It’s going to snow. It’s been building up to it all week. It’s getting colder, duller and every now and then a few flakes fall just to practice. And I have a donkey with only half her teeth left and a slightly picky appetite.
Pru has been rugged up from the beginning of the winter. Last year she lost a lot of weight over the winter with not being able to eat the hay so well and I didn’t want that to happen this year. However nothing is straightforward and while rugging her keeps her warm and cosy it also means she gets itchy having the rugs on all the time and so needs grooming more. She has also developed a rub on her withers telling me that those rugs are not going to last much longer.
However buying a new rug isn’t quite as easy as popping down the road to the saddlery. Well not always. Horse rugs are cut quite differently from donkey rugs. For a start donkeys don’t tend to have the width in the shoulders like a horse and the shape of their neck means that horse rugs often sit too far back making the whole thing uncomfortable.
Having said that, there are only a limited number of donkey rugs around and a vast array of lovely, warm, snugly horse rugs. Ho hum. So I purchased a Weatherbeta rug earlier this week in the hope that it would do the job. A lovely rug but no, no good on the neck fitting. So back to the saddlery and this time we are tying a Cuddly Ponies rug. It’s gorgeous. Purple! And like wearing a duvet so I’m hoping that will fit tonight.
Update
Well it didn’t really fit although it did do the job and kept her warm. The moral of the story is buy a donkey rug for a donkey and a pony rug for a pony though. It is amazing how different the fit really is. It’s the neck fitting that causes the problems.
I have a Gill rug which is good: http://www.gillrugs.com/ and I have a Smart Ass donkey rug (although their website seems to be down at present). Snug-a-ware looks nice although I haven’t tried them. Ånd Dinky Rugs are supposed to fit donkeys, although again I haven’t tried.
