Make Your Own Pack Saddles And Get Started Trekking With Donkeys.

By Allan Threadgate - Singleton NSW Australia.

Christine my wife had trekked with her horse and packhorse from our home in eastern Victoria to Canberra over a two year period. She enjoyed the experience very much however one of the problems to overcome if she wanted to continue further along the trial was maintaining the horses feet. Both of us were not skilled farriers so after hearing about Mark and Kate Thompson's trek with donkeys to Brisbane from Healesville along the BNT a plan evolved. Donkeys do not need shoes so Chris decided to change from horses to donkeys.

Chris and I joined the Donkey Society of Victoria with the express view of finding a donkey to buy and learning how to look after it. After some searching we found a donkey breeder who could offer us a young donkey, one that we could train from scratch. This approach had some advantages and disadvantages of course. One disadvantage was that a donkey should not carry too much of a load on their backs until they are mature (about three years of age). The advantage of buying a young donkey is that they can be trained much easier than a mature donkey set in its ways. The training of the donkey is another subject and shall not be dwelled upon in this article.

One knows that if you own one donkey then this donkey attracts other donkeys and if you are not careful you will eventually own a whole string of donkeys. (To cut a long story short ) We finished up owning three donkeys. Three is a good number to take trekking as they can carry all your gear plus a bottle of port.

The next trek was being planned. Pots and pans, knives and forks, sieves and chattels, etc had all been assembled from previous treks however we did not have any packsaddles for the donkeys. We had packsaddle bags but no donkey pack saddles. I began a search for donkey packsaddles. Advertisements for the sale of new and used donkey pack saddles just did not appear in any of the classifieds, no one I knew had any for sale. What was I to do? In the Donkey Digest appeared an advertisement. Brian Beck from Queensland was offering for sale a manual that described how to make your own Donkey Packing Gear. Just what I needed! So I begun constructing my own donkey packsaddles from instructions contained in Brian Beck's book which is now published on CD.

The first task was to take some measurements as each packsaddle was to be custom made for each donkey. The front arch angle had to be wide to fit the wither and the back arch slightly wider to suit the almost flat back of the donkey. Each donkey has its own build and each arch had to constructed to fit. The wooden paddles also had to be shaped to fit. We finished up taking the donkey to a General Surgeon friend of ours who was expert at making plaster casts (to repair broken limbs). He made an exact replica of the shape of the donkeys back just where the packsaddle fitted. With this aid the paddles were shaped out of plywood stuck together, five pieces laminated together bent on a specially prepared jig described in the book. I then went to the hardware store and purchased the required aluminum moldings, stainless steel bolts, nuts and screws that had to be cut up and screwed together to make the frame. To the frame was attached the paddles.

To complete the saddle, straps had to be attached. A local saddler supplied me with almost rubber straps that he used to repair horse saddles. From him I bought some short cloth girths and also had some girths custom made. The next part of the project was to make a breastplate and breeching from polyester webbing. The plans for each of these were in the book but the lengths were confirmed by measuring each donkey. The webbing was sewn together with light cotton then taken to a local canvas goods artisan (with heavy sewing machine) where it was properly sewn by machine.

The final result was three packsaddles each customized to fit each donkey. They are lightweight, made of durable weatherproof materials and fit well. These packsaddles, along with pack saddle bags used previously on horse treks have lasted a long time, never fallen apart and required little maintenance. They have been a great investment.

I have included some photographs of our donkeys wearing the packsaddles and the saddles laid out to show the webbing and girths.

Donkeys With Home Made Pack Saddles

Packsaddle and rigging - Breastplate on the left and britching on the right.

Two home made pack saddles ready to fit on the donkeys

Canvas pack bags with pockets that are accessible when the donkey is loaded up