Memories Of Our Baby Mammoth Donkey Growing Up

Howdy,

Rio our Mammoth donkey is thirteen years old 2019.

Rio age six is 16”1 hands at the withers, not the ears and yes he still has one more year of growing to do. Rio is a Mammoth donkey 100% donkey no horse he will be full-grown at age seven, the bigger the equine the longer it takes for them to mature. As the human owner, it is our responsibility to learn what age the equine is full-grown and what it takes to keep them in optimum health mentally, physically, and emotionally.

Miniature donkeys are full-grown at age three.

Standard/burro age four.

Mammoth donkeys age six or seven. Rio was seven as he stands 16’2 hands tall.

Preparation is the key to preparing a donkey to ride.

As a baby mammoth donkey, we took Rio, Lily, and Rocket Man for lots of trail walks to prepare for trail riding. I highly suggest you do the same if your goal is to trail ride and you have an equine big enough and old enough to carry your weight. Training the equine to load (trailer and carry weight) without stress is the most important thing to do as you do not want to be trying to trailer load in an emergency. Any time you can spend with a youngster preparing them for what you want them to do as an adult is time well spent, it’s like laying a foundation on a house to make it strong and solid.

If you have young donkeys, mules, or horses please wait to do riding until they are full-grown as their bones, joints, and mind needs time to grow up. If you wait for them to physically mature you will have a healthy and happy equine into their senior years if you push ahead too much too fast you can cripple the equine for life.

Rio (mammoth donkey) two days old.