On the Sunday after the AGM in Palmerston North in early June, the donkey drivers prevailed upon Rosemary Smith to give us a few hours' dressage instruction. She was very willing and is an excellent instructor. It was largely without animals, just practising ringcraft and how to plan and prepare for the test, but Gaylene Jarrett did harness up her donkey JJ and Laura Buckley brought her new pony Dinky - pony drivers were included! Next time it would be helpful to have Rosemary wired for sound as she drove.
Once she got in the cart, we could see the improvement but not always how she was achieving it. I thought Rosemary showed some courage to drive a fairly green donkey in this situation; but if we thought that she would now realise that donkeys were special and difficult, we were in for a surprise.
What she now realises is that a donkey can be obedient, flexible, respond to the whip, show the correct straightness - what is wrong is that the donkey drivers don't know! She and Jill Udy have promised to come again when we've had time to work on what we've learned. We'll advertise the day and others will be welcome to join us.
Jackie Bryant |
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