The Beginning

The Beginning

Date Line: Hamilton, Montana August 2006

First Team Drive… Liberty had spent the summer in Montana with Jack and Helen Eden learning to drive, it was mid August and time to bring him home. Helen suggested we bring Dev with us when we picked Liberty up, that sounded wonderful to me. The first day we drove each of the boys as singles but at the same time. I drove Dev and had a great view of Liberty from the side. I could see how easily he drove and what great condition he was in after driving all summer. It was a wonderful morning drive.

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Later in the day we harnessed again. Super, two drives in one day suited me just fine. Instead of hooking them to the carts we added hip ropes and ground drove them as a team around the corral and to the training wagon. With Jack at the lines we were soon headed out the driveway. Helen and I sat in the back of the wagon, what a great way to hear what was going on, especially the sounds of hooves striking the pavement. Within the first half mile we could distinctly hear how they had fallen into perfect unison. Jack handed the lines to Jim and later to me. At first I had trouble keeping them close together. As I moved my hands closer they also tightened up the space between them. We’re all learning this team stuff together.

The next morning we rehitched and went for our second team drive. This time we put Dev on the right side of Liberty. He seems to like that best. Helen was our instructor and gave us excellent tidbits. The boys drove wonderful. Dev likes to go, Liberty would rather stop and smell the roses but when hitched together Dev slacked up and Liberty stepped up the pace. Dev does not like to stop and stand but when hitched to Liberty he stopped and stood without any problems. They were more relaxed as a team and were easier to drive than they are as singles. I was pleasantly surprised as how much they relied on each other.

Date line: Grangeville, Idaho September 26, 2006

We arrived at our home town arena this morning all dressed in harness. Walking to the arena each donkey walked along nothing special. We were setting up to do our first in town ground driving session when a barrel racing friend showed up with horses and kids. One horse was blowing, snorting and having a fit over the donkeys. Her son came over to ask, "What are they?" We told him and he decided he was having no part of riding in the arena with donkeys! So off they went. That was a good thing for us.

After hooking the new team lines, my home made pvc pipe separator and the butt chains we were ready to take off. At first Liberty was not keeping up with Dev and they were trying to get into sync, that took maybe five minutes and they were lined out fine. Erin had a lead rope on Liberty and that didn't last long either so we used her as a pivot point. We did some circles, lots of whoas’ and backing and even went thru the poles. It was a very good exercise for me learning to handle them as a team. It was great for the boys to get the feel for working together with lots of activity around them.

As we were leaving the arena Erin had Dev and I had Liberty... but the boys wanted to leave as a team... Yeah Team Donk, they are even thinking as a team!

It took a trip to the North Idaho Draft Show in Sandpoint, Idaho and then to Oregon before we could get our next drive in. From Oregon we returned with a Robert’s and Sons 6 passenger wagonette.

October 14, 2006

Today was the day to get ' em hitched on our own with no professional trainers! Here is what we looked like when we first started out... Dev going his speed and Liberty going his. It didn't take them long to remember going together is best. We made several loops around the parking lot before heading across the highway towards home.
The boys were ready to move into a trot which we did as soon as everything looked and felt good. For the most part they were traveling close together and straight down the road. Traffic was no problem; people were more courteous with the team
than with a single donkey... interesting!!!

Dev and Liberty played bite each others noses the last 1/3rd of the trip not sure what that was all about ... I think they got bored... Just like a couple of little kids. Mom, he bit me first... no mom he bit me first... yeah but mom he deserved it!!!

Love the wagonette... love the brakes!! They are wonderful going down steep hills. The boys seem to get along well with their new wagon. It was not too heavy or too light for them.

The five mile trip only took us about an hour and a half traveling time. GPS said we have a 3 mile per hour walk, a 9 mile per hour road gait trot and we are down to 1 mile per hour on steep hills. I thought the GPS readings were interesting.

We did it!!! With no major problems... just some minor stuff that lots of
driving can fix. Even had them backing. Whew.... I'm so in love with this donkey team thing!!!! What a rush! Goal was to arrive safely and in one piece, gee what was I worried about the boys did great. Note, after four wonderful years of guiding me thru the world of donkey this was the last play day for my friend Erin. The boys and I will miss her and wish her nothing but the best.

October 21, 2006

This was our fourth time hitched as team donk!

Took us an hour to get Liberty's new harness fitted and make one small adjustment on Dev's and resized the headstalls. It all looks and feels so much better now. I was able to make line adjustments that really made sense. Dev's line is one hole shorter because he is faster and stronger. We added one hole to Liberty’s so he has a little more room to be a slacker without pulling so hard on the bit. What a huge difference it made driving! WOW!!!! I was able to drive the wagonette much straighter down the road and the guys stayed right together. Did not use the stay chains but will put them on before the next drive to solve Dev’s leaping ahead problem which we encountered on this drive.

I was accompanied by a neighbor I have never really taken the time to get to know, and found not only was Judy a real sweetheart but she was a huge help to me. It looked like all was going to start off a little rocky as neither of the boys would back away from the fence. Dev did a sharp gee and the way the carriage is undercut it worked out fine. We did work on backing on today's drive and they backed just fine. We’ll add backing lessons away from the fence before we hitch next time because this was unacceptable.

Going down the lane turned into almost a runaway. Luc came running and bucking along the pasture fence line and I guess scared the boys... or just put them in the mood to run. Got that under control pretty quick, putting deep ruts into the gravel driveway from the wagon brakes.

Walked to warm up the muscles and then eased into a nice trot that lasted a little longer than when I have them in the cart. I did slow them down for the first little hill. Stopped and backed them down this hill. Drove past the back end of our place, round the corner and to Judy's house. That put us on the steepest downhill the guys have yet to handle. I gently used the wagonette brake and the boys went fine. It was along this stretch of road after it leveled off I decided to do some stops. Dev was not having anything to do with stopping and even with the brakes on the wagon was trying to lunge forward. I think the brake tends to scare him; when he can not move the vehicle behind him it made him try even harder to go forward. With Judy's help on the lines I was able to get him stopped each time. We had several episodes of this. He finally settled down and would wait for me to start him but he wasn't happy about it!

From there we drove into the Day Place which is very steep canyon with a creek running thru the bottom. Then a ¼ mile steep straight climb back up. Dev only stopped one time for a quick rest coming out of the canyon. In the cart with two people he will make at least three stops, so I guess having Liberty's help makes a big difference. I made him stop halfway up as Liberty needed to catch his breath. I had the break on so they didn't have to hold the wagonette on this steep hill. At the top of this hill I tried to stop for another breather and Dev threw a fit putting us into the ditch. I thought at first he was going to tip the wagonette over, but we went down into the ditch and back up without incident. It didn't seem to scare Judy, thank goodness. I made Dev take a long rest, then the boys walked all the way home good as gold.

Liberty did a great job keeping up today. He did his best to pull his share. Dev, on the other hand, was a real power house and terribly rude to Liberty. I was holding him back and doing half halts a lot of the way. He settled down on the last leg of the trip. I am hoping he is more relaxed on our next drive. This is a 5 mile loop drive, took us an hour and a half. It was about 45* bright sunshine and just a light breeze. It was a great day to get out and enjoy the fall scenery behind Team Donk in a comfortable wagonette.

November 2006 Note:

The dream is reality!!! Yeah! Weather has turned cold this is probably our last team drive of the season but it was a wonderful beginning.