# Driving questions!



## Emily's mom (Jun 21, 2008)

I know I read sometime back that one of us (not me) has her donkeys trained to drive.

Two weeks ago I took a driving clinic, I borrowed a friends mini horse who is already trained.

What fun






Now that Max will be 3 years old tomorrow



I can start to get underway with his training.

I have access to books and dvds, so my question is do you have a special made harness for a donkey? Or a large mini horse harness.

And are the shafts on a mini horse cart the proper size for a donkey?

Any advice would be great!!!

Thanks


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## JourneysEnd (Jun 21, 2008)

I'm not an expert with donkey driving. I'm sure one of the donkey people will answer you.

I know with the donkey I did train to drive, the mini easy entry cart worked fine but the harness was another question.

Now my donkey didn't have the best of conformation, but I think there may be harness made just for a donkey.

So I'm bumping you up in the hopes somebody who knows what they're talking about will answer.


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## CheyAut (Jun 22, 2008)

Driving is SO MUCH FUN!!!





I don't THINK there are special harnesses for donkeys? But I don't know... my donkey boy is currently at the trainer's learning to drive though, can't wait to try him out!





Jessi


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## Krazee bout Kasspur (Jun 22, 2008)

Welcome to the world of driving Emily's Mom....and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to MAX





My pony and I just got back from a fantastic driving clinic this weekend. There will always be modification and tweaking involved with carts and harnesses. The few tidbits we just learned have made a HUGE difference in our communication and the way our cart travels.

Get ready to have a ton of fun driving your mini-donk



.

Oh, and when you find a mini-donk harness, please let me know so I can get one too



!

Lori


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## JourneysEnd (Jun 22, 2008)

I was just looking for a new breeching and saw MiniExpress.com has a donkey harness.


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## CheyAut (Jun 23, 2008)

JourneysEnd said:


> I was just looking for a new breeching and saw MiniExpress.com has a donkey harness.


Interesting!!! What's different about a donk harness vs horse? I'll try to check out the site tomarrow to see if I can figure it out (too tired right now, need to go to bed!)

Jessi


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## Krazee bout Kasspur (Jun 23, 2008)

Hey, what a great site! I wish they had a pic of the donkey harness...then we could all see.

Lori


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## JourneysEnd (Jun 23, 2008)

CheyAut said:


> JourneysEnd said:
> 
> 
> > I was just looking for a new breeching and saw MiniExpress.com has a donkey harness.
> ...


There's probably not much difference in a donkey with good conformation. Mine, however, had a very narrow back and I had trouble fitting the back saddle.


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## uglydog (Sep 13, 2008)

Hello, I am new to the whole Mini world, but want to drive my Mini and that was my intentions when getting BOB.

Last weekend I was at the ADMS Donkey & Mule sho wnad tryed to get lots of info for my mini driving future plans. I was introduced to the lady from Central Harnees shop near Austin, Texas.

She custom makes harness to fit animals. I printed out the the measurement diagram off her website and will soon order my Beta Harness, that I can also show in. I can do all by mail.

Here is a link to the website http://www.centralharness.com/beta.html


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## Celtic Hill Farm (Sep 13, 2008)

YAY!!! I'm training my small standards to drive!!! ok, well basically you can get a regular harness and alter it to so what you want. I called Orzark mini tack and they said my donks would fit into a pony size harness... So... i'm ordering one off of ebay for cheep so i can costomize it!

Pretty much you have to fittle around with a reuglar to fit the donkeys! but it's not that big of a deal! if you want any help with training i'm here to help!


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## Emily's mom (Sep 16, 2008)

We ended up getting a cart and harness package from Greenhawk, the harness was nylon, and it did not fit.....so we plan to just fit it together with odds and ends till we can get a better one, I'm sure it'll do for play.


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## Celtic Hill Farm (Sep 19, 2008)

My Donkey 4-H leader uses the Nylon harnesses and just adjusts them to the donkeys. Good luck with training.


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## Little Acres Farm (Sep 24, 2008)

I'm also pretty new to this world of training my donks to drive, but I ordered my harness from chimacumtack and they send it so you have 3 different sizes around the middle so it can fit any size donkey. I can't remember the website exactly but it must have been something like chimacumtack.com . Good luck!


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## Celtic Hill Farm (Sep 24, 2008)

Prices Are Veary Reasonable, i like the Pleasure Team, i think i might look into geting it for my donks!


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## JourneysEnd (Sep 24, 2008)

Little Acres Farm said:


> I'm also pretty new to this world of training my donks to drive, but I ordered my harness from chimacumtack and they send it so you have 3 different sizes around the middle so it can fit any size donkey. I can't remember the website exactly but it must have been something like chimacumtack.com . Good luck!


Chimacum is http://www.horsedriver.com/ and they are fantastic people to work with.


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