Howdy,
Rio our Mammoth donkey is six years old now he is almost done growing.
Rio is 16”1 hands at the withers not the ears and yes he still has one more year of growing to do. Rio is a Mammoth donkey 100% donkey no horse he will be full-grown at age seven you see the bigger the equine the longer it takes for them to mature. As the human owner it is our responsibility to learn what age the equine is full-grown and what it takes to keep them in optimum health mentally, physically and emotionally. I have only been on Rio about four times as he was way too young to be ridden right before the semi truck accident in 2010. Many times we took Rio, Lily and Rocket Man for lot’s of walks in the woods to prepare them for trail riding and I highly suggest you do the same if your goal is to trail ride and you have a equine big enough and old enough to carry your weight. Training the equine to load without stress is the most important thing to do as you do not want to be trying to trailer load in an emergency. Any time you can spend with a youngster preparing them for what you want them to do for you when they grow up is time well spent, it’s like laying a foundation on a house make it strong and solid.
Due to the car accident I have not been able to train my equine or ride, still we live a grateful life to be able to keep our little farm. If you have young donkeys, mules or horses please wait to do riding until they are full-grown as their bones, joints and mind needs time to grow up. If you wait for them to physically mature you will have a healthy and happy equine into their senior years if you push ahead too much too fast you can cripple the equine for life.
Rio (mammoth donkey) just a few days old
Rio nine months old – Look how GOD puts all the thick baby donkey fur on to keep him warm in the winter
“Rio 9 months old this is the face I fell in love with” look at those eyes 
Rio at 9 months old
Rio at 1 year old
Rio with Lily at 1 year old just got home to our farm – Lily has always liked the donkeys and the donkeys have always liked her we got lucky
Taking Rio to another farm practicing trailer loading and meeting other horses – Rio is two years old here
Going for trail walks not rides – Rio carried our lunch and water as he is still too young to ride age 2
Rio and Melody age 3 (most famous photo) just got a bath and is wearing a cooler blanket
Rio age 3 backing up using Parelli methods
Lily is five and Rio is almost four here Ponying up
Rio age 5 2011
Rio age 6 summer 2012
Rio age 6 standing at the gate summer 2012
The Donkey Whisperer Farm is a hobby farm, NOT a business. Melody is a student of Parelli Natural Horsemanship and is not authorized to teach Parelli, Melody is happy to help coach you to understand your equine for free.
GOD bless you and your family two and four-legged!
Melody
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Regina (Gina) Arnold
October 13, 2012 at 2:47 am
Oh, so precious. Thanks for sharing Rio’s growth with us so far. Keep it up.
Donkey Whisperer Farm
October 13, 2012 at 2:48 am
Hi Regina,
It was fun to go look for his baby photos.
Iamrcc
October 16, 2012 at 12:26 pm
Thank you for visiting and the like of my post “Leaf Bed”.