Anytime we were out driving around, when we passed a donkey, Lonnie would say "Look at that jackass, isn't that pretty?" So one year for Christmas I decided to buy him a jackass. We ended up with a pair of standards, a spotted jack and a brown jennet and according to Lonnie's mother we now had 3 jackasses on the ranch. Soon we bought a jenny with a jack foal. Then our local newspaper ran a picture of a lady holding Cricket, a 2 week old jennet. It was the cutest thing that I had ever seen. I called and the lady told me that donkeys were better than valium. I told her that I needed a lot of them. I told Lonnie that I wanted to go see the foal. We saw, we fell in love, we bought and so on.

Today we have 60 plus miniature donkeys with foals due year round. All of our donkeys are 34" and under . We have grays, browns and spots and sorrel. Our jennets are between 30-34 inches and are at least 2 years old before they are bred. Our mission is to have miniature donkeys with excellent conformation....stocky build, straight legs, short heads, good bites and lovable dispositions.

We have acquired 3 excellent herd sires. Jack Daniel is 31 1/2" gray and white spotted jack, Jazzy Jamm is 31 1/2" black/brown jack and Rusty Red is our 30 3/4" sorrel jack.

Short ASSets Ranch is 289 acres and is where we live. Lonnie & I couldn't bear to live away from our donkeys. In addition to the miniature donkeys, we have cows and standard donkeys. We are in the process of planting coastal hay.

We have 3 donkey barns. The Big Red Barn at the ASSpen is closest to our house and we use it as a maternity barn. Outside we have stalls with paddocks to separate the jennets. Approximately 1 month prior to foaling, we bring the jennets to this barn at which time we give the jennet a tetanus injection. Since the inside of the barn is heated & air conditioned, if we have a foal during cold weather, we can bring the jennet & foal inside where we have temporary pens set up. We have a telephone in case we need to call the vet and hot & cold water. We keep the jennet & foal at the ASSpen for several days to make sure everything is "OK"--the baby is nursing, and we have put iodine (7%) on the umbilical cord and given a tetanus injection. Before foal heat, we move them to the upperASSpen, where the herd sires are kept.

The Little Red Barn at the "ASSpen" is used when we wean the foals since it is out of site from the jennets. This seems to make it easier on the foals when we move them away from their mothers. We always try to wean at least 2 foals at a time as it seems less stressful on them. We keep the weanlings at the ASSpen until they are sold.

UpperASSpen barn, houses the majority of our herd. It is a 30 x 60 metal barn which is divided into 4 main stalls each of which open into approximately an 8-10 acre tract. Each stall has a roll up door (like a garage door) which we can partially close or close all the way depending on the weather. We have large galvanized water troughs with automatic waterers that are shared between 2 stalls. The center of the barn houses our supplies and has two 10' roll up doors so that we can bring in hay and bedding with our truck & trailer. This is also the area where our farrier trims the hooves...out of the wind, rain, snow, sleet or hot sunshine...in Texas you never know because it is subject to change with the blink of an eye.

We have added 2 jack pens at the upperASSpen which are inside two of the 8-10 acre tracts. Each jack pen is adjacent to two separate tracts where the jennets are kept. This way we can see when a jennet is in heat and bring her into the jack pen. We prefer a modified pasture or pen breeding, however, we have done some hand breeding for some of our jennets as well as those jennets that come for outside breeding. We try to breed in foal heat. Since the pens are adjacent to the jack pen, when we bring her into the jack pen, she can still see and touch the foal through the fence.

We feed 10% protein grain and coastal hay each morning. Provided we don't have a drought, the donkeys graze on pasture in the spring & summer and we cut down on the amount of hay that is fed. We keep loose mineral is out in all the pens. There is approximately 5" of pine shavings in the stalls. This really helps to keep the moisture from urine absorbed as well as the odor. The donkeys like the bedding and it makes them smell good. It has really made the cleanup of manure easier. We do light cleaning of the stalls each morning when we feed and on weekends we do the more serious cleaning of the stalls and paddocks. Lonnie says that our donkeys are like people...they go outside to eat (like cookouts & picnics) and they go inside to go to the bathroom!!!!

We worm every two months and rotate with Safeguard and Zimecterin. Our farrier and his wife "the farrierette", work as a team and trim on the same schedule as our worming so we coordinate these two procedures. Since in this area of Texas we do not have any rock just black gumbo soil, there is little or no wear on our donkeys hooves and as our farrier says "we have healthy donkeys with excellent hoof growth", therefore they are out more frequently than other places.

We started showing in September 1996. We had never shown before but decided that it was a good way to learn. Not only did we place, we made a lot of good contacts and met a lot of nice people.

We vaccinate for Eastern & Western, Tetanus, Rhinopneumonitis, Influenza, Strangles and Rabies. Our bred jennets receive injections of Rhinopheumabort K in the 5^th , 7^th and 9^th months of pregnancy.

Once I started trying to keep up with all of this, I realized that the form that I was using didn't provide all the things that I needed. I then had to write on the calendar some of the same things that I had just written on the form. Did this make sense???? Computers and programs have made life easier for other areas so why not for this? I got this idea, it was like a "God send" for a software, The Animal Record Keeper, or in short "The ARK" with a logo of a red barn-ark.

Now when I give vaccinations, I go to that animal's record and record the vaccination and update the Calendar/Scheduler of the software with the next date that vaccination is due. From the Calendar/Scheduler, on the date the vaccination is due, there is a "V" followed by the animal's name.

The software works the same way for Worming, Hoof Care, Medical, Dental, Breeding, Offspring and Registrations. In addition it tracks a 4 generation pedigree, original breeder, transfers of ownership, purchased from and sold to, awards/shows and notepad for each animal. There is also a section for tracking income and expenses, a rolodex and a mail list from which to print labels. It can be used for animals other donkeys, such as horses, llamas, mules etc.

Now in 1997 AD (after donkeys), we wonder what we did before donkeys. We feel that donkeys are truly a gift from God and they are good for the soul.

Visitors are always welcome....give us a call & come by and see our miniature donkeys.