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American Mammoth Jackstock Donkeys

15th June 2011

Dengie nutritionists, Claire and Tracey were lucky enough to meet a couple of American Mammoth Jackstock donkeys, Wacissa and Gretna, at the Wimpole Endurance Ride held last weekend.

Andrew Swales, from Hamberton Donkey Stud has been in touch to explain a bit more about this amazing breed!

"The breed is called the American Mammoth Jackstock and was developed for its great size in the last century to produce the large working mules needed for agriculture and to pull wagon trains during the colonisation of North America. The donkeys and the mules were of huge economic importance to the fledgling USA. The advent of the railway and the tractor removed the need and demand for the mules and the Mammoth Donkey almost became extinct in the mid 20th Century, a fate which also almost befell the famous ancient Baudet-du-Poitou donkey in France.

Luckily a few breeders kept their herds of Jackstock, and today they are becoming more popular for trail riding and driving as their numbers have recovered slightly. Most of the originals were black or roan, but the broken coloured animals are called ‘spots’ in the States.

At our stud here we have the first American Mammoth donkeys to be seen in the UK. Our originals (including ‘Wacissa’ and ‘Gretna’) were imported from the leading breeder in Texas, and our herd is led by champion jack ‘Bramoth’s Estiffanugla’ who was American National Champion in 2007. We have 5 adult jennies, some youngstock and expect two foal during 2011.

‘Wacissa’ and ‘Gretna’ were born in October 2006 and June 2006 respectively, and have been broken to ride this spring over the past 3 & 1/2 months. We are delighted that they completed the full course at Wimpole, and their 19km time averaged 8.8kph, which was comfortably ahead of the 8.0kph target.

‘Wacissa’ has been shown in-hand too, and was at the Suffolk last week (where we had Donkey Champion with our Miniature jack) and will be at the Royal Norfolk Show at the end of June, plus some of the other agricultural shows in the area this summer too."

For more information and to see more pictures visit http://www.hamertondonkeystud.com/

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