Q + A with Juliana Ladenburg
Recently I have had the pleasure of helping Juliana Ladendurg find a proper fitting saddle for her new Mammoth Donkey Maple. Juliana runs Hope, The Wild Burro Place off of her home property in Arizona. Here is where she rescues and adopts burros from the BLM and trains them so they don’t spend their lives in holding facilities. She is also is a farrier that has trained specifically for mules, donkeys and burros.
Maple came to Juliana in need of specific rehabilitation for a kissing spine diagnosis along with weak spinal muscles and problems in the soft tissue of her legs. With this prognosis it was clear that a western saddle wouldn’t work for this donkey. She needed more spinal clearance provided by a stuffed panelled saddle that could mould into her back muscles properly. A flat panel saddle would rub over her spine since her spine didn’t have the muscle structure needed for that style of saddle. Even once she built up her muscle strength a shorter length and stuffed saddle was the way to go.
For Dolly the saddle that looked like it was going to work well was the Brumby. So far, with this saddle rigged the way Juliana likes her saddles, Dolly has been moving out well, with no signs of discomfort. Now that is a win!
We have been fitting Donkeys and Mules with our Australian saddles with success for quite a while now. So it has been great to work with Julianna and have her thoughts on saddle-fitting these amazing equines. Here is our conversation:
In your experience, what kind of saddle fitting issues have you found if any with donkeys and mules?
A large part of saddle-fitting issues with donkeys and mules is finding enough spinal clearance all the way down the tree, especially in the lumbar region and under the rider’s seat, as well as the back of the saddle. Too often, people ride donkeys and mules in ill-fitting saddles. Those who do try to fit them, often focus on the fit at the withers, but may not recognize that many donkeys and mules have a much more pronounced spine than horses (many mules and donkeys are overweight and their pronounced spine can often be hidden by fat, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not there).
Many western saddles, do not offer enough spinal clearance through the cantle and back of the saddle region. When a rider is seated in the saddle, the weight of the saddle, and the stitched leather that brings the saddle together under the cantle, often puts pressure on a donkey’s spine. Long-term, this creates pain, arthritic issues in the back, and hollowing of the back, which eventually can increase chances for kissing spine.
Another issue that we see is that many donkeys and mules have a straighter back than a horse, and it can be challenging fitting saddles, as well as pads, that have too much “rock” or contour. Contoured pads can again, create pressure on the elevated spine. Pads with spine relief channels are best.
Do you see a wide variety of conformations or are they similar with most donkeys and mules compared to horses?
I do see a variety of conformations in donkeys, but not nearly the same as we see in horses and mules. Some have less “straight” backs than others. But I will say, that a majority have pronounced spines. That is a pretty standard donkey trait (don’t forget, many donkeys are overweight and this is hidden underneath the fat).
When it comes to mules, because they are a hybrid animal, they come in all shapes and sizes depending on which type of horse they came from. This makes saddle fitting more challenging. There are lots of companies out there making “mule trees” and I’ve tried many over the years, and just like with any horse, one saddle might fit one or two, and may not fit the next.
What differences are you finding with riding and fitting the Australian stock saddle compared to a western?
So far, I have noticed full spine relief. My donkey is willing to step and move out, and after the ride showed zero “flinching” or soreness (which she used to). This particular mammoth donkey that I am riding it on, came to me with a very sore back, and a history of saddle anxiety. When you step out with the saddle in hand, she would get anxious, dance around a little, or shy away when you tried to saddle her. After tacking up, her first few steps, she would almost dip down and duck her back away as if anticipating pain from previously poor-fitting saddles.
With this new Australian saddle, I worked on saddling, walking her around in-hand, then unsaddling, without ever getting on. I just wanted her to be able to feel the difference that this saddle offered. After a few days of this, she no longer dipped down after saddling her and I decided it was time to climb aboard. She didn’t duck down or hollow her back once! She could truly feel the difference. I absolutely believe it was because of the full spine relief this saddle offered. I have tried multiple western saddles on her, mule trees, horse trees, and a variety of each. When carefully inspected, I could see that with the weight of a rider, the lumbar region on each saddle did not offer enough spine clearance.
This is when I decided to try one of your Australian saddles. For me as the rider, who has only ridden western saddles my whole life, I was BEYOND impressed at how comfortable I was in a brand new saddle. I usually hate new saddles. I hate the squeaky, stiff break-in period. BUT this saddle was comfortable from the moment I climbed aboard! I can only imagine the more I ride it, the more comfortable it will get (as with my western saddles).
How long have you had donkeys and mules? What made you get into training and rehabilitating them?
I have personally owned “long-ears” for about 15-20 years. Before recently moving to northern AZ, I lived more than half my life in Montana. I worked for an outfitter on a ranch guiding trail rides, pack trips, fishing trips, driving dinner wagon rides, and much more. That is where I fell in love with the minds of donkeys (and mules).
My boss, who is like a father to me, is a mule man. He introduced me to loving mules, and the minds of these incredible animals. Over the years, I have found myself primarily working only with donkeys though. I just prefer the calmness and the thinking process behind those long ears.
I have worked in rescue and training and I even was training for the Mustang Heritage Foundation for a period where we focused on getting wild burros and mustangs out of holding facilities. We gentle them to become “pets” and finding adopters for them. I focused only on the burros (donkeys) of course.
I became a donkey farrier a couple of years ago, primarily to learn to trim my own, which then has led to an incredibly busy service that I provide locally. There are not a lot of farriers willing to trim donkeys, and many do not understand that a donkey’s hoof is not the same as a horse’s and needs to be trimmed differently. Because of my donkey training background and the ability to get along with these animals, I am able to help get a lot of neglected donkeys, who are NOT good with picking up their feet for proper hoof care, trained and gentled enough to trim. It has become something I’ve become quite passionate about.
For adventures with your Donkey check out the Black Canyon Donkey Derby
Check out our other post: How to ride an Australian Saddle
This picture is of one of our customers riding her mule in her Brumby Australian saddle. She had a hard time fitting her mule to a saddle. The Brumby has worked well and she now has a saddle that works for both of them.