First Team Donk Parade

September 1, 2007 was the first official debut of Team Donk in a parade . It's been a long time coming and when it finally happened the wait was certainly worth it. Longears were well represented as we were one of three draft teams, the other two were mules.

The evening prior to the parade was bath night for the boys so they would be ready for their early morning departure. It was accomplished during a wild thunder and lightening storm. The storm was a whole lot loud, wet and windy to say the least. After getting the boys tucked safely into their stalls I got the wagon washed off and moved into the garage before round two of the storm hit. The next morning the fog was so dense it was lightly sprinkling. Interesting weather for sure.

We were right on time as Jim pulled in at the rodeo grounds. I was surprised to find other hitches ready to go! Everyone wanted to meet us and talk ears. I finally had to politely excuse myself to get parade ready. Absolutely really nice people!

Jim hitched the boys while I was changing into parade duds. I came around the corner and here was the team all set to go and no one sitting in the box. This had never happened before. I hopped in and took up the lines while Jim got parade ready. The boys never moved.

We missed our line-up number first time out so had to drive one block make a loop drive back make a second loop and get into line. That was about ten o'clock and the parade was not starting until about 11:15 making it was a very long wait. To me this is or can be the most difficult part of a parade. But today it was just not a problem. Didn't matter what came by us the boys were great except when a little Morgan stud stood across the street throwing huge fits. Liberty wanted to go stand by him and let him know everything was really okay.

Parade was wonderful and the boys were perfect! This is the first parade I have been in with signs reading Mammoth Donkeys..... no one even called them mules... except the teamsters and they were just kidding! The announcer knew me and he really had fun hamming it up! Everyone seemed to love the sweet sounds of the hames bells, especially me! The boys took first place in the horse division... Following the parade I turned the lines over to Jim for his first drive with them and I snapped a few photos! Here's the boys all duded up!


GPS readings: 4.68 miles, Maximum Speed 7.9 mph, Moving average speed 3.1 mph, Time moving 1 hr and 31 minutes, Stopped time 2 hrs and 43 minutes... long long time! Harnessed from 10 AM to 1:30 PM. Temp was 83* at parade time, which isn't bad at all for that valley. This was Kamiah, Idaho's Barbecue Days Parade, this team's 11th drive and Liberty's first parade. Of course our white faced Luc is a been there done it kinda guy, Liberty has a lot of team driving experience and this is his second summer of driving. They were ready and we could not have asked for any better than the 110% that they gave us.

Jim & Kristi