of Excellence
Again...and Again...and Again

When we were out driving around and Lonnie saw a donkey out in a pasture, he would say "Look at that jackass, isn't that the prettiest thing you ever saw?"  One Christmas I didn't know what to buy the man that had everything, so I decided to buy him a jackass. We ended up with a pair of standards, a spotted jack named Gorgeous George and a gray jennet named Weezie (just like the Jeffersons).  According to Lonnie's mother, we now had 3 jackasses on the ranch! We had so much fun with the donkeys. Everyone that came to visit wanted to see them.

About 8 months later, our newspaper ran a picture of a lady holding a 2 week old jennet. It was the cutest thing that I had ever seen. We had no idea that miniature donkeys existed. I called the lady and she told me that these donkeys were better than valium. I told her that I needed a lot of them! :) She told me the Legend of the Donkey's Cross.  I still get goose bumps when I hear it or tell it.  I told Lonnie that I wanted to go see the miniature donkeys. Both of us fell in love with these wonderful little animals. We bought the baby that she was holding and several others.  No one warned us that they are like potato chips, "you can't have just one!"  We now have around 100 miniature donkeys!

We have carefully selected our jennets.  They have nice round butts, straight back legs, wide chests, good bites and short, pretty heads.    They range in height from 28"-34".  Our jennets are gray-dun, sorrel, dark brown, black and spotted. Each jennet is paired with the jack that we feel will give is the best all around foal.

It is our belief that your shouldn't scrimp on your herd sire.  Therefore, we have both purchased and bred what we think are some of the finest  jacks to be found.  They are out of excellent bloodlines, have wonderful conformation and are producing outstanding foals.  Our herd sires have  done very well in the show ring. Many of their offspring are carrying on their sire's winning tradition in the show ring. We have 6 breeding jacks and offer outside breeding to select jennets. Our herd sires are:

Short ASSets Star's War, 30 1/2" Dark Brown
PMF Total Eclipse, 32" TRUE BLACK...NO VISIBLE CROSS
Millers Mr Spock, 32 1/2" Black/Brown/White Spot
Short ASSets Fireplug, 31 1/2" Dark Sorrel
Short ASSets El Niño, 32 1/2" Roan
Lonesome Dove Chico, 30" Black/Brown
Short ASSets Coppertop II, 28 1/2" Dark Sorrel - Reference Only

By having a variety of colors in our herd, we are able to offer our customers this same variety, everyone isn't looking for the same thing or can afford the popular colors. 

Short ASSets Ranch is 289 acres, about 60 acres is home to our miniature donkeys. We now have coastal hay planted on about 50 acres that we cut and bale ourselves. Since we have so many donkeys, we keep them on a rotating schedule, so that they have their hooves trimmed every 3 months.  Our farrier and his wife. "the farrierette", come every month to work on the scheduled group of donkeys.  The donkeys are wormed every other month, rotating between types of wormers.  Every spring, we vaccinate the entire herd for Eastern, Western & Venezuelan Encephalomyelitis, Tetanus, Rhinopneumonitis, Influenza, Strangles. 

Thanks for stopping by for a cyber visit.  When you are in our area, please drop by our ranch for a visit to see our donkeys, give them some hugs and butt scratches and to talk donkey.

Lonnie & Brenda