04/13/2026
The cones. We did well.
And beginners handbook number something. Is pulling a human in a cart hard for the donkey? It seems like that's a lot to ask them to do.
Answer: I inevitably get a sad face for a pic or video of carriage driving, so I will explain this once again. I know it can look like that's a lot for the donkey to pull. And the harness itself has so many straps, it looks like a lot of weight and that a lot is pulling on the donkey. All those straps are lightweight and are put on loosely and are basically only there for safety and to keep the carriage itself in place with donkey. For instance, coming to a stop or going downhill, it keeps the carriage from running forward up to touch the donkey. But otherwise the harness is just laying there loosely.
The only strap that is snug is the girth that goes around the rib cage, like a horse saddle. That is to keep it in place, and the rib cage bears that snugness easily. It is not put on nearly as tight as a horse saddle because it is not bearing any weight on top of it that might shift.
Now, about the pull and weight from me and the carriage on the donkey. First, If you ever took a physics class and did vector forces, then you learn that ALL of the weight of the carriage and I goes straight down to the ground, and the donkey feels NONE of it. If I was riding on his back, then he would definitely feel my weight. On a flat surface, the only force the donkey has to pull against is the friction of the tires to the ground, and inertia. Inertia becomes a force to pull (or hold back) only on acceleration or deceleration. So usually about for less than a second, while the donkey is changing speeds, the donkey does an extra force to pull, figured by F=ma, force equals mass times acceleration. Here, my mass and the carriage does play a role. That mass is multiplied by the acceleration, which is very small going from a stop to walk, or walk to trot. So it lessens our weight by a lot. And it only lasts for less than a second.
Then, the only force the donkey has to pull against is friction. Newton's first law of motion is that an object with no other forces acting on it at rest will stay at rest AND an object in motion will stay in motion. We don't notice this so much on earth for the second part, staying in motion, very much because there are always friction forces to overcome with movement, slowing the object down. Friction from moving through the air and friction from the ground.
You can notice this phenomenon much better in space, so look at ongoing video from the Artemis II currently. An astronaut has no air friction to slow them down, and because of nominal gravity (there still is some from celestial bodies but they are far enough away that it is very small and not noticeable) they will float easily, not having to have contact with a floor, after an initial push off and have to exert basically 0 force to keep going.
So, my donkey pulling the cart is also like this, once he is going a constant speed on flat ground and in a straight line, he has nothing pulling against him except air friction and friction between the tires and the ground. Air friction is negligible at the slow speeds that we are going and no wind. The friction between the ground and tires can be lessened by smooth tires, a balanced cart that puts no weight on the traces, and hard smooth ground. The arenas used for carriage driving are packed tight for this reason. Pulling in deep loose sand would add much more friction to pull against.
Notice I also said flat surface is easy. Pulling up a hill does put a fraction of the weight of cart and human on them. The steeper the hill, the higher the fraction.
I should note that turning is also considered acceleration and does take some pull on the donkey to change direction. That force is smaller the slower you are going. We are not even allowed to canter at a donkey show, so we are always going slow. The carts are made to be very balanced. My 3 year old granddaughter can pull me easily while I'm in the cart (no donkey attached).
Donkeys have been pulling carts for humans for thousands of years and have adapted by having muscles in all the right places to do this easily. They can pull more weight compared pound for pound of their own weight than a horse can.
Think about this in your experiences, like pushing a grocery cart. Inertia - getting started or stopped is easy with nothing in it, but harder to turn, stop, and start the more weight that is in it. However, going the same speed down a long aisle is still pretty effortless once up to speed even loaded. All of this weight is much easier to handle in a cart than if you were carrying bags or in a backpack. Grocery carts are not made for your comfort, however, just carrying capacity. So tiny wheels make it harder and being unbalanced. Also you have only your hands to deal with it. If you had a harness distributing that push, or even better were in front pulling, across more of your body it would be even easier. Donkeys have 4 legs, not 2, and forces are distributed evenly from a balanced cart. A much easier set up for them than a grocery cart is for us.
This is also how the guys on a bicycle that pull several humans in a cart seem to do it so easily. Paved hard roads have little friction. They would have a much harder time pulling through soft sand and up steep hills. However, they can still do it if in shape for it, and certainly much easier than if those people were on his back.
People seem to not be shocked or sad about a human riding a horse. It is a more familiar sight, and therefore they have some innate intuition that the horse can bear this weight. It can obviously, and horses are built with lots of muscles and weight to do this easily.
What about 2 humans on the horses back? Well the back person can be slightly harder because they can be placed behind the rib cage and onto the softer loin area. The extra weight by itself is not an issue for a horse proportionate in size to the people. In comparison, it's like you holding a puppy and then carrying 2 puppies. It's OK. Not so much if you are carrying a large breed adult dog that is a good percentage of your own weight. Since horses typically weigh 1200 to 1500 pounds it's still not as much as it would feel like us carrying a large dog.
So, pulling carts is LOTS easier than carrying weight on the back. Very little effort is required by the donkey on flat hard surfaces going at easy paces.
But, do they WANT to? Some more than others, but basically, yes!
Adding to this initial conception that this is hard for donkeys, is the historical language we have used in literature, like calling them "beasts of burden", etc, or making them "work" or do a "job". We humans generally associate working and doing a job as something we are forced to do and don't enjoy. If we like it we call it a "hobby", not a job.
As I said before, donkeys have been helping humans for many thousands of years, and have been bred, like dogs, to enjoy human companionship. Many dog breeds have been bred to automatically want to do certain jobs, like protection, hunting, herding etc and it can be very hard on them to not be allowed to ever use those instincts. My Australian shepherd cannot wait to go help herd ducks, chickens, cows, and donkeys. It's the most fun he has. Just try and stop my Great Pyrenees and Anatolians from protecting the ranch by going after predators. Yes it's a "job", but I don't ask them to, just direct them sometimes as to what I want, and they are usually willing to please, like don'teat the chickens, instead, protect them. Dogs have gotten these special traits in just a few hundred years of breeding dogs together that seemed to naturally want to do these jobs. So it would be better language to use a term like "hobby" rather than work or burden foe animals who instinctively WANT to do these activities.
This has been occurring for donkeys for thousands of years! They are hard-wired in their brain to enjoy doing things for humans, including pulling carts. They like being given jobs to do in general. There are always individual personalities so you have to work within that. Some are more suited for the task than others.
So, how much weight can a donkey pull easily? Notwithstanding other factors like going against a hard wind, in deep soft ground, very steep hills, etc, the general rule for minis is 400 pounds per donkey, even with some of those factors like some soft or rocky ground, some wind, and gentler hills. That is adding cart weight and human weight. I weigh 130 and the cart may weigh similar, I should actually weigh it and see. So we are well within the limit. When I weighed more (quite a bit more) I honestly could not tell any difference in effort on the donkeys part. I can take grandchildren with me and there is no difference in response from the donkey. Again, typically we are on fairly flat hard ground where very minimal effort is needed anyway, like the astronauts.
The mini donkey needs to be the kind built more for this type of activity, at least 32" tall and sturdier wide build. Hooking more donkeys up will make it even easier for the donkeys. A team of 2 donkeys can easily handle pulling 800 pounds. So you can have bigger wagons etc.
And lastly, I would NEVER do anything that my donkeys couldn't or didn't like to handle. If you know me at all, you know this absolutely. If you have any questions, I am happy to try and answer them for you. If you, however, do not attempt to understand the physics, the nature of the donkeys, and continue to sad face my driving posts, I will have to block you from the page.
