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!
The past two weekends we have had some lovely big walks up to our favourite place high in the hills . There are two routes to get there and yesterday we walked the second route by a place called purkin kuk . There are great views there but it’s a bit hard for us all the fit in the top as the tourist board have added many benches up there ( actually a rather excessive amount ! ) so we didn’t stay long and carried on walking . The path we use which is actually a marked walking path was very difficult to pass ! Many trees had fallen down and we could not pass 🙀. Jana and Cindy had to climb and try to clear the way . It wasn’t easy. After some time a bit if a route was cleared but it was still difficult . But we had a great idea! We asked zena pony to go first and as she is larger she pushed away sone branches ! I went second to show the rest of the girls that it was safe . Teamwork !!!
This is not the first time we have had to clear this path and if anyone from the hvar tourist board is reading this , our message to you is ….. Don’t just think about the shiny new benches … what about the rest of the route ! finish the job properly , check the routes frequently if you want to encourage people to walk ! Or we can do it and you can pay us in carrots 🥕!
We have a new member of our family… he is called Bello 😻 . Our dear Scarlet is very happy and we are all helping him settle in . Matilda and me did chase him a bit 🙀but we were just checking that he can run fast .
Jana says Bello is very handsome but she quickly added but no one is as handsome as you Pano .
Big thank you to Nikola and his father who donated Bello and escorted him in the car from vrboska! ❤️
We have a very romantic video on our Instagram page ( yoga.donkeys.cats.and.more )
Can anyone on the island help our lovely chicken family member Scarlett find a special new friend for valentines? Sadly Scarlets dear Gino went to rooster heaven some days ago and her best friend Brigitte left us also a few months ago 😢
Scarlet is very brave and getting on with things but we know it would make her happy to have a feathered friend.. could be a Rooster , a hen that no longer lays eggs or a youngster. We have a lovely space here and our chickens have all the freedom they want (as well as the company of us lovely donkeys ! )
Please contact us if you can help Scarlet find a new friend for valentine’s ❤️❤️❤️
We are having a lot of rain at the moment. We tried to go out for a walk yesterday but as we were about to leave there was a rumble of thunder and zena and me looked at Jana and said noooooooooo way !
Some of you who have followed my page for a long time will know I am a very good predictor of the weather and I am wondering why some weather channel hasn’t made me an offer I can’t refuse! Today though I would like to give a shout out to all the people who work with horses, donkeys and other large animals . As you can see Jana in one day of rain has to change her clothes at least twice . However waterproof waterproofs are , the water still gets through and the key is to alternate boots and coats each trip. Good boots and coats are essential! As is a love of mud 😹😹😹😹
Do you know that our hay has to come from the mainland ? The guys who bring our hay have a very quick turnaround so as soon as they arrive they have to empty the truck as fast as they can to get back on the ferry! It’s quite chaotic as the big truck has to get up our small road and then the big rolls are pushed off ( they are very heavy ! ) and then the bales . It was a long job , 10 rolls and 200 bales of hay 💪. I know you can see in the photos that the girls were working very hard and I would have helped but I had to eat all the hay that came loose from the bales so without me the place would have been a real mess !
We have been very busy these past weeks especially now as the days are so short so Jana has to get all her jobs done and find time to take us out . But as you can see by these lovely photos it’s always worth finding the time to go out walking. It keeps us all very fit and we enjoy all these beautiful views!
Make sure you always find time to take an uplifting nature walk ! ❤️😻🍊☀️💪🌧️
I would like to say it it took a lot of training to get us all standing in this very straight line …. But Jana just happened to be olive picking in the field above us and Cindy was coming up with lunch from the field below so as we are all very curious donkeys we went to check out what was going on and for once Jana had the camera poised and ready !
That’s me Pano the tall manly one on your right then Lily -rose , Lula , Paca, Juliette and Matilda on the end .
This is a very hard post for us to write and it has taken us sometime to have the strength to write it. Two months ago our dear Romeo left us to go to donkey heaven. We still cannot believe he is not with us . It was very unexpected and think it was colic.
Romeo was such a special, sensitive and gentle boy. We were not sure of his exact age but he was young, perhaps only 6 years old. As heartbroken as we are we want to always remember how much happiness , love and joy he brought us and we are honoured to have been in his life . Run free beautiful Romeo you are in our hearts forever❤️
One if our favourite walks is to go up to a beautiful spot called purkin kuk . It has a lovely view and to get there we walk up an uphill narrow path that keeps us all fit . From there we can go on to peaceful fields and paths , have some nice food and a good run around. I have been going there since I was a baby with Jana and now I’m 9 so that’s a long time! We have to say we rarely meet anyone there . It’s just us donkeys , zena pony and Jana and of course the lovely people who want to come for a walk with us
Recently the tourist board have spent we believe a few thousand euro putting about 8 benches up there plus the viewfinder which so far Jana can’t see anything out of . The benches kind of spoil the clear view and is it necessary to have so many ? There’s so many flat rocks up there that they made suitable sitting spots before . We are just hoping they don’t end up in the same condition as the information board which has been destroyed by wind, rain and sun that after just a few years became impossible to read !
Lily suggested to Jana that the tourist board could have donated the money to us as we take so many people up there and we could have used the money for our hay delivery , new roof for our barn and sone fences as well as hoof and teeth care !
Today we celebrated Pacas 4th birthday ! Did you know that Paca was given her name because when she was a baby she was so very fluffy like an Alpaca! She is so very sweet and cuddly and is Juliettes first daughter . When Juliette was due to give birth to Matilda she didn’t have time for Paca and Lily-rose became like a mum to her so now it’s like Paca has two mums ! Paca is really good with all our visitors and this summer she finally got her summer coat after never shedding during the summer like the rest of us . Phew Paca! you must be relieved to feel a bit cooler ! Jana had a big job combing you every year ! Do you know that Jana often calls Paca her little Cleopatra . Paca Cleopatra we all love you so much ❤️❤️❤️
A few days ago we were all rather worried about Romeo who didn’t want to eat . Jana tried a few different kinds of hay but he just sniffed it although he did manage a carrot 🥕. Romeo out of all of us is the most sensitive donkey and I don’t like to tell tales but he had been stuffing himself under the carob trees during our walks recently and is often the last one out when Jana tells us it’s enough . Even Zena pony is out before him !!
Anyway a donkey not eating is a bad sign so Jana contacted our friends and donkey guru Judy in Cyprus who immediately told us what to do ! Our friends Janet and Cindy rushed to the shops to buy bran and Epsom salts and a special mix was made with honey and water added. It was however so tasty that we all ate it before Romeo had chance so Jana had to do it all again 🙀😹
After that Romeo went for a little walk in the lane by our field so he could look for any kind of special herbs and grasses that he knew would make him feel better and also not to go too far from us otherwise he would get anxious to be away from his donkey pals
We are so pleased Romeo is feeling better now and hope he remembers not to stay too long by the carob tree again !
my Pano ❤️ the only man who ever listens to me 😹😹😹 what a good boy ! ❤️ #animalcommunication # donkeysofinstagram #intelligentanimals #animaltraining #libertywalk #hvarisland #loveanimals
This weekend we celebrated my 9th birthday ! Jana took this beautiful photo of me looking over my donkey ( and pony ) family with this wonderful view over the island towards Brac island . We had such a peaceful walk, we smelt all the freshly cut lavender and had carrot treats .
Jana told me what a very special boy I am and how proud she is of me ❤️ . Do you know that she has known me since I was a few days old ! We just knew we were meant to be together!
‘ you have changed my life for the better Pano ‘ she told me ‘and because of you I have discovered how amazing donkeys are and that we have found all these beautiful places to walk together, I am so lucky ! ‘
What a great birthday 🎉 I had ❤️❤️❤️
As you all know when it comes to the summer season we all wear our fly masks to keep the flies from our eyes. lily and Juliette have pink ,Paca blue ,lula and Matilda have red and green tassel ones . Zena has one that even covers her nose as she has to have sun protection and Romeo doesn’t usually wear one probably because he is traumatised from me pulling it off all the time 🙀
I though have quite a lot. As you can see currently 3 ! I would like to say it’s because I’m a fashionista!! Cool 😎 dude Pano … but the truth is I break them on a regular basis . Don’t ask me how 😹 Jana is always having to sew them and because she says she’s very busy ( I don’t know what she does all day) she often has a pile of one or two of my masks on her ‘things to do pile ‘ . I won’t repeat what she says every time I break my mask but it goes something like this 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤪😹😹😹😹
Kittens looking for homes !
It’s that time if the year and even though we do have a good sterilisation programme on the island it’s not possible to catch all the cats . These cats have been cared for by a German family for the past few months but now the family are returning to Germany in a few weeks . They will take some the cats with them but they cannot take them all . There are some kittens 3 weeks old and some 12 weeks old all healthy and beautiful .
If you are in Europe it may be possible to arrange transportation because we have many tourists who drive here or could be a flight escort. Paperwork to travel can be arranged here
Everyone needs a cat 🐱😻 in their life !
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We had the most beautiful walk with some new friends from Germany . It was Silvias birthday and her husband and his friend had arranged for a surprise walk with us up in the hills as Silvia loves donkeys . As you can see even a bottle of Prosecco was brought up the hill! I think lily- rose and Juliette fancied a glass ! We saw all the lavender too . It was a great day ❤️
This weekend we celebrated Zena pony’s 6th birthday! We began on Friday with a very big walk and we didn’t arrive home until 9pm which was lovely as it’s so hot in the daytime now . On Saturday which was zenas actual birthday we stayed home and relaxed and had our birthday music playlist which is a bit of a tradition for all our birthdays . From April we begin our birthdays .. lily and Matilda have April birthdays , we have given Romeo a may birthday as we don’t know when he was born , Zena has June , I have July ( don’t forget everyone! ) Paca is august and early September we are going to give Juliette a birthday as we don’t know when she was born either and we will finish with Lula who was born the end of September .
Thank you to all our lovely visitors the past month . We love to meet new people and it makes us so happy that people are actively seeking to visit animals that are not tied up and living a nice life with exercise , stimulation and socialisation.
Thank you for all the donations which help us to buy hay and of course all the 🥕 🍏❤️
This is a very well put together animation about something that is really happening today . Please watch and share