A wonderful Camino de los Burros 2024!

What a wonderful day! Our first ever Camino de los Burros was a success and everyone had a great time, we all want to do it again next year. Thanks to a much appreciated story in Saturday's Santa Fe New Mexican, a big crowd of folks turned out to see the donkeys. I will let the photos speak for themselves, but as far as I was concerned, the whole thing was a massive "pinch me" moment, walking through the historic streets of Santa Fe with Lena, my burro. I decided to only bring one donkey so I could focus my whole attention on her. Since Larado didn't like his costume much, I chose Lena to accompany me in our 1800s attire :) She did AMAZINGLY well! I am so grateful to her and proud of her. The burros were a huge hit with the crowds, who, to our surprise, mobbed us and followed us along the route. The only downside was that I had overestimated how long it would take us and so the parade was over within an hour. Anyone showing up at nine or ten (we started at eight am) missed the donkeys. For that I aplologize to anyone who came to support us but were disappointed. :( If we successfully do this event again next year, we will know better. The above photo, (supplied by Nove C. Roll-Canning) sums up the spirit of the event perfectly. Past meets present. Burro Luna making friends with the statue honoring burros at the south end of Burro Alley. When our precession reached the alley, we laid a wreath there to commemorate all of Santa Fe's hard working burros that served the city over its long, 400 year history.

This photo of Lena and me in front of the Saint Francis Cathedral (taken by my friend Cathy,) is one of the highlights of my day. The sound of the cathedral bells that rang out periodically throughout the Camino were really lovely. But walking through Burro Alley, standing outside the Palace of the Governors and next to the "End of the Trail," Santa Fe Trail marker on the plaza were pretty special moments too :) Below are pics of the participants of the 2024 event.

Eric and Laura Roybal and her daughter Caroline. Their two donkeys are called Rosita and Carmelita. Eric has been a HUGE help in organizing this event and was a wonderful supervisor for the parade as it walked through Santa Fe. Love the hat!

Leanne DeVane and her donkey Luna.

Joyce Davis and her burro Carlotta.

Annarie and Sweet Patootie.

Suzanne Brannen and Kim Faye with Bud and Daisy Mae.

Cindy Roper and Julie Bartel who were invaluable as "pooper-scoopers!"

Above. Me and Lena at the "End of the Trail" marker on the plaza, and Cathy, Lena and I outside the Palace of the Governors.

Above. This was us trying to set up a photo to match an 1800 pic taken at Burro Alley. We didn't have much luck matching it perfectly as the south end of the alley was crowded with onlookers, but it was fun trying. In the second pic, you can see the wreath we placed at the statue of a burro that honors all of the hard working burros that were tethered in the alley over its history.

B7ndGDX_ixgl6WDtqcHo952_WX5a789_HEJDAw395Wx36968Gb4-al8TjkPCIML8fq5r3fydaS5ToP7Icu7aaB348-5kNb8FAXed5UMGN-xU3AG9CXAmCQVd4nD4/s320/441409620_976446107814565_9085526082102579409_n.jpg"/>

Camino de los Burros, 2024

We are excited to announce the first ever "Camino de los Burros" donkey walk through the heart of Santa Fe! This event is to honor all of Santa Fe's hard working donkeys through the history of the city. We will be dressed in 1800s costumes in an effort to re-enact some of those wonderful old photos of old Santa Fe with heavily laden donkeys on every street. Burros were asked to carry enormous loads. Many of them were loaded with so much firewood that only their ears, tails and legs could be seen. I have also seen pictures of donkeys carrying furniture, boxes, baskets of produce and a whole family of children on their backs. Donkeys can carry three times their body weight, and that fact was definately taken advantage of, not only in New Mexico, but throughout every one of earth's continents. May 8th is World Donkey Day, and we want to honor Santa Fe's donkeys ("burro" is the Spanish word for donkey) by hosting a procession through Santa Fe's downtown, hitting many of the city's historic landmarks, including "Burro Alley" where many donkeys were tethered in the 1800s. The alley used to be host to gambling dens and brothels and has a storied history. For more posts and information about all of the sites we will visit, please check out our facebook page. Below is the map our procession will be taking.

There are many old photos of burros in Santa Fe during the 1800s. Below are two taken at Burro Alley.

These other photos were taken at various other locations around the city, including the plaza, the Palace of the Governors, San Francisco Street, Palace Avenue and the Saint Francis Cathedral.

Turquoise Trail Burro Race 2024!

Lena, Larado and I entered our second Turquoise Trail Burro Race in Cerrillos this past May. This time Suzanne was my back-up donkey handler. Again, we had the best time and sauntered along the 3 mile route in our period costumes! Again, the "Railhouse" hosted us so I could bring the donkeys down the night before. Huge crowds flocked to the village and my donkeys did great with all the chaos and traffic and the cheering of the crowd. After a year living in the solitude and peace of our isolated ranch, it must have been quite a shock to them, but they handled it all very well. Donkeys are stoic though, and tend to internalize things, but I think they were able to cope with all of the stress as long as I was there to reassure them and kept my cool. When I first got my donks, I asked their trainers, Jacque and Micha Ashburner, what was the best way to work with donkeys. They told me to keep things fun and make good friends with them. They said that once a donkey considers you "their person," they will do just about anything for you. I had spent the whole of last year working on that concept, making work seem like play and really bonding with the donks. You really can't bully a donkey or force it. You can't be impatient or or even have a fixed plan. If you lose your cool or try to force things, it isn't going to help. A donkey will just plant its feet and refuse to move! Waving your arms or threatening won't make the slightest difference, except to perhaps put a gleam of satisfaction into your donkey's eye :) Anyway, my 2 BLM donkeys were wonderful and I am so proud of them :)

The top photo is of Lena, me, Suzanne and Larado in Cerrillos for the burro race. The bottom pic is of Larado, me and my friend Cathy, who owns the Railhouse.

This pic gives you some idea of the crowds. Photo taken from the back of the starting line. To see a video of what the start of the race looks like from the "front end," check out this video: The start of the 2024 Turquoise Trail Burro Race.

Burro racing got its start in Colorado, to celebrate its mining history. The races commemorate the prospector, with his burro, racing back to the nearest town to stake his claim, often in competitipn with other prospectors vying for the same spot. This is an old photo of a prospector with his donkey loaded with mining gear. A pick, a shovel and a dish for panning for gold.

The Turquoise Trail Burro Race is hosted by the New Mexico Pack Burros. For more info on the races and pack burro racing, go to this: NM Pack Burros link

Kill-pen donkeys

One of the horrors of this world is that so many horses and donkeys end up, by no fault of their own, in livestock pens, sometimes called kill-pens if the final destination of unwanted horses is to be shipped to Mexico or Canada for slaughter. Either owners just drop the poor creatures directly at the kill-pens or at auctions where "kill buyers" bid on them, just so they can make a few bucks on an unwanted horse or donkey. Many of these animals are sick, or old or injured. Others are just "surplus," mostly due to over-breeding by people too broke, macho or lazy to geld their stallions, or in the case of donkeys, "Jacks." The whole thing makes me very angry. It is a hellish and cruel fate for those poor animals that find themselves in these "kill-pens" or on crowded trailers being shipped to barbaric slaughter houses in Mexico. Earlier this year (2024,) I found myself thinking about adding one more donkey to my herd. That way, if I could only manage to take one donkey on a burro adventure, the other one would not be left alone. I did not want to just buy a donkey, preferring to somehow rescue one in some way, so I steeled myself to look at a kill-pen site on facebook. To cut a long winded story short, I ended up bidding (rescuers call it bailing) on 2 donkeys. A little, black, 2-year-old female (jenny) and a four-year-old, pinto Jack. For a fee, the kill-pen (in Texas) transported the 2 donks along I-40, where I intercepted them at Santa Rosa and brought them the rest of the way home. I named the jack Bodie, after one of my favorite Wild West ghost towns, and I named the wee jenny, Vida, which means "life" in Spanish. The opposite of the kill, in kill-pen, is life. They were both pretty scared, skinny and exhausted when they got here. They had 'far-away' looks and were pretty shut down. I had to put them in small pens to isolate them from the other donkeys and horses, for what turned out to be a 6 week quarentine.

The top photo is of Vida at the kill-pen in Texas. The bottom pic is of Bodie in the same place.

After a couple of weeks to decompress and get used to me and their new, peaceful surroundings, both Bodie and Vida began to feel better and became super friendly. They both love attention and cuddles and as the weeks went by, they gained weight and settled in. They are both love-bugs who are happy to wear a halter and get brushed. Bodie still needs to be gelded, and will be in a separate pen from the others until that is accomplished. But, he now has a big pen which is right next to the other donkeys with trees for shade. Vida is now in the very big pen with Lena and Larado, but may well be pregnant. From what I can glean from her backgroud, she arrived at the kill-pen with a large family group, 3 of whom were jacks. Even though she is little more than a baby herself, donkeys can get pregnant at a year old. It is wait and see at this point. If she hasn't had a baby in a year, I guess I will know. A donkey's gestation can be up to 14 months!!!! The top pic is me with Bodie. He is quite a big donkey, and is tall enough to ride. We'll see if I will persue that, depends how everything goes, especially the gelding! The bottom photo is of Vida in her new, big pen. She is easy to catch and halter and she is learning to be lead around. Maybe she will want to enter a burro race down the line! :D

Burros on the Santa Fe Trail

In 2018, I set out with my horse Fancy, and my dog Holly to visit all of the major landmarks along the Santa Fe Trail. We made a movie from that adventure, which can be watched on our website. With the arrival of my burros, I decided to re-visit some of those Santa Fe Trail sites, and focus on areas that I only skimmed or would like to explore further. I still have a few more places of interest to cover, but I did manage to visit three key spots, with Lena and Larado, and my new dog JJ, in 2023. Once again, the donkeys put up with my silliness and, once again, I opted to play dress up :)

The top pic is of the donkeys and me at the base of the Wagon Mound along the Santa Fe Trail. The second pic is of JJ and I standing up near the top of Wagon Mound. The actual Wagon Mound is on private property, so I got special permission to climb it.

These photos were taken at Fort Union along the Santa Fe Trail. The top pic is of me and the donkeys at the fort's armory, which is only open to the public once a year. (Again we got special permission from the land owner.) In the far background, you can see the main, extensive Fort Union ruins out on the plain. The second picture was taken at the armory, with the towering Ocate Crater in the background. Ocate was situated along the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail. The bottom photo is of JJ and I at one of the ruins of the armory.

This last photo was taken outside Tipton House, which dates back to Santa Fe Trail days. It was built by one of the major traders along the Santa Fe Trail. It sits beside the Mora River in Watrous, and is actually my next door neighbor! I can see this house from my home at Shadowlands Ranch.

Although not as common as mules, oxen and horses, burros were often seen along the Santa Fe Trail. In the early days, before the War with Mexico in 1846, traders returning to "the States" from "Mexico," would often travel with herds of donkeys and mules to sell back east. Without a "Jack" donkey, there could be a no mule, and mules were proving very valuable as pack animals both on the plains and in the mountains. I have not been able to find many photos or images of donkeys along the Santa Fe Trail, but here is one taken at Cañoncito at the Glorieta Pass. A man and his burro crossing the old bridge over the Galisteo Creek.