I’m Jana Appleyard and I live with my donkeys and cats on Hvar island, Croatia where I teach yoga retreats and have a small B&B. I met my first donkey Pano in 2013. He and his friends have led me to discover even more about myself and our journey together has become part of my spiritual practice.
Check out “donkeys are great” very own facebook page, written by Pano himself!
Last week we were very busy helping our lovely friend Janet make a new shelter for us . We had recycled all the material from a shelter my mum lady Penelope used to use when she came for her after summer freedom but now she has a new place ( story coming soon ! ) ![]()
Janet was amazing and once we stopped chewing all the wood we were quite helpful🙀😹![]()
When Janet discovered the roof was leaking she very kindly went to order a new roof for us which will arrive soon . Thank you so very much Janet for your time and roof donation ❤️❤️❤️ we really appreciate it .
It’s been a very very long time since I had time to write my page ! We are all good here but we have had an incredibly busy time these past months . I will write more news soon . Here’s a lovely photo though from our visitors the other day . It’s our dear friend Olya with the fabulous blue hair 😻who helps Jana so much with paperwork and other important things . And she brought her friend Lindsay from Belgium who had a great day hugging and kissing us all ( and bringing many carrots 🥕) And that’s my sweet sister Lula in the middle ! 😻🫏
The best rugs for the sweetest donkeys . Do you know donkeys are much more narrow across the chest shoulders so even tiny pony rugs fall off their shoulders !*** ONLY A FEW DAYS LEFT TO ENTER! ***![]()
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To celebrate the arrival of our brand new Donkey Products catalogue we're running a fab COMPETITION to win one of our best selling Dinky Classic XD 100g Outdoor Rugs 😁![]()
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To enter, just LIKE our page, LIKE this post, SHARE this post to your page, and COMMENT below with the rug SIZE (2'9" - 5'6") you would like if you win (don't forget, you'll need to specify the size rug you would like in your comment for your entry to be valid)![]()
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Entries close at midnight on 4th November and the winner will be drawn at random from all names who comment below, and have LIKED & SHARED as above. Only one entry per person. Prize can only be posted within the UK.![]()
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Sadly, this post has reached just 10% of our followers 😢![]()
This has drastically reduced the number of entries so your chances of a WIN are pretty high!!!![]()
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GOOD LUCK !![]()
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PS. Sorry, all the freebie headcollars were snapped up within hours!
For a very long time Jana has been trying to find an equine dentist to check out our teeth . ‘You know Pano it’s very important to check your teeth at least once a year and you are 11 now !’🙀![]()
Then our friend Amy told us she had found a vet and equine dentist who lives in Canada but has a house on the island! ![]()
So early this week dear Boris and his lovely wife also called Amy visited us and checked our teeth! At first we were a little afraid so we made zena pony go first but very quickly we understood we were in expert hands and as you can see we were all very keen to be around our new dentist . Paca loved it so much she stood by Boris and Amy to ask if she could help too!! And Boris told us we had pretty good teeth 👍💪 and that we were his first donkey patients and he was very impressed with us ! ![]()
Big big big thank you to our friend Amy for arranging this and to vets Boris and his wife Amy to donating their time and fabulous skills to us ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🫏🫏🫏 🦷
The beginning of my birthday week did not get off to a very good start . As we were almost home from our walk on Sunday I started choking! Jana got us all in and phoned the vet and also our friends Cindy and Janet who I think flew as they arrived so fast . To cut a long story short I recovered within the hour just in time for our vet Prospers arrival . I managed to do a big eeeeyyyorreee bray because Cindy made some special sounds ! and that removed whatever was blocking me . Choke can be very very dangerous for equines . We were all very relieved! ![]()
On Tuesday when it was my actual birthday lily rose suggested we just go for a gentle walk, ‘after all Pano’ she said ‘you are not getting any younger’🙀 ![]()
We had a lovely slow calm walk . ![]()
Big thank you to Cindy and Janet for their help and our vet Prosper for once again coming out on emergency call which of course always happens to be on a dark evening or public holiday !
2 weeks ago Jana received a call about a baby owl that was on its own in tne churchyard . She went up with the dogs Toto and Anuska to see if she could find the owl . It was hard to find the owl but as she was about to leave she spotted the owl! She called Norman the bird expert in the island and they discussed what to do. Luckily one of Jana’s volunteers had some chicken at home so the owl happily had raw chicken ! Phew ! After that Jana bought beef and chicken from the butcher and fed owl every few hours, most of the time waking up at 4 am to feed hungry owl 🙀🦉💪 ![]()
Since last week the owl who we have named Floof has moved on to mice, worms and grasshoppers which Jana has to chop up and feed to Floof ! Owl is doing really well and beginning to learn how to spread wings with flying under Jana’s tuition in the coming weeks ! We will keep you posted ! 😻![]()
If you have instagram wr have a fabulous video on ![]()
Yoga.donkeys.cats.and.more
A few days ago we were about to go for a walk and suddenly it started to rain ! We were not expecting that but Jana had a raincoat in her bag and said we should go out anyway . We didn’t go too far from home and it was quite light rain which we enjoyed as it had been so hot . When we arrived home tne rain stopped and the sun started to come out . It was around 8pm and then this beautiful rainbow appeared! Jana took sone videos which she put on our Instagram page and then gave je these photos to put in my page . Aren’t they beautiful!
Anyone around stari grad/ dol area seen this cat ? Thanks in advance for looking out for him !
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We would like to say a big big big thank you to all you wonderful people who made our donkey (and all the other animals ) fundraising concert a huge success ! €1300 was raised to help us buy hay !!We had amazing performances by the string quartet and the choir . A fantastic bar by Amanda and Chris who created the delicious Pano punch cocktail! And of course me joining in with my fantastic tenor voice! It was such a beautiful atmosphere and we all felt very loved and blessed . ❤️
We had a beautiful evening at the concert .. more news later ..BUT unfortunately this bike was taken from the church where it was locked on the gate . If anyone saw anything please let us knowThis ebike was stolen on Sunday evening 28th April from outside the Church of St. Mary in Dol, where it was locked and parked. If you see or find it, please contact 098 977 3229 or +44 7812495299 !![]()
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E-bicikla ukrađena u nedjelju 28.04.2024. iz Dola. Ako nju vidite ili pronađete molim Vas nazovite / pošaljete SMS: 098 977 3229 ili +44 7812495299
This weekend Sunday 28 April at 18.00 we are very much looking forward to our fundraising concert . It’s going to be such fun and expect to hear my amazing tenor as I sing along to the music ! We are so grateful to all the people who have offered to help and participate with this. There will be the debut of the hvar string quartet and a wonderful 14 person choir ! Also some more lovely singers and musicians doing sone extra spots . Jana will do a little talk about all the animals too. And last but not least our friends Amanda and Chris will be running a bar and creating a special donkey 🫏 cocktail!!!! We can not thank everyone enough for their help promoting this event . Do you recognise the handsome poster boy on this poster ?!
For the past month or so we were without hay ! Jana and our volunteers were cutting lots of green long grass and then drying it and Jana was taking us on daily walks at the all you can eat buffet in tne woods .However there are lots of things to be careful of when the spring grass appears ! If we eat too much in the beginning it can cause us tummy ache or the dreaded equine enemy COLIC!!!! So we all had to be very careful and walk more than eat . Obviously there are various family members who do not listen to that rule …Zena !!! Who was eating like a vacuum cleaner on speed ! She never learns 🙀. Luckily Jana caught it all in time . It’s very important that the greedy equine in question poops 💩 so we know nothing is stuck in there ! And then we have emergency bran and Epsom salt mix always on hand to aid the pooping process! It’s a whole science about grass , types of grass and hay ! Also as I’m sure I have told you before donkeys diet should be not too much grass . So please don’t employ a donkey as your grass cutter! ![]()
Luckily the hay was cut early this year due to the warm weather so our hay arrived at the weekend . Big thank you to everyone who donated towards this ! Prices increased so much this year so we appreciate your help ! Love Pano and family xx
It’s been a very long time since I wrote anything on my page but we have had a very busy few months . We had a lot of sick cats and we were helping Jana look after everyone ! Then we ran out of hay ! I will tell you more about that soon . But today is for celebrating birthdays 🎉. Last week was Mathildas 4 birthday 🥳 and today is lily-roses 9 th birthday 🙀🎉. Last week we had a big walk for Mathilda big day and yesterday we had another big walk . The weather was perfect ! This afternoon we will stay in and relax because we all agree lily needs a rest sometimes and I’m sure Jana will bring some nice birthday carrots 🥕 for us all to enjoy !
Spotted on hvar island this month only ! The very rare two headed 8 legged donkey! 😹 can you guess who it is soaking up the January 🌞 sun ?!
Today was the winter solstice and although I love these magical kind of days I was getting a bit worried that as the day would be so short I might not get enough to eat . ‘Don’t be so silly Pano ‘ said lily ‘you won’t starve , even zena isn’t looking worried and her number one love is eating ! ‘ ![]()
I looked at zena and she was indeed not looking worried at all . Luckily before I had chance to overthink the whole thing Jana arrived and announced dinner would be a bit earlier tonight and we might even get a bit extra as it was a special solstice day ! Phew what a relief . Then Jana lit some special incense and told us to make wishes for the year ahead . We had dinner over looking the village and watched the day turn into the longest night of the year . It was very beautiful
Do you know that donkeys and horses don’t sleep as long as you do ! Although we have standing meditation naps throughout the day it’s important that we have one hour of sitting/ laying down sleep . If we have this we feel like you when you have had a good nights sleep! ![]()
Here we all are enjoying our sunbathing nap time . As you can see one of us always takes turns to stand up and that’s to protect the herd and warn us of any danger . We feel very safe in our field but you never know !
Do you know that donkeys are very curious animals ? Jana tells us we are real busybodies 😹 we notice everything . Whatever is going on around we know . In our field we have many areas where we can watch what is going on . But we think our favourite area is by the barn gate so we can see that our breakfast is arriving in time! And if it’s not we can make sure to eeeeeeyyyooorreeee very loud
We are still having beautiful weather here and there’s no better way to enjoy life than chilling out in our field during the afternoon while Jana runs around tidying up after us 😹💪
September is a lovely month to walk in slightly cooler weather when we can set off around 2pm and return around 7pm . We love to meet new people who enjoy a relaxed donkey walk . Today too many people rush and don’t get chance to appreciate the beauty around them and we cherish our walks so much with people who enjoy the nature have time to chat and admire the scenery . Of course their highlight was cuddling all of us as we walked as there’s nothing better than a donkey 🫏 or pony hugs