Donkey Assisted Activities

Donkey Assisted Activities (DAA) is the umbrella term used for the programmes run from our Sidmouth sanctuary. 

Donkey Assisted Activities are ground based activities that support the wellbeing and life skills of donkeys and humans, helping them to better deal with challenging and stressful situations in everyday life.

Our DAA programmes have given us the means to offer our services to a vast client base while honouring the freedom of choice for the donkeys. We are all unique, and we encourage one another to celebrate our differences, and foster a community free of intolerance and discrimination, creating safe spaces for pause and reflection.

Donkey Assisted Activities can teach us how to read the language that donkeys use to communicate. It can teach us that our own behaviour affects others and how we can best adapt ourselves to situations to make others feel comfortable. Being able to read and respond to the body language of an animal builds skills in empathy, self-awareness, and communication.

Our work

All our Donkey Assisted Activities are ground-based and animal-led. Our trained staff facilitate sessions where donkeys and clients work together as equals, where they can both benefit from life skills.

All our sessions are informed by human-development and animal welfare research, and we continue to monitor the impact of our programmes on both donkeys and humans. By using surveys, accredited coaching models and behaviour assessments, we are confident that our work leads the way in research-supported approaches in the world of equine assisted activities

Our sessions recognise that there is both vulnerability and strength in all of us, given the circumstance or environment. We believe that time spent amongst donkeys and nature can provide everyone with developmental opportunities and wellbeing benefits.