# BLM burro usefulness?



## Aprilswissmiss

Just about every advertisement to adopt a BLM animal says "adopt a wild horse or burro," yet it seems no one ever really takes consideration of the burros nearly as much as the horses. I'm finding it incredibly difficult to find online accounts of people adopting burros. That doesn't come without good reason... Anything a burro can do, a horse can do better, is what I bet most people think. After all, horses tend to be taller, more compliant, more versatile, easier to train, and less noisy. 

But burros must have some sort of usefulness, even if it does take a bit more patience to train them. Given their height, they're probably not going to be much use ridden, but they can surely pack, pull a cart, pony alongside a buddy-sour horse on the trails, give more level-headed pasture companionship to a nervous horse than another horse could provide, or defend smaller livestock from predators.

The only thing I found in my online searches was this, which I got a good laugh from: Pack Burro Racing

Has anyone/would anyone ever consider taking home a burro?


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## AnitaAnne

Aprilswissmiss said:


> Just about every advertisement to adopt a BLM animal says "adopt a wild horse or burro," yet it seems no one ever really takes consideration of the burros nearly as much as the horses. I'm finding it incredibly difficult to find online accounts of people adopting burros. That doesn't come without good reason... Anything a burro can do, a horse can do better, is what I bet most people think. After all, horses tend to be taller, more compliant, more versatile, easier to train, and less noisy.
> 
> But burros must have some sort of usefulness, even if it does take a bit more patience to train them. Given their height, they're probably not going to be much use ridden, but they can surely pack, pull a cart, pony alongside a buddy-sour horse on the trails, give more level-headed pasture companionship to a nervous horse than another horse could provide, or defend smaller livestock from predators.
> 
> The only thing I found in my online searches was this, which I got a good laugh from: Pack Burro Racing
> 
> Has anyone/would anyone ever consider taking home a burro?


Loved the pack burro race!! 

Have always wanted to have one, but never enough room or time


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## AnitaAnne

@SueC has some gorgeous donkeys!!! Maybe she will post some pictures and give advice


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## Kaifyre

I would adopt a few if I had pasture space. I've always thought it would be fun to have a burro team to drive. Other than that, they'd probably just be companion animals, or maybe to pack with if I did a long hiking trip in the mountains. I wouldn't think they'd be good for like, packing packing, unless they have a super long stride and could keep up with a ridden horse? And they're definitely too big for me to ride, so that's out lol. But I think they're super cool. 

-- Kai


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## Knave

I love the idea of them. I saw a herd the other day in an unexpected place, and I was excited. I don’t know that I would ever get one though, because I also can’t quite figure the use I would have for one. We have tractors for work, although I am trying to play a bit with teaching horses that type of work. 

I guess if a person did a lot of packing they would be a wonderful choice. They are very strong and surefooted. They are smarter about things than a horse, so they are more likely to be cautious (or so I hear).


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## Spanish Rider

Not long ago, I saw a pair of burros pulling a cart on the road here in La Mancha, Spain (Don Quijote land). The cart was painted bright green and the burritos were adorned with jingle bells, pulling two men and a load of firewood. So much fun to see! I was so upset that I was driving and could not get my phone out to take a picture! 

For many years, I have thought that keeping a couple of minis would be my plan for when I get to an age/condition that I can no longer ride. Now I am seriously thinking of burritos.


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## CopperLove

I bet they would make excellent pack animals for camping and other long trips where more equipment is needed, but I guess not very many people do that anymore. I recently saw a "pack saddle" for the first time, my barn owners have one they are getting a newer horse accustomed to wearing. But even they haven't used theirs in a long time because of kids, work, etc.


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## boots

I neighbor had a blm burro he let run with his heifer cures for livestock protection. It had a great life. Thousands of acres and no searching for food.

I could use one to pack salt to pastures, but that's only a few trips a year. And i guess the grandkids could ride one, but that's often what semi-retired ranch horses do.

They'd be a luxury for me.


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## SilverMaple

A lot of places around here have a couple. Some are companions to older horses or ponies. Most of the farms that raise show cattle use a donkey to halter break calves. A couple of draft horse barns use one to halter break foals, too. The team ropers often have one to practice heeling. Used carefully, it doesn't hurt them as you don't dally when roping the donkey; just let him jog out of the loop and rebuild. Unfortunately, not everyone is kind to their donkeys, but they can be so useful for training a heel horse, if you get a good donkey, you treat him right because he can last for decades. A friend has a BLM burro in with her miniature horses as the burro keeps stray dogs away from the minis quite efficiently.

Here's an article on heeling a donkey: https://teamropingjournal.com/roping-tips/long-eared-love-the-art-of-heeling-the-heeling-donkey

And for halter-breaking: https://www.quarterhorsenews.com/2019/04/steady-strong-training-with-donkeys/


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## AndyTheCornbread

Once trained if you get a young enough one they make good pack animals. We used donkeys as pack animals in the Marine Corps. at the animal packing school up at Bridgeport. They are REALLY different than horses. If you stress them too much they will lock up and then it is pretty much game over for getting them to do anything until you get them to come down a bit and unlock which can take hours depending on how badly they got stressed or scared. They can pack a huge amount of weight relative to their size and can be really friendly if treated right. You need to keep anything smaller than them out of their pasture with a lot of them e.g. dogs, kids, calves etc. If you are going to use one to halter break something like a calf you do it in the calves pasture not the donkeys. They can be super territorial about their pasture space and some of them will try and kill anything smaller than them that comes into it, like your dog etc. They seem to be fine with colts, but other livestock and dogs especially not so much. Kind of the same deal as with mules, if you like your dogs staying alive, keep them out of the pasture.


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## carshon

Donkeys in my area are used to pasture with cow calf pairs to keep the coyotes away - but they can and will turn on a calf and once they do they are (ahem) rehomed (mostly to heaven) unfortunately although they have plenty of pasture with the cows they rarely if ever see a farrier and many are so foundered they can hardly walk.


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## 4horses

My friend tried to adopt one. Her horses were petrified and ran through the fence to escape from it. She took it back. 

There was one that was showing in West Palm Beach. He was a nice hunter over fences. Obviously he was on the larger side. 

If I was rich, i certainly wouldn't mind having one. I'm short enough i could probably ride one.


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## SueC

AnitaAnne said:


> @SueC has some gorgeous donkeys!!! Maybe she will post some pictures and give advice


You want photos? I'll give you photos. :Angel:


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## SueC

That's Mary Lou (Irish Longhair), Don Quixote (dark tall one), and Sparkle (little skewbald).


And then came Nelly and Benjamin, just over a year ago...



How that happened (click to enlarge):




























How the other lot had happened:

https://www.horseforum.com/member-j...eys-other-people-479466/page9/#post1970510903


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## SueC

More Nelly & Benjamin:











Why do we have them? ...because they are such nice people... and because they're good company for the horses, and their feet are easier to trim, so I'd rather have companion donkeys than companion horses these days. So the horse number has declined by natural mortality, while the donkey number has gone up... onkey: onkey: onkey: onkey: onkey:

PS: And the sounds they make!


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## Kaifyre

Omg @SueC your donks are totes adorbs!! I love it! 

-- Kai


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## QtrBel

I always love pictures and the stories that go with from you! An overload of fuzzy adorableness!


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## SueC

It's ridiculous, @QtrBel. They've got us wrapped around their little hooves. :dance-smiley05:

We can't look at them without smiling. They are so cute with their bunny ears, and their antics... and they are so interested in hanging out with people (and not in hope of treats, they are just interested in socialising, seeing what you do, standing right next to you, looking through your window, making conversation etc). They are bewitching our farmstay guests too. onkey:


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## AnitaAnne

Cuteness overload! Thanks @SueC my favorite is always Mary Lou!! Love the shaggy, love the name


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## AtokaGhosthorse

Kaifyre said:


> I would adopt a few if I had pasture space. I've always thought it would be fun to have a burro team to drive. Other than that, they'd probably just be companion animals, or maybe to pack with if I did a long hiking trip in the mountains. I wouldn't think they'd be good for like, packing packing, unless they have a super long stride and could keep up with a ridden horse? And they're definitely too big for me to ride, so that's out lol. But I think they're super cool.
> 
> -- Kai


IDK about the BLM burros - but a couple of years ago we were riding at Platter and did our usual stop at Rooster's Roost for snacks and to let the horses rest. Gorgeous location, right on Lake Texoma, they've put a nice picnic table and hitching posts, etc.

So, we're chillin, horses are resting, and here comes this little donkey all by himself up the trail... has on a hunter orange collar and a cowbell... Proceeds to introduce himself in the most friendly and respectful way to everyone there, even the horses... THEN four guys roll up on mules.

The donkey was Larry the Donkey, belonged to the wife of one of the guys and he said if they ever lost Larry, he would never be able to go home. Now, granted, Larry wasn't wearing a pack, one of the mules were, but that little dude was super energetic given the heat (114 that weekend!). He was ahead of his group, ranging out like a hunting hound and circling back to them... and they were on some big ol' mules. Larry was doing laps around them.

We wuvved Larry. Himbs was a cutie patooty... and all the horses were okay with him too, which is weird. Usually at least one horse in our group will pull a face at an equine they've never met before, esp. if they're being super friendly and enthusiastic. LOL


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## AnitaAnne

@SueC after cleaning 12 hooves, I cannot imagine cleaning and trimming eight? I think eight sets of 4 hooves which is 32 feet to care for!! OMG :bowwdown:


onkey:onkey:onkey:onkey:onkey:

:runninghorse2::runninghorse2::runninghorse2:


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## knightrider

My neighbor down the road got a skinny starved neglected yearling donkey a while back and trained him to drive. She says he drives better than her Hafflinger. And he does drive very well, even for novices learning to drive. She said he was harder to train than a horse, but once trained, he is lovely. His name is Doodles.


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## SueC

AtokaGhosthorse said:


> ...a couple of years ago we were riding at Platter and did our usual stop at Rooster's Roost for snacks and to let the horses rest. Gorgeous location, right on Lake Texoma, they've put a nice picnic table and hitching posts, etc.
> 
> So, we're chillin, horses are resting, and here comes this little donkey all by himself up the trail... has on a hunter orange collar and a cowbell... Proceeds to introduce himself in the most friendly and respectful way to everyone there, even the horses... THEN four guys roll up on mules.
> 
> The donkey was Larry the Donkey, belonged to the wife of one of the guys and he said if they ever lost Larry, he would never be able to go home. Now, granted, Larry wasn't wearing a pack, one of the mules were, but that little dude was super energetic given the heat (114 that weekend!). He was ahead of his group, ranging out like a hunting hound and circling back to them... and they were on some big ol' mules. Larry was doing laps around them.
> 
> We wuvved Larry. Himbs was a cutie patooty... and all the horses were okay with him too, which is weird. Usually at least one horse in our group will pull a face at an equine they've never met before, esp. if they're being super friendly and enthusiastic. LOL


This is SUCH a great story! :happydance:

And that's so typical donkey. They do stuff like that. They are so, so hilarious. 

Thank you very much for posting this, @AtokaGhosthorse, it's made my day!  onkey:


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## SueC

AnitaAnne said:


> @SueC after cleaning 12 hooves, I cannot imagine cleaning and trimming eight? I think eight sets of 4 hooves which is 32 feet to care for!! OMG :bowwdown:
> 
> 
> onkey:onkey:onkey:onkey:onkey:
> 
> :runninghorse2::runninghorse2::runninghorse2:


Well, @AnitaAnne, our donkeys' hoovesies seem like such little cutesy toy things after dealing with the large hooves of the horses. There's far less material you have to trim, and what's even better, I can work on my knees for their front hooves, which saves my back and is a much more comfortable position.

It's sort of like the difference between doing a manicure on Hagrid, versus doing a manicure on little pixies. 

Doing Ben and Nelly is far less work than doing one horse, and that's despite of the fact that I've been doing corrective work on Nelly, who came to us with completely collapsed heels - she had no heels at all, was flat from the hairline at the back to the toe - and now she has an inch of heel growing back in already as her hoof is slowly being reshaped to correct angles! And Ben had the most broken hoof walls I'd ever seen, and between regular trims and vitamin/mineral supplements that's coming good. 

But because there's eight all up, I stagger them so they're not all due at once. Trimming donkeys is funny though. You put a halter on a donkey and tie it to your rail and start trimming, and suddenly you're surrounded by donkeys up close - they stand far closer to each other than horses; they like to actually touch! So suddenly one donkey will be sniffing my face, or my hands to see what I'm doing, and another donkey will appear to be lending moral support to the donkey being trimmed, and another donkey may get naughty and start pulling on the rope of the donkey that's tied to the rail, and you have to go, "Oi!!!" And another will be sniffing your tool box, and the whole lot will all be standing in a tight cluster so that you have to move donkeys when you get to the next hoof! :rofl: onkey:

Also when I'm trimming a horse, if a donkey is around it will become very interested in what's going on. We actually have some photos of that:





You sort of keep bumping into donkey...


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## SueC

@knightrider, what a gorgeous donkey! :loveshower:

And that looks like such a fabulous group outing!


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## AtokaGhosthorse

SueC said:


> This is SUCH a great story! :happydance:
> 
> And that's so typical donkey. They do stuff like that. They are so, so hilarious.
> 
> Thank you very much for posting this, @AtokaGhosthorse, it's made my day!  onkey:


You're welcome. We greatly enjoyed meeting Larry the Donkey. I don't remember the names of the guys on the mules, but Larry I will never forget. He bounced right up in the middle of us like HEY GUYS! I'm here! Acted like he's never met a stranger... reminded me of clinic cats at vet clinics... y'know, the cats that live at the clinic and have to say hi to everyone and don't act like cats at all?

That was Larry. And they always take Larry with them when they ride, and he always rides loose with them... just ranges out ahead, scouting and coming back. LOL LOVED it. Made me want my own Larry.


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## SueC

Yeah, donkeys just love to come along. They will often do this when we're going for a walk on our place. Here's a clip we took on one of those occasions, when we were walking the dog and they decided to come along - the footage is from the back of our place. They will also often come along when I'm riding, although the three in the clip below aren't particularly fast and will tend to drop off after a while!






At the end of the clip, they're going, "You coming or what???"


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## AtokaGhosthorse

@SueC.... was that a doggo or a random chupacabra that runs past? LOL

OH! There's some folks either in OETRA (Oklahoma equestrian trail riders) or the post regular on the HTCAA (Horse trails & Camping Across America) group that ride with a loose burro named... Burrito. Burrito also has a collar and a cow bell. CUTEST fella!

They take him all over the place with them.


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## SueC

@AtokaGhosthorse, it was a doggo. She's a bit like that, as you can see for yourself below.

This is her typical behaviour at the beach - she's the smaller dog in this clip. This was the year we got her (from the farm dog rescue, just under a year old).






This is at an inland lake.






This is eating a bone upside down.






And this is one of her favourite games.






When she's with animals, she likes to round them up. She does this more than necessary, but is still a useful stock dog.



As well as a great riding companion, even though she likes to bark at us to make us run faster. :rofl:

_**Apologies for the temporary interruption to the donkey programme**_ mg:


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## AtokaGhosthorse

@SueC Wow, she is just lovely! The lake too! The only time I've seen surf on a lake, surf that mimicked ocean surf, was at Yellowstone Lake a couple of years ago. It was so miserably windy and bitter cold that day, but there were 3ft rollers coming in and I had to get out and stand there and listen. 

So what kinda dog is she? She reminds me of a kelpie/border collie mix. If she's a kelpie, I especially like the video of her frolicking in the surf.

Not gonna lie though - that first video with the donks I was like WHOA. WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT!? It's Australia! Could be anything! *backs the vid up* Oohhhhh CUTE dog!


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## SueC

:rofl: I really don't know what ideas some of you have about Australia, but I often get asked about spiders, so I posted this recently: https://www.horseforum.com/other-pets/freddy-huntsman-his-relatives-812615/

And that's where all of you can stick good spider stories too, because I am sure you have them! 

Yes, @AtokaGhosthorse, she's a working line kelpie, with a little dash of BC in her. It's not certain whether she just threw back the colour or it was a recent BC, because kelpies were developed from BCs and other sheepdogs, and the dingo. So sometimes, you do get this colour in a kelpie, although most are black and tan.

Returning somewhat to the donkey programme, I have a little clip of a day when I let all the horses and donkeys into the garden together to do some mowing. I have to supervise that kind of thing because Ben will otherwise eat my avocado tree, Sparkle my daisies, and all the donkeys seem to like lavender and rosemary, so I have to make sure they don't get overzealous with those.

The hedge Sunsmart is eating is tagasaste (tree lucerne), which we grow as animal fodder, shelter and a green firebreak (it's very lush), plus it flowers mid-winter when the bees would normally be digging into their honey reserves - that way they can get an early start to building up their populations for the summer. So yes, it's OK for him to be chewing away at it. 






But as you can see, horses and donkeys buddy up nicely and share space well together.


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## tcb1

Aprilswissmiss said:


> Just about every advertisement to adopt a BLM animal says "adopt a wild horse or burro," yet it seems no one ever really takes consideration of the burros nearly as much as the horses. I'm finding it incredibly difficult to find online accounts of people adopting burros. That doesn't come without good reason... Anything a burro can do, a horse can do better, is what I bet most people think. After all, horses tend to be taller, more compliant, more versatile, easier to train, and less noisy.
> 
> But burros must have some sort of usefulness, even if it does take a bit more patience to train them. Given their height, they're probably not going to be much use ridden, but they can surely pack, pull a cart, pony alongside a buddy-sour horse on the trails, give more level-headed pasture companionship to a nervous horse than another horse could provide, or defend smaller livestock from predators.
> 
> The only thing I found in my online searches was this, which I got a good laugh from: Pack Burro Racing
> 
> Has anyone/would anyone ever consider taking home a burro?


Have adopted two in the past,great to have in the pasture,planing to adopt two more this spring


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## Krico

Facebook has some very useful groups that deal with donkeys. Training donkeys for all sorts of jobs seems to be a big hobby and you will get lots of advice.
Just make a search.


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## 281187

SueC said:


> Yes, @AtokaGhosthorse, she's a working line kelpie, with a little dash of BC in her. It's not certain whether she just threw back the colour or it was a recent BC, because kelpies were developed from BCs and other sheepdogs, and the dingo. So sometimes, you do get this colour in a kelpie, although most are black and tan.


Kelpies have actually recently been proven to *not* have Dingo DNA in their background. 

https://www.sheepcentral.com/study-finds-no-evidence-of-dingo-genes-in-the-kelpie-video/

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-06-28/kelpie-study-finds-no-detectable-dingo-dna/11250106


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