Bella gets all the daily attention she needs

We met Bella for the first time on this year’s Outreach Programme. As she was only three she wasn’t used for work but her hooves were painfully long, largely because she was very scared and rather difficult to handle. After sorting out her hoof problems, we explained to the owner that she would need monthly trims to keep her hooves in good condition. The owner had some health problems and told us he might prefer us to have her so she could get the daily attention she needed.

After a week, he rang to ask us if we would take her and so in July she arrived at our New Arrivals Unit. Bella had been used to a very large, open fronted shelter and for several days she did not want to go into our slightly smaller stable. Every day we moved her food a little closer to the door and soon she was brave enough to go inside.

When she joined the other donkeys, she was very shy and spent lots of time on her own, but we’re really pleased with her progress and she is now joining in with the others and getting much more confident.