‘My not so little donkey’
Tracy Garton has rescued all sorts of donkeys over the years, but one in particular stands out – and he’s about to become a record-breaker...
Leading a group of visitors to the next field, I stopped and paused for effect. ‘And this is our gentle giant,’ I said. ‘Derrick.’
If I was waiting for a reaction, I wasn’t disappointed. I never was. ‘ Wow,’ the children gasped. ‘He’s huge!’ Even the adults looked impressed.
I wasn’t surprised. It wasn’t often that you saw a donkey standing tall at 5ft 7in! Though I’d been running my donkey sanctuary for more than 30 years and was currently looking after around 60 four-legged animals, even I had to admit that Derrick was one-of-a-kind.
Growing up, although
I’d always been an animal lover, I’d always been more interested in horses than donkeys. It was only when me and my husband, Steve, 60, came across Muffin, a mule, in a local field in 1992 that my interest shifted. Standing by himself, Muffin looked so lonely that Steve and I took to visiting him daily, before eventually adopting him.
A bit of research showed that Muffin would flourish with company, so we also got a donkey. Then we started hearing about other, similar animals who needed our help – how could we say no?
The whole thing snowballed and, before long, we ended up moving to bigger grounds in Lincolnshire and opening Radcliffe Donkey Sanctuary. We had all sorts of characters and loved them all.
At the end of 2012, we’d adopted an American Mammoth Jackstock called Ellie – but we hadn’t realised that she was pregnant when we rehomed her. The father, Oklahoma Louis, had also moved into our sanctuary so we thought it was only fair to keep the family together. But this pair were not normal donkeys. The clue is in the name – they’re a lot bigger than your average ass!
We kept an eye on the pregnant mother, on ‘Ellie
vision’ cameras mounted in their stable, to make sure she was doing OK. Then, on 6 May 2013, she went into labour. Steve and I watched like expectant parents as the miracle of life took place. It wasn’t an easy birth; the jack (donkey baby) was breech and we’d had to coach Ellie through it. But eventually, he emerged, safe, healthy – and huge!
‘Look at the size of him!’ Steve exclaimed. ‘I reckon he’s bigger than a fully grown Great Dane.’ Ellie took to motherhood immediately, so after christening her baby Derrick, Steve and I left the new family to it.
Before long, Derrick had become the sanctuary’s main attraction, despite the fact that we also had zeedonks, the offspring of a zebra mum and donkey dad, and zonkeys, those of a donkey mum and a zebra dad. Baby animals are a huge hit no matter what species, but visitors to our sanctuary took a particular shine to Derrick, especially when he started to outgrow the full-sized donkeys – including his parents – at just a few months old.
But despite his size, he had the gentlest of natures, and looked to me and Steve as his surrogate parents. ‘He follows you around like a puppy,’ Steve laughed, as
Derrick walked in my shadow around the field. He nuzzled into me as I cleaned the stable, desperate for affection – even when there were no carrots in sight! And, as he skipped around the field, I laughed at his playfulness.
By his sixth birthday, this year, Derrick was standing tall at 16.3 hands – 5ft 7in.
At 5ft 5in, he’s a few inches taller than me!
Most visitors come across Ellie and Oklahoma Louis before they reach Derrick and are impressed by their stature compared to the other donkeys. So when they turn the corner, their mouths drop open in awe at the sight of Derrick. He makes them look miniature in comparison.
‘He’s enormous,’ the children squeal, as their parents look on in shock as he towers above some of their heads.
We sell carrots for the public to feed the donkeys, and as soon as Derrick sees people dangling the treats over the fence, he trots over to make friends. He’s got such a lovely nature, he’s especially gentle with children when feeding from their little hands.
Although we have to limit our opening hours during December to Saturdays due to the weather and the donkeys preferring to stay in their sheds, we know how much our visitors love to see real live donkeys around the nativity period. Some winter days are as busy as a day in mid-summer – that’s the charm of the donkeys for you.
And it’s because of his larger-thanlife stature that Derrick has never featured in any liveaction nativity plays – he’d most likely steal the show and draw eyes away from baby Jesus!
He’s so big, Derrick is the largest donkey in the UK and only one inch short of the world’s current largest donkey – Romulus, from America – who has held the title since 2013. But because Derrick has a couple more years until he is fully grown, we’re pretty sure he’ll hold that title before long.
At 52, I’d love our boy to gain the title of the world’s biggest donkey, so that people all over the globe can be in awe of him – just as we were when he entered our lives. For more info see rad cliff ed on key sanctuary. co.uk
‘Derrick hasn’t featured in nativities – he’d steal the show from baby Jesus!’