This video course focuses on Basic Donkey Obstacle Training.

Whether your donkey is just a family pet or you plan to take him out on the trails or show him in competition, learning to negotiate through obstacles is an essential part of donkey training. Every donkey needs to be calm and easy to handle when trailer loading, going through gates, navigating through unfamiliar surroundings.

In this course I'll cover the basics of setting up your own obstacle course as well as the steps to train your donkey to navigate through those obstacles. By following these simple steps, you will not only be helping your donkey learn to not be afraid of going through new and different challenges, but also helping to build his confidence in himself and trust in you as his handler. I have found this immensely useful in my training program with all ages of donkeys I've worked with from weanlings to mature adult donkeys.

This course will cover the following topics. We will demonstrate how to train each of these obstacles from the ground (leading), then riding and ground-driving (where applicable). This is not intended to be a course on training your donkey to ride or drive. The riding/driving portions of this course will assume that your donkey already knows basic riding and/or ground driving.

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Building Your Own Bridge Materials you need Where to get the pieces Simple & easy steps to put it together
Setting Up Other Obstacles What obstacles you will need Where to get the materials How to set them up
Simple Obstacles First Teaching your donkey to navigate the Pylon course Barrels in various patterns Ground Rails
Sidepassing and Tight Turns Turning on the forehand and on the haunches Teaching the sidepass Putting it together: Sidepassing over a ground rail, etc.
Checking the Mail Setting up your mailbox obstacle Overcoming your donkey's fears of the mailbox Checking the mail while riding
The Wooden Bridge Preliminary exercises before facing the bridge Introduction to the bridge Leading across the bridge Riding across the bridge Applying to trailer loading Adding to the challenge: Dressing up your bridge
The Gate Good manners while leading through the gate Riding through a rope gate obstacle Riding through a swinging gate
What next? Getting creative Show time!

The video will be posted online in new 10-15 minute video segments as I have each new segment ready. They will follow the sequence listed above.

All of the video clips will remain online and you will be able to log back on and view them for 3 months after I have added the final video clip.

At the end of the series on this topic you will receive a DVD with the whole set of video segments for this class. I have not finished all of the footage yet, but estimate that the DVD will probably be around 1 1/2 hours long when complete.

The Donkey Obstacle Training course is $49.95.

We will email you login information to access the video segments as soon as your payment has cleared.