These are a few years old, but here's a pic of Lewis and I standing at the gate to the backyard.



Here's one of the packsaddles I made.



My donks are probably closer to 350 than 400 lbs, and can be expected to carry 70 lbs with no problems. I don't work them everyday, so less is better for now.

They're herd animals and do best with at least on other donkey around. That's really why I got two. Clark was still baby when I got him and the two hang close together. Right now they're in the pasture with our farm dog, and some chickens and cats. They all get along fine.

Donks are low maintenance. I give them each one cup of sweet grain and a flake of hay in the evening. More than that and they'd get fat.

Mini horses don't really have the same gentle disposition as burros. They can be pretty ornery and I don't think they'd be good as a pack animal.

Llamas are supposed to be great pack animals. The woman I got my donks from had a Llama in a pasture with over 30 little donks. It was a big male, and he was a badass. He really only liked her and the donks, and he gave me the evil eye when I got close to the fence he was standing behind. I could tell he was thinking how much fun it would be to knock me on my rear, but I never gave him the chance.

She also had a stud burro that was every bit as mean as her llama all fenced off on his own few acres. He was only 32 inches tall at the shoulders and was snarling at me the whole time I was there. He didn't even like her. He had one thing on his mind, how to get to the pasture where all those female donks were at, and he would have stomped, bit, and kicked anything that got in his way.

My burros are both clipped, and at a pretty young age too. That makes a difference with burros, bulls, and horses, I don't know about llamas.

Here's a pic of both Lewis (left) and Clark. You can see the cross on Clark's back and front shoulders: