TOMBSTONE WAS A SUCCESS

 From everything we've heard and observed, the week-end was amazing.  This was the 2nd pack burro race, or as it was called the Donkey Dash in Arizona in decades.  Last year about this time, the 1st race was held in Superior and it was also a rousing success.  In the 90s Safford had races for about 3 years and quit.  I would imagine they didn't get the local backing needed to keep it growing.  

Only 2 of the racers were from Tombstone, probably about half the runners were from Arizona.  The rest were from California, Colorado, and Texas.  It's great that so many people came from other states, but it will take Arizona racers to keep it going. Pack Burro Racing has been going on in Colorado for almost 73 years and this year because of Covid all the towns in Colorado canceled their races.  Hopefully by next year things will go back to normal and people can continue with their lives.

 

 

This is how the donkeys were set up when they came in last week.  This was the next morning, I think they were waiting for breakfast to be served. 

 

 This little girl is Mamacita (little momma)  Suzanne, Lynn and Linda went out to trim 4 mini's feet in Colorado for a guy and discovered they all had white line disease.  White line can really mess their feet up, basically it's a fungal infection that will make the hoof crumbly.  The treatment is usually daily, and the guy lived quite a ways away, so they hauled them back to their place to treat them.  

The guy didn't want Mamacita back, said she wasn't friendly.  So she ended up in the trailer headed back to Arizona.  She also is probably pregnant, she had a baby last November, so if she is, we'll be on baby watch for the next few weeks. At first she was a little stand offish, but she isn't unfriendly and she's pretty cute.  

 

 

                        Misty, Linda and Suzanne

                                                                        Line up before the race

            Misty, Linda, Avery (aka Coquette) and her new mom

Avery, you can always recognize her by her "beauty" mark on her forehead.  I don't remember her having it when we got her, but it showed up sometime while she was here.

This is some of the runners headed up to Allen Street for the start of the race.

 

 

            

 This is Leroy and Jackson after they finished the race in the Poo Bingo pen.  When the burros finished their races they were put in here with 120 squares marked off and numbered.  People can buy a square and whoever has the square that gets pooed on first wins $500.  

            These 2 little guys, finished 3rd in the 3 mile and 6 mile races.  They had never been in a race, in fact they had only been out with runners a few times. with a couple that had never raced.  Needless to say, we are very proud of them.

           They also had a great way of cleaning up the street after the donkeys started the race.  They had buckets and spatulas for people to "rent" After the donkeys started the race the people were turned loose with their buckets and spatulas to pick up as much poo as they could.  A woman picked up 18 pounds and won $50.  The results were a clean street, pretty smart huh?

 

 

             Boaz came back from Colorado 4 days ago.  This is how his knee looked this morning after returning to Arizona, not to mention the changes to his sheath.  This is why he and some of the others go to Colorado in the summer.  We'll have to doctor him until the weather gets a lot cooler.  It was almost 98* today.   

   

                Some of the runners from Colorado are staying here until they leave for the race in California tomorrow or Wednesday.  This is some of their donkeys waiting for their ride to California.  The long race will be 26 miles.  They are leaving early to give the donkeys a couple of days of rest before the race Saturday.

            This is the Burro Barracks across the wash, with a lot of the donkeys that came back from Colorado last week.  And of course we also have the pen area filled with donkeys.  I'm not really sure how many donkeys are on the property right now, probably around 50 maybe a few more.  Of course about 25 of them will probably be going to California.

 

And I'm racing this week-end.......!!  Next to the last race of the season.