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| Hickory Hill Donkey Farm |
| Registered Miniature Donkeys |
| Harvey and JoAnn Jordan |
P.O. Box 53 |
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936-396-6377 - telephone |
Flynn, Texas 77855 |
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God Bless America! |
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We wish everyone a happy, prosperous New Year in 2010, and to celebrate, we are offering fantastic discounted prices on all (yes, that's right, all) of our donkeys offered for sale! Take $500 off the price of each young animal and $250 off the price of each mature animal listed on our 'For Sale' page. Click 'here' to go directly to our For Sale page! We have enough hay to last us through the winter, but heaven knows what next spring/summer will bring in the way of moisture; this year it has been really tough to maintain a good supply of hay, and we surely don't want that worry again next year! We have donkeys for breeding, showing and just plain loving ............. Click here to go directly to our For Sale Page!
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Show Time
Our first 2010 donkey show will be in February at the San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo; minis will show Monday/Tuesday, February 15 & 16, 2010. We always have a good time at this show, and this year, we will be in brand new barns!
As many of you know, we sold our four 'redheads' (Rusty, Gypsy, Ras and Chili) that we were so successful with last year; so we will be starting over with foals/yearlings that have never even been off the farm! If we were smart, we would have gracefully retired and rested on our successes, but we aren't and we didn't, and now we have our work cut out for us to get these little ones ready for the show ring!
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We had a great Christmas visiting with family and friends! Thanks to all for the many beautiful Christmas cards and good wishes for a wonderful holiday season!
We were in Houston for Christmas and didn't get any of the white 'stuff' on our lawns, but parts of Texas had a 'white' Christmas; other parts just had misting rain and cold temperatures down in the low 30s! Here's a picture of our oldest granddaughter making a snow angel; Emily is in her first year of college, but just couldn't resist lying down in the snow and spreading her wings for a picture! She really is an angel! :)
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Christmas week got off to a rough start ............ we lost our beloved 25-year old Texas Longhorn steer, Bubba on Wednesday. We noticed last year that our winters were getting harder and harder on him; the dampness and lower temperatures were just getting to be hard on his body even though we provided a shelter, meal, water and hay all winter long. On Tuesday, he was laying down in the pasture and didn't make an attempt to get up when he saw us, so we took him feed and water, and crossed our fingers! We checked on him several times during the day and decided that if he wasn't up by morning, we would ask our vet to put him down so that he wouldn't suffer, but when we went back to check on him early Wednesday, he had slipped away to Longhorn heaven! Although our hearts are broken, and we miss him terribly, we are thankful that when his time came, he went quickly and peacefully. It's always so hard to lose a dear friend!
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We were expecting three babies before the end of the year, and Jazzy, Tango and Callie Jo all made their deadline and delivered three fantastic foals ...... two beautiful little girls, and a tiny, munchkin little boy!
 Angel Wings DOB: 12/09/09 'outstanding little jenny' 758's Tango
Bred to: LN Stuart Little B Color: black We purchased Tango earlier
this year; this is the first time that
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 Nicholas DOB: 12/11/09 'cute as a bug'
Color: dark brown* NLP Bred to: LN Stuart Little B Color: black
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Bred to: Brayers Are Us Tangueray Gin Color: black/brown This is the fourth time that Callie Jo has been bred to Tangueray Gin, and those breedings resulted in three very nice foals. We showed Shirley
Temple and Margarita as yearlings/two year olds, and Boomer (Bombay Gin) is
a well-built little gelding! |
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Friday morning after
Thanksgiving, we woke up to find this little guy standing
out in the nursery
pasture with his mom! He is outstanding!
Please welcome Hickory Hills Pilgrim's Pride!
His mom is Hannabelle, and previously she produced two beautiful black
jenny foals, and in 2008, a fantastic black and white jack foal that we are
showing in the ACOSA halter classes . I had my fingers crossed for
another 'Mac'
but even though Pilgrim came in plain clothes, he is super! As a good donkey friend of our says; 'he is black, black!'
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This picture was taken mid-morning on the Saturday after Thanksgiving! Shelby was visiting us, and she decided that there might be donkeys at the end of the rainbow! Harv and I were hoping that there was a big truck load of hay! Yes, we are still on the hunt for our second load of hay; it's just very hard to find in our area of Texas!
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And exactly a week later, we woke up to a thick coat of frost and temperatures in the 20s! Now I know that doesn't sound cold to those of you who live 'up north' but to those of us who live in Texas, that's pretty darn cold!
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Catching up! ............... we've had our ups, and we've had our downs; good times and bad!
On a sad note, we lost Wyonna,
in a tragic accident mid-August; she
laid down one night to take a nap leaning against a roll of hay, and we can
only guess that jennys on the other side of the r
oll
started pushing and rolled the hay on top of her! As you can imagine,
it just about broke our hearts; we were sad for a very long time and still
miss her very much!
Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of our bad luck! About two weeks after losing Wyonna, our little bottle baby, Faith, was running and playing with the other babies in the nursery, and dislocated her hip! She either stepped in a hole, rain into another baby in the nursery, or 'something!' She under went major hip surgery (our vets are miracle workers), and is recovering; it will be a long rehab, but we are hopeful that she will have a normal life ahead. Then the week after Faith's accident, we had stray dogs get in our pastures and hurt two of our young donkeys. The first night, they attacked Homer, Blossom's four-day old foal. They must have thrown him around like a rag dog, and then went for the kill! They came very close to puncturing his jugular vein, but the little rascal has bounced back and is all about life and fun! We were afraid that his mom might reject him because our vet had to give him a 'poodle cut' to be able to take care of his injuries, but Blossom was a real trooper! She looked at him funny, smelled him a time or two, and then invited him to have dinner! Harv and I breathed a sigh of relief; we had already been down that road with Faith; it's hard work, especially the older we get!
Two nights after Homer was injured, the dogs came back and attacked Zig Zag, a tiny yearling jack! He lives in the yearling gelding pasture with seven of his peers, and apparently, they were able to isolate him from his friends as he is the only spot and the smallest in the group! Fortunately, Zig, too, is recovering and has maintained his wonderful, laid-back disposition ............ even when we had to give him a penicillin shot every day for a week!
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On the good side
............... For those of you who have kept our need for rain in your
prayers, we send you a big 'Thank You!' We started getting sprinkles
the end of August, and by the first week of
September,
we had 'real' rain! Our donkeys are happy, our pastures are growing
and we are thankful!
We got a truckload of hay mid-September and only need one more to take us through the winter! When I saw the truck coming down our road and up over the hill, I thought it was Santa Claus! What a relief!
We have seven fall babies in the
nursery (four girls and three boys), and they are all delightful!
Didn't you know I would say that! Those of you who knew us six years
ago will remember Cremesickle and the tragic loss of her foal; actually,
Creme went into hard labor and the baby turned his head as he was entering
the birth canal. We had two feet showing, but no head; Harv and the
vet worked intense to push the baby back far enough for Creme to deliver it,
but unfortunately, they weren't able to help her, and she had to be sedated
and the baby removed in pieces! I can't tell you what a terribly sad
day that was; it was heartbreaking! Creme suffered some nerve damage
in her hind legs as a result of the ordeal, and she still walks with
a bit of an unusual gait, but otherwise she made a full recovery! We gave her a
year off to recover, and we've been trying to get her bred for four years.
She had one false pregnancy about three years ago, and I thought surely that
was our last chance for a little Creme baby ............... how wrong was I!
We put Creme in Tangueray's pasture on June 23, 2008, and on Monday morning,
October 5, 2009, Creme was standing in the pasture smiling with a brand new
baby girl by her side! We call her our miracle baby, but we actually named
her Dreamsickle in honor of her mom!
Another one of our new babies was
born to a jenny that we 'rescued' last year! When we bought Cates, she
was skin and bones, nursing a seven month old foal and sharing a barn with a
coming two year old jack! Yikes! We just couldn't believe our
eyes; she was in bad shape, but very trusting when we went to her to offer
her help. It took several months of careful feeding and worming, but
she made a turnaround, started putting on weight and the rest in history!
We bred her to Smoke and together they produced a beautiful little silver
jenny foal; we named her Sylvia because of her color!
In addition to Cremesickle's baby, Tangueray has also given us two spotted foals; Maddie's baby is Barton Gin (aka-Bart), and Itsy's little boy is Hendricks Gin (aka-Henry).
We have two new red babies, both jennys, and both are gorgeous! Prairie Rose's little one is Second Hand Rose (second generation), and Tanzy's baby is Crimson Mist (sire is Crimson Tide).
And then there's Homer (Home Run)! He's the little guy that was attacked by the dogs; his mom is Blossom and his dad is Sunset Acres Rowdy Yates! He's a true pocket donkey!
We have several more due before the end of the year; next should be Shirley Temple, who is due to foal this month. She is bred to LN Stuart Little, 29" black, and we are anxiously waiting, but the six little ones we have now are keeping us busy for the time being!
Show News: We drove up to Oklahoma the end of September for their State Fair and our last show for 2009! The facility was fantastic; they had just remodeled their barns, and put in new stalls with heavy mesh wire sliding doors. The kids could see in, and the donkeys could see out; it was great! We showed in the late afternoon to an enthusiastic crowd. They cheered and clapped and seemed to really enjoy watching the minis; for some in the audience, this was their first time to see a miniature donkey.
We took Rusty, Gypsy (Ras stayed at
home this time as yearling jacks and jennys showed in the same class) and
Chili to show on Saturday in the halter classes, and Mac to show on Sunday
in the Colored Class! And they lived up to their reputation; they
worked hard and all brought home ribbons! Rusty won the Yearling Class
(jacks, jennys and geldings); Gypsy won the Two and Over Jenny Class, and
Chili took second in the Two and Over Gelding Class! Then they all
went back in along with the winners of the other halter classes to be judged
for Champion Miniature Donkey/Best of Breed, and Rusty won it! We were
delighted!
Mac is a real 'head turner' with his contrasting black and white spots, and Sunday was his turn to show! He placed second in the Color Class behind a very nice mature spotted jack. There were miniature donkeys of all ages and all colors; it was a fun class to watch!
As we end the 2008 show season, we would like to take this opportunity to thank the buyers/new owners of Rusty, Gypsy, Raspberry and Chili for letting us keep them through this show season! It was a very successful year for 'pa and ma's' little donkeys, and we couldn't have done it without your cooperation and patience! All four redheads will leave Hickory Hill at the end of the month to go to their new donkey homes! We will miss them terribly; they have worked hard and done a fantastic job for us!
Thank you to Rusty's new owner, Dana Rathburn in Tennessee; Gypsy's new owner, Stephanie Dove/Brayers Are Us in Texas; Raspberry's new owners, John and Jan Stallone/Rancho di Campobello in Texas and Chili's new owners (who met and fell in love with him at the Oklahoma Show), Steve and Cheryl Klund/Cedar Valley Farm in Missouri.
And we couldn't have
done it without My World Red Alert, sire of all four sorrels, and of course
their dams: Punkin Pie (Rusty), Allie (Gypsy), Little Debbie (Raspberry) and
Peppermint (Chili)! You produced four outstanding foals for us, and we
loved showing them! Rusty, Raspberry and Gypsy are ready for the
breeding pasture, and Chili is on his way to cart training! Good Luck,
and we wish all of you much success!
Thanks for a fantastic year!
The memories are
great, and we smiled all the way! Many thanks to our donkeys, to Steve
Wilhelm, Beth Burgess and Kim Stegall who helped us show them when we didn't
have enough hands, to the new owners who let us keep their donkeys to show and
to all of our friends who encouraged us along the way!
Thanks so much!
San Antonio Rodeo and Livestock Show - February, 2009
Raspberry - First - Yearling Jennets at Halter
Gypsy - Second - Two Year Old Jennets at Halter
Chili - Second Three and Older Geldings at Halter
Rusty - First - Two Year Old Jacks at Halter
Raspberry - Jr. Champion Miniature Donkey
Gypsy - Reserve Champion Miniature Jennet
Chili - Reserve Champion Miniature Gelding
Chili - Non-Driving High-Point Miniature Donkey Champion
Red Alert - First - Get of Sire (Raspberry, Gypsy and Rusty)
Shelbyville - July, 2009
Rusty - First - NMDA Yearling Jacks at Halter
Raspberry - Second - NMDA Yearling Jennets at Halter
Chili - Second - NMDA Geldings to Halter, Three and Over
Mac - Third - ACOSA Two and Younger Jacks at Halter
Rusty - Reserve NMDA
Jr. Champion
Chili - Reserve NMDA Champion Gelding
Oklahoma State
Fair - September, 2009
Rusty - First - Yearling Miniature Donkeys
Gypsy - First - Two and Older Miniature Jennets
Chili - Second - Two and Older Geldings
Mac - Second - Color Class - any age, any sex
Rusty - Grand Champion/Best of Breed
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As we look forward to the 2010 show season, we haven't a clue who we will show! The only one returning from 2009 is Mac, who was the baby of the bunch last year; we recently sold him to a new donkey home in Georgia and fortunately, his new family has been generous enough to leave him with us until the Shelbyville Show in July. We will see what happens, but we are definitely going to have to scramble to get something trained in time for the February show in San Antonio, Texas.
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Our farm is located in Leon County, just west of I-45N between Madisonville and Centerville. As donkey collectors, we have acquired seven outstanding breeding jacks, a herd of quality brood jennets, delightful yearlings, very sociable weanlings and a captivating nursery. We breed for conformation, disposition, size and color.
In August, 2002, our collection changed dramatically; actually, we doubled the size of our herd overnight. James and Geri Peterson sold Small Wonders Ranch and offered us the opportunity to purchase their fantastic little donkeys. Since that time, we have been very busy building barns and loving on donkeys, digging water lines and loving donkeys, hauling hay and yes, loving on donkeys! Life is great!
We begin
imprinting as soon as those little hooves hit the ground, and when they are a
few weeks old, our babies start "donkey" school ........... learning to walk, stop and
stand quietly while wearing their new halters. Of course the best part is
sharing donkey hugs at the end of each and every training session!
We are dedicated to
the production of quality miniature donkeys for breeding, showing or to
enjoy as a special family pet. When you are in our area of Texas, please stop by; visitors are
always welcome!
| Herd Sires: | My World's Red Alert - 31½" - dark sorrel |
| CSF Major Moneymaker - 31¼" - black/brown/gray & white spotted | |
| Brayers Are Us Tangueray Gin - 31" - brown/black | |
| Green Acres Smokey Star - 30" - dark brown/gray-dun | |
| Hickory Hills Zig N. Bock - 28½" - gray/white spotted | |
| Country Music's Kevin Black - 31" - dark brown - Sold - Standing as herdsire in Florida! | |
| Country Music's Merle Haggard - 30"- dark brown - Leased - Standing as herdsire in Tennessee! | |
| Franz' Romeo - 30" - gray - Sold - Standing as herdsire in Spain! | |
| Itsy Bitsy Stars and Stripes - 30½" - red | |
| LN Stuart Little - 29 1/2" - black | |
| Jr.Herd Sire: | Hickory Hills Jus Smokin - 31" - black - Sold - Standing as herdsire in Arizona! |
| Jr.Herd Sire: | Hickory Hills Rusty Nail - 31" - red - Sold - Standing as herdsire in Tennessee! |
| Jr.Herd Sire: | Hickory Hills McCormick Gin- 31" - black/brown/white spotted - Sold - Going to Georgia! |
| Jr.Herd Sire: | Small Pleasure's Zydeco- 29 1/2" - sorrel |
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Our "Home Page was
getting so large that some folks with dial-up internet service were having
trouble downloading the pictures, so I have moved the older stories/pictures
to a separate page. Just click here
on
Dazee, the donkey, and you will go to our second page, or you can go directly to
the bottom of this page and click our For Sale Page or one of our other pages!
We hope you enjoy visiting our website as much as we enjoy putting it together;
as you can surely tell, we love sharing pictures of our wonderful little
creatures with the long ears!
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We are proud to be members of the following donkey organizations:
NMDA -
The National Miniature Donkey Association
www.nmdaasset.com
ADMS -
The American Donkey and Mule Society
www.lovelongears.com
ACOSA -
American Council of Spotted Asses
www.spottedass.com
GCDMA -
Gulf Coast Donkey and Mule Association
www.gcdma.org
SDMS -
Southwestern Donkey and Mule Society
www.southwesterndonkeymulesociety.com
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Welcome
Donkey hugs can change
your life forever!
Rachel doesn't mind sharing Baby Phoebe!
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Last Updated January 17, 2009
Copyright © 2002 - 2010 / Hickory Hill Donkey Farm - All Rights Reserved
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This RingSurf Donkey Lovers Ring Site is owned by Harvey and JoAnn Jordan.
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