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| Story Date | Headline |
| 23/06/2006 | Major Catch up so far this year |
We have now had the herd assessed for breed standard, This is a major step forward as it does authenticate them to be correct for reproduction of the breed. As you can imagine the assessment takes into account all sorts of measurements, character, size of ears, coat colour, height etc etc. I have also started on my course to become a breed assessor. I have a large folder with a lot of info in it to be studied!!!!!!! This is not a five minute course . Next month July we are meeting again with about 40 donkeys for the morphology days. I think this will be very interesting as it is not so easy to see a selection of Andaluz donkeys all together except if you go to the military stud or you have an invitation to a private stud or you visit us.We were so lucky to have a very eloquent professor form the veterinary faculty in Cordoba speak along with the Commandante from the military. This was followed by a practical session looking at various donkeys for good and bad points. It was good too to see some Spanish friends and to also make new friends with others who maybe only have just one donkey but are caring about the breed. I think there is hope for the future for the Andaluz Donkey but it will not happen overnight and it needs a lot of support to be successful. When it comes to breeding there is a very big problem in that there is a shortage of males and blood lines. For a horse there is always the possibility of the AI service whereby the semen can be coolshipped from the stud to a female far away. However for a donkey it just does not work! You must have the animals together for a natural mating. So you can imagine , in the UK for example I know there are some possible Andaluz females but there is no male available. So the plan would be for anyone who has an Andaluz donkey to contact me and we can see if the donkey is of breed standard and it can be assessed for reproduction, then it would be ideal for an Andalucian male donkey to be placed in UK for example so that a breeding programme could be started. This could happen anywhere else in the world too. So, please contact me if you have anything interesting.Needless to say one would only work with certificated animals so as not to dilute the breed any further. Our first three year old girlie Britannia has been assessed and has passed the test! Now she is ready to go forward for breeding/riding/driving. In fact she needs another year of growing before she can be mated and certainly more time before she can be backed, but she is doing well. Our first home bred stallion El Quivir had also been assessed and has passed with flying colours. He will be ready to work as a stallion later this year, as four years is about the right time for them to start to reproduce.He stands already at 1.48m to the wither. So folks, as you read we have not been idle these past months! We love to see the visitors any Sunday and we know there are many from the UK who regularly come over to Spain. If you never cuddled one of our donkeys you haven’t lived! I will do my best to get back into the routine of news on a more regular basis. Adios amigos!! |
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