Are these donkeys or dogs?

[Gambro]

I catch my mini donkeys beating on each other daily now and I have to ask, are they happy and just playing? They aren't leaving marks or getting bloody, but they go after each other just like dogs at play. Biting manes, nipping each other's legs, bucking, kicking but not conecting and even mounting (they're both geldings).

Am I right that this is fun time activities because that's what it looks like, and I assume a "real" fight would be brutal. Being knew to donkeys I just hadda ask.

 

[promiseacres]

donkeys play HARD!

 

[Gambro]

Good because I've been rofl at them then I thought...what if this is serious? lol

Thanks, I'll continue laughing.

 

[Baymule]

Donkeys play hard, but they can mean business too. I have a standard jack named Jake. I have an old QH gelding named Joe. Joe is at the bottom of the herd pecking order and when Jake joined the herd, Joe figured he finally had someone HE could pick on. Joe poured all his years of being picked on all over Jake. One day I went to feed them and Joe was pretty tore up. He had bite marks on his neck that he still carries the scars from. He had swollen places all over him and was limping. Jake finally got enough and whipped Joe real good. Jake?? Not a mark on him.

The funny part is they became fast friends and hang out together. They still "play bite" one another, but Jake earned Joe's respect.

 

[CritterZone]

My full sized horses play like this. I have 4 geldings and two mares, and all but one mare is 5 or younger. I love to watch them chasing each other and play fighting in the pastures. Sometimes they do connect, and sometimes they do leave marks, but they are just playing.

 

[treeclimber233]

I used to board my horses where they had a donkey in the field. The owner had a stallion that he gelded and turned out (after a period of time) with the rest of the herd. Didn't take long before all he!! broke loose. The gelding was torn to bits and the donkey had no marks that I saw. So I would say if there is no blood they are just playing.