Rachel Brashears is an Arizona native, third-generation equestrian, and an unabashed donkey enthusiast. From her childhood obsession with long ears (resulting in any VHS tape with a donkey to be played on repeat until it wore out or her parents hid it for the sake of their sanity) to finally owning her first donkeys in high school, Rachel's love for these gentle creatures has been a lifelong journey. Holding a degree in education from Northern Arizona University, Rachel spent over a decade teaching science and history before transitioning to government contracts for the state of Arizona. But her heart always stayed with education and, of course, donkeys. In 2019, Rachel founded Bray to fill the gap in local support and education for donkey owners, providing accessible resources and promoting compassionate care. In addition to being the president of Bray, she’s responsible for creating all the graphic content, or at least whatever graphics are not a stick donkey. Rachel is dedicated to creating a knowledgeable community that values the unique qualities of donkeys. She believes education is crucial for improving donkey welfare and works with Kelly during her free time to make information readily available. Her goal is to elevate the status of donkeys, ensuring they receive the respect and care they deserve. In addition to her work with Bray, Rachel serves as an instructor at Stallion Strides, teaching elementary students groundwork skills with horses, emphasizing character building and safety. Her extensive background in the equestrian community underscores her commitment to the equine community. Rachel’s journey with donkeys has been one of continuous learning and growth. She stays at the forefront of equine welfare by seeking out the latest research, attending clinics, and participating in lectures. Not only does she want to help the donkey community, she wants to continuously improve the lives of her own long ear (and short ear) herd. Rachel's long ear herd includes four donkeys (three BLM jennys and one miniature jenny who might just be three opossums in a donkey trench coat) and a pony mule who would rather not acknowledge the donkey half of her genetics.

Kelly Smith is from Southern Arizona, where her family has farmed for over 100 years along the Colorado River near the Mexico and California borders. Growing up on the farm, she raised 4H animals and various livestock, from goats, to calves, to a mini horse as pets, as well as being involved with the projects of friends and neighbors who kept their animals at the family’s livestock pens. While small stock was fun enough, her real love was riding horses. She began taking lessons at four years old, and competed in Hunter/jumper shows around the southwest, from New Mexico to California. She also worked for a while as a loper for local cutting and reining show barns, as time allowed. As is often the case, horses had to take a back seat to college; Kelly attended the University of Arizona, studying animal science with a minor in beef production management. The logical next step, beef production, had her packing up her heeler and her horse and heading to the Texas panhandle. During her time outside Amarillo she was the head doctor at a feed lot, charged with managing the health and wellness of just over 20,000 head of beef cattle. But Texas was not a great fit, so after trying it out for a few years, she returned to Arizona. Back at the family produce farm, Kelly is now the Food and Industrial Safety director, tasked with safety compliance of all stripes. SOPs, policies, procedures, training, testing, documentation, and compliance audits make up the bulk of her responsibilities. If you’ve enjoyed a salad in the winter in the United States, there’s a fair chance she’s had a hand in keeping it safe from pathogens. In 2018, while shopping for a mini horse for her mom’s burgeoning pony farm, Kelly encountered the sweetest mini donkey yearling in with the farm’s stud. After a little bargaining she brought him home, and began her love affair with long ears. Unfortunately, while trying to research best practices for keeping her new little buddy, she was coming up largely empty handed. There was poor information, dubious information, illogical information, conflicting information, irrelevant information, and just downright dumb “information.” She maybe didn’t have, at that point, a ton of donkey-specific knowledge, but she had information on just about every other livestock species from experience, training, or school, and it didn’t make any logical sense that donkeys existed in a reality wholly separate from not just other equids but all other domestic species. Why would you have to vaccinate every other species, but not donkeys? Why do you have to trim the hooves of every other species, but not donkeys? Why does every other species need quality hay, but not donkeys? Why are you supposed to avoid grains, but give them oats as a reward? None of it stood up to any scrutiny or logic. This would eventually lead her to agree to participate in BRAY, to help people who maybe didn’t have a background in livestock find quality, relevant information (The Donkey Sanctuary UK is great, but not terribly relevant to southern Arizona) about the care and keeping of donkeys, without the pitfalls and trial and error of listening to undereducated sources. As time went on, Hamilton, her original donkey, was joined by Coco, a sassy little jennet who brings the spice to every encounter, and eventually Beatrice, a rescued mini mule who was found abandoned in the desert. The trio makes for a perfect balance of sweet and docile, sweet and spicy, and sweet and playful; there’s a long ear for every mood! There is, as there always will be, still some trial and error in their care, training, and husbandry, but things are getting much better, knowing which information to sort through and which to discard. Thankfully, many others are also seeing this lack of readily available long ear information and studies are finally being conducted to quantify exactly the ways donkeys are different, and the same as, horses and other species. As far as BRAY is concerned, Kelly’s official duties include treasurer (against her will), long-form (long winded?) writer, and low quality stick figure cartoonist. You will find her using too many commas in her run-on sentences, and taking 35 asides to get to the point. If you see her at an event, look for Hamilton, he’s more fun to talk to.