Story Photos
 Bill Bott stands by as his donkey, Casper, perks his ears after something catches his attention. Roger Werth / The Daily News
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Donkey leaves horses behind
Friday, August 1, 2008 11:42 PM PDT
By Leila Summers
Printable version
E-mail this articleSometimes, the best horse for the job is a donkey. Just ask Bill Bott. Bott, a retired Kelso railroad worker, took second place in a recent trail-riding competition in Woodland.
His mount?
Casper, the only donkey among 40 horses to compete in the July 19 contest, held at the Zumstein family farm.
Bott has been riding donkeys since he was electrocuted on the job in the 1970s, according to his wife, Marilyn. The accident injured his neck and shoulders, and he can’t take the jostling of a horse any longer, she said.
But Casper rides as smooth as glass.
“I can ride him all day long and it doesn’t bother me,” said Bott, who owns two donkeys, two mules and two dogs on his 5-acre farm along Mount Pleasant Road.
Organizers of the July 19 Woodland competition were nonplussed when Bott asked to enter.
“When he called and asked if he could bring the donkey, they told him, ‘If you can ride it, you can enter,’ ” Marilyn recalled.
The competition featured 12 courses with natural and man-made obstacles, and horse and rider were graded on how adroitly and calmly they handled them. Casper and Bott scored 110 out of 120 points.
Bott, though, admits he didn’t think Casper would handle all the obstacles.
“I thought, ‘Oh, he’ll never do it,’” Bott said, referring to a three-foot high platform Casper had to mount. “He put his front feet up first and then he stopped. I told him to go and he put up his hind legs and we went over.”
Few people ride donkeys in the Pacific Northwest, said Bott, a member of Columbia River Longears -- a mule and donkey club in Clark County -- for more than 20 years.
It takes a patient person to deal with donkeys, he said. Earlier this week, Casper showed his stubborn side when Bott directed him into his riding ring -- the two engaged in a brief, but forceful, tug-of-war before Casper agreed to move forward.
Unlike horses, donkeys will protest a command, Bott said.
“A donkey won’t do it if they’re not comfortable with it,” Bott said. “You have to convince them it’s something they’ll want to do.”
Bott has spent years building a friendship with Casper and earning his trust.
“You have to spend time with him,” he said. “He’ll do anything for me. He does it all.”
Marilyn Bott, 62, said her husband is always so gentle with their animals. Because Casper is a favorite, he can get a little spoiled sometimes, she said.
“He gives him carrots all the time,” she said., though Bill denies that’s his secret for earning Casper’s friendship.
She agrees that spending time with the donkey is key to working with it. Bill spends countless hours in their round pen, practicing obstacles, she said.
“If I’m looking for him, I know where to find him,” she said.
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