A Sh..t Job But Someone Had To Do It

The Elisabeth Svendsen Trust for Children and Donkeys (EST) is a UK based charity dedicated to providing riding therapy with donkeys to children with special needs and disabilities for which I am a volunteer.

Included in the work that the centre does is also visiting Care Homes for the elderly, where a donkey is taken around the home and meets to meet the residents which is referred to “Outreach”. Normally when the lists go up with the dates for a volunteer to go with a member of staff, they are filled up very quickly, as quite a lot of the volunteers do like to do this, and in all the years that I have been a volunteer I have always been too slow to put my name down. However, a couple of days ago an email was sent asking for a volunteer to go out on one of these visits, as the volunteer who was going to do it couldn’t make it. As I said above, I had not had the chance to do one of these so I immediately replied and my offer was taken up.

So Tuesday 8th November 2011, came and I and the member of staff and Wayne the donkey were loaded into the van and off we went to a Care Home just a few miles away. We have a couple of experienced donkeys who are used for outreach visits, as it is quite unusual for donkeys to get the taste of home comforts, walking on carpets in large reception areas where the residents are sitting around in chairs. They even go into bedrooms if the residents are not mobile enough to come get to the reception rooms, and therefore are especially trained go up and down in lifts if necessary.

When we arrived, and unloaded Wayne off the lorry, we were pleased that he had done what all animals do. As the member of staff leads the donkey, having not done one of these visits before, I asked what my role was. I was then given a bucket and told that I had to walk behind him with the bucket tucked under his tail, in case of accidents (even though he had already performed in the lorry). I then proceeded to walk behind Wayne holding the bucket for about half an hour. He behaved impeccably and bucket not needed, and was extremely relieved (pardon the pun) that my pooh catching was not needed. The residents absolutely loved it and we left the home knowing that Wayne had made their day.

We arrived back at the centre, opened the door to the lorry, dropped down the ramp and let Wayne out. As he started to walk down the ramp, his tail went up and liquid manure projectiled out, all down the ramp, and the smell was absolutely awful. The whole lorry had to be hosed out, but what a blessing that he held himself all that time, and I was extremely grateful to him, as there was no way that I could have caught it all in the bucket, and what a mess it would have made on the nice red carpet.

I don’t think I will be rushing to put my name down to do another outreach in the near future.