Our cute new arrival - Kikas

Meet Kikas (pronounced Kee-kas) who is the most adorable little 7 month old colt foal. You might wonder why he has an unusual name and it’s all to do with how he came to us. Over the years we’ve had some rather odd reasons for donkeys being relinquished but this one is the first of its kind!

Our contract farrier had trimmed several donkeys hooves for a private owner but unfortunately the owner didn’t have enough money to pay for all of the work. Obviously he felt awful about this as he takes good care of his donkeys and wanted to make sure their hooves were well maintained and so he offered the foal in lieu of payment.

Anyone who has donkeys and horses will know that farriers are always extremely busy and our farrier didn’t have the time needed to spend with the little donkey. Our farrier asked if we could take him but there was one condition – we called him Kikas which is our farrier’s surname!

Fortunately Kikas had already been weaned from his mum although when he arrived he looked very bewildered and it took him quite a while to take in all the new sights and sounds! He is currently in our New Arrivals area and is gradually getting used to being handled as well as the hundreds of goats that go past the Holding Base every day. Like most foals he is very curious about everything and wants to investigate. He loves having his very own stable although once he has had his vaccinations etc, we’ve chosen a lovely friend for him to live with as he is a little bit too young to castrate yet.

Kikas will then have to learn share a nice big paddock and shelter with our young gelding Castoris. We hope they will appreciate having a ‘donkey des res’ which has been made just for them!!