Sagebrush Regal Bentley (aka Bentley) was a grey/brown roan Mammoth Jackstock gelding. He matured out at 61" tall - a very big boy! Bentley joined our herd at Sagebrush Ranch in May 2006, and was purchased from Bill Garrett of Stilwell, Oklahoma.

Bentley had a pocket donkey personality. He was just like a big teddy bear, and just adored being loved on.

When we bought Bentley, he was 4 years old, but still did not seem mentally ready to start saddle training, so I waited 2 years to let him grow up a little longer first. These bigger donkeys sometimes take a little longer to mature than the smaller donkeys. We worked with Bentley on learning ground handling exercises while we waited for him to mature a little more. He loved crossing the bridge obstacle!

What a difference those two years made! In the summer of 2008 I tried starting him ground driving and under saddle again. He picked it up much faster, and really enjoyed the training now that he had had some time to mature a bit more. He was coming along nicely with his training when winter settled in.

The end of January 2009 Bentley ruptured an extensor tendon on one of his back legs. The best we can guess is that he must have slipped out in the pasture and injured it. This extensor tendon lifts the donkey's toe up when he takes each stride forward. Since it is not used in holding up the donkey's weight, Bentley was still able to stand fine on it. But when he'd try to walk, he'd knuckle over on that foot and not be able to lift that toe up when taking each step.

At the vet's instruction, we put him on stall rest, put a special shoe and brace on that hoof, and wrap on his leg. Bentley was doing well as long as he'd stay standing up and was starting to regain some control of that hoof. Normally an equine with this injury should still be able to get up ok after they lay down, but after the first two or three times of laying down and getting back up with his own strength (and plenty of our encouragement), he just gave up trying to get up on his own.

He'd stay standing up nicely for about 2 weeks, then one day we'd go out and find him down again. No amount of coaxing, prodding or effort on our part would get him to pick himself back up off the floor. We tried several times to bring him around, and also did bloodwork on him to see if we could figure out what the problem might be. Under the vet's careful supervision, Bentley would be lifted back up to a standing position with a loader, then he would stay standing on his own and be just fine for about 2 weeks while his bruises and scratches from the ordeal would start healing. Then about the time he'd start feeling really good again, he'd go down again and refuse to even try to get up.

Even after 2 months of rest and lots of TLC and vet care, Bentley still wouldn't put forth enough effort to lift himself off the ground once he was down. Finally after several times of repeating this cycle, when Bentley went down again, I made the hard choice to put him down, as we were running out of options to help a donkey who for no apparent reason would not put forth the effort to get up on his own. After visiting at length with both the vet and farrier, and considering all our options, we felt this would be the best thing for him at this point.

Watching while the rest of the herd takes a roll in the dirt

Coming for some hugs

Looking handsome!

Out in the field with his buddy, Andy