One man, two donkeys

Lockdown brings solitary walk to home base

Story: Sharon Harrison  Photo: Noble Beast Farms

The occurrence of events during a year of restrictions, lockdowns and stay-at-home orders has been a challenging one in a pandemic. In order to comply with public health guidelines, gatherings have been severely restricted, even when they occur outdoors. The Walking with Thunder series of monthly meditative walks with Thunder the donkey, an initiative designed to explore different sections of the Millennium Trail, specific to the western portion of Prince Edward County, was the idea of artist and storyteller Conrad Beaubien. It was an initiative that has taken place over the months of winter and was made possible in collaboration with Toronto-based DeRAIL, a platform for contemporary art and architecture, where their objective was about animating the landscape.

Having adapted and pivoted and adjusted and juggled to accommodate ever-changing circumstances, most of the previous half a dozen walks went ahead without issue, where numbers were kept intentionally low and people kept safe. On the eve of the proposed chapter six of Walking with Thunder, further provincial guidelines came into effect: already restricted to five persons outdoors, that number was reduced to zero. Walk number six, Lockdown with Thunder, planned for a section of the Millennium Trail as yet undiscovered to a donkey named Thunder had to be shelved. It was to havei ncluded a small group destined for the Hillier wetlands, together with a couple of special guests. One of the key messages Beaubien has drawn attention to over the past six months has been the importance of mental health, especially during a pandemic, something that further impacted those who rely on and enjoy the monthly donkey walks.

Undeterred, and knowing his audience and his following would be looking forward to the next installment of the adventures with Thunder, the walk, albeit with just Beaubien and his donkey friend, was able to take place thanks to the generosity of the owners of Noble Beast Farms, Thunder’s home. While media were not welcome to experience and record the solitary walk as has been the case since last October, the morning was captured in photos and video by Noble Beast Farms, where once again Beaubien got to tell the story of Walking with Thunder on a beautiful spring morning where flexibility was the order of the day.

“The suddenness of just going to the farm and just basically doing a solo walk involved both donkeys,” explains Beaubien, who timed the visit to coincide with the animals’ eight o’clock feed. “It was a whole different vibe altogether and totally enjoyable, but it was a direct overnight response where Paul from the farm invited me to go there.” The idea was Paul would cover the photographs to be shared, so continuity could be maintained for readers. “We felt that the feedback we are getting is extremely positive and it’s both a distraction and a note of optimism. The focus is always on our relationship with nature, especially as expressed through the connection to the animals through the land and their dependency on the land for survival, so those are the critical things.”

While the idea for this adapted walk was to be just a casual affair with Thunder along the trail, plans changed as his brother Joe insisted he wasn’t going to be left behind. “Trying to get out of the gate with Thunder, Joe had just worked his way around and wanted out, and even Micah the horse was there,” explains Beaubien, who said despite the distraction of some hay, he could still not get Thunder out of the paddock alone. “It wasn’t going to happen.” He says while he has walked the two donkeys together before, “it was that sort of signal that things had happened very quickly and so now I was going to get a double dose of calmness, they were both going to come.” According to Beaubien, Thunder and Joe walk well together, almost taking turns leading. “Often, I get sandwiched between the two of them, not hard, but I can rest my hands on each one of them and I talk about being sandwiched between the thoughts of two donkeys.” Beaubien talks about two-legged and fourlegged friends and how they are one, walking left, right, left, right; he speaks to the art of listening, of the rhythm of poetry, and animal spirit. “As both a poet and a percussionist, I began to enjoy the rhythm of the two-legged person and the four-legged person and that combination, and it was playful and it was fun.”

Beaubien is looking forward to chapter seven, the final walk in the Walking with the Thunder series under the DeRAIL banner, which is currently in the planning stages for May. It will likely end where the project first launched just outside Consecon. “It’s been a huge learning curve and set a very good foundation and it has allowed us to put in a Walking with Thunder website where we are now engaging the wider population and donkey stories, especially rescue donkey stories coming from different places in the world and so it’s a universal topic in that way.” Beyond May, Beaubien says there are some very interesting plans afoot to begin a new series of walks in June that will expand the landscapes and the horizons and experiences. As he refers to the seven steps of learning from seven very different walks, he says, “It’s all about our relationship with the land and how we see it and how we view it. On a personal level, it has certainly helped me navigate through these times and the benefits I’ve received.” The Walking with Thunder journey is documented at walkingwiththunder.com. DeRAIL can be found at derailart.com.