When this “Shelter in Place” is over, let’s get the lead out! Pack Burro Races!

I’m hoping that this shelter in place will all be over soon… and when it is over, all of us should do this! Pack Burro Races! Let’s all let off some housebound steam!

First off, everyone who can house and care for a donkey, should have a donkey, or two. They are amazing beings. Once you get your donkey(s), you may find that one or both of them lives to hang with you and do fun stuff.

This would be fun stuff.

I saw this photo on Facebook and I had to find out what it was!

How fun would this be??!!

Norma, watchout! Mamma’s gonna put you to work!

(FYI: Only the start line and finish line are on pavement… the rest is natural landscape.)

FROM A VET

PACK BURRO RACE ASSOCIATION

So, I was flipping through Facebook as I always do – looking for interesting photos – and I came upon the photo pictured above.

It stopped me in my tracks.

What were these people doing?!

I couldn’t figure out if the donkeys were runaways or if the exhausted-looking humans were trying to keep up with their athletic burros?

Obviously, by the look on the humans’ faces, this was serious business. (The donkeys, however, look like they are having a great time!)

And they’re off!

Pack Donkey Racing is very serious – for some. But, really, it is just a lotta fun and a way for people to get out and do something with their burros.

Yahoo!

I Googled ‘pack burro racing’ and found the Western Pack Burro Racing Association website which made me smile. (I also found a FB page linked here.)

A Colorado tradition. (What is the one donkey doing?)

WESTERN PACK BURRO WEBSITE

You can go to the Association site and find all the information you need as well as how to ‘outfit’ your donkey – Southern Missouri Mule Outfitter (lovingly referred to as ‘SoMoMule’) – and even a place to purchase a burro if you don’t already have one. The donkeys offered here however, are very serious contenders (wink).

I loved several aspects of this site. The best quality to me is that the site is quite informative but also doesn’t take itself too seriously.

They said it, I didn’t.

I also admired that they push rescuing a BLM burro. Nice.

And, the photos make me wanna throw Norma in the trailer and ‘haul ass’ as they call it, to Colorado!

To top it off for me, the subtle touch of adding photos of mini donks in there was genius. Really. Minis take away the last excuse not to do it.

I love that they added minis in there!

COLORADO

It all started in Colorado. (Can you believe this has been going on for 62 years and we never knew?!)

The problem is that Colorado is as far as the sport has reached. The border of Colorado. That’s it. So, if you want to do this, you either have to go there, or you have to create a satellite branch in your neighborhood. (I dare ya.)

Anyway, what tickled my fancy was that some of these photos were taken in Leadville, Colorado. Now, I know nothing about Leadville except that is the place that Debbie Reynold’s character (Molly Brown) in the ‘Unsinkable Molly Brown’ movie was headed towards when she met Howard Keel (Johnny Brown).

The real town of Leadville looks to be doing well. It hosts this fine event annually. The other Colorado towns that participate are: Fairplay, Idaho Springs, Buena Vista and Georgetown. Colorado has even created a petition to make this their State Sport. (You can sign it here.)

One of the more serious teams… the donkey looks really into it!

THE RULES

OK, so how can just about anyone participate?

If you look at the photos, just about anyone with a burro is in the lineup. I’m getting the impression that this is mostly just good times except for those few die-hards that always top the leaderboard.

Anyway, it seems like kids, grandpappys, entire families and just about any size donkey can play. There are no real restrictions but there are rules.

Here are the rules:

The Official Rules

This group looks like they are out for a Sunday stroll, eh?

DONKEY RACING 101

I know that all of you probably wonder how you can get your donkey ready for the race.

Well, after reading through the official website, I think you need to think more about readying yourself than the donkey… if you know what I mean.

Donkey Racing Edjacashin

All shapes and sizes of humans and donkeys

LAST BUT NOT LEAST, UPCOMING EVENTS!

I swear, if I lived anywhere near this, I would do it in a heartbeat!

It seems like so much fun!

IN MY OPINION

If I had more time, I’d organize one somewhere. I mean, how can you not just have a smile on your face all day when surrounded by people and their silly, mischievous, mammoth, mini, serious, confused, willing, dragging, running longears?!

I think I should just buy a ticket and sit at a coffee shop (or pub) and watch the festivities!

Totally something to write home about…

I’d be sitting at the finish line, with a small glass of something, smiling and cheering like crazy!

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A SURPRISE IN THE MAILBOX! Baby birds!

We live in a rural area and the mailboxes are all in a row at the end of the street. With the mailboxes are antiquated newspaper boxes. We don’t even have a local paper here anymore so no one uses the boxes – except, as I found out today, birds.

I didn’t think to take a photo of our actual row of mailboxes… but this is similar. The newspaper boxes are the rectangular cubes below the mailboxes.

Yup.

I drove down to the stand of mailboxes, got out of my car and walked around the newspaper box end of our row of mailboxes. Like a flash, this brown thing whizzed by my chest.

Wha?

And then I heard them… little peeps coming from one of the newspaper bins. So I looked inside and YES, there were two tiny, itty bitty, just hatched little dinosaur looking baby birds, screaming for their mother who had just flown the coop. She had constructed her nest in the back of one of these obsolete newspaper boxes.

OMG! I had to get out of there fast so Mom would come back. I quickly snapped two pics and left.

So, these are very bad photos… of a successful brood in an abandoned newspaper box.

I think the Mom was a house finch.

There was one in the nest who ducked down when I took this pic… and the other, I think, got knocked out of the upper nest when Mom flew out. He was making the most noise. I sure hope she gets him back into the proper nest. They are inside of a white, rectangular, plastic newspaper box.