Walk the new ground before they do
Donkeys investigate a new place methodically, nose down and feet testing, and the time to find the hazards is before they start. Walk every fence line looking for gaps at ground level, loose staples, and gates that swing or sag — donkeys lean and rub against fencing as a pastime, and a weak section that survived horses may not survive a determined scratching post with opinions. Clear ragwort, yew clippings, and any ornamental planting within reach of the fence, check for holes and old wire, and make sure no fuel, paint, or farm chemicals are stored where a curious mouth can reach them. Then set the yard up as finished: the shelter bedded, the trough filled and scrubbed, hay in the rack, and a hard, dry standing area surfaced, because donkeys' desert-bred hooves soften and crumble in constant wet mud.
Keep the pair together, always
If your donkeys are a bonded pair — and most are, intensely — the companion is not company, it is infrastructure. Separate them for the move and you will hear about it, loudly, from both ends, and a donkey calling and pacing for its friend is a donkey not eating, which is where real trouble starts. Load them together, travel them together, and turn them out together into the new yard, letting the bolder one step down and look around first so the shyer one follows a trusted lead. If one must be handled separately in the first days, keep the other in sight rather than merely within earshot.
Recreate the routine, not the scenery
The new yard will smell and look different whatever you do, so hold constant everything that can be held: the same hay — bring several bales from the old place so forage does not change the same week the address does — the same feed buckets, the same feeding times, and the same order of morning chores. Familiar objects help more than seems reasonable: their usual grooming kit, the mineral lick from the old shelter, even a load of worn bedding spread in the new one. A donkey whose day keeps its shape will forgive the yard for being new.
Loading without a standoff
A donkey that does not want to load does not panic — it plants all four feet and waits, and it can wait longer than you can pull. If yours are not seasoned travelers, spend the week before the move walking them on and off the ramp parked in the old yard, with feed waiting inside, until the trailer reads as a place where good things happen. On the day, allow double the time you think you need, keep voices low, and let a feed bucket and patience do what ropes should not.
The first week: reading a stoic animal
Donkeys hide stress well, so watch the measurable things: droppings fewer or drier than usual, hay left unfinished, one donkey standing apart from its companion, ears held flat and a dullness in the eye. Check they are drinking — new water tastes different, and mixing in a bucket carried from the old trough for the first day or two bridges the gap. A donkey that stops eating altogether is not a wait-and-see case: donkeys off their feed can deteriorate quickly, so call your vet the same day rather than hoping the morning brings an appetite.
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