RE: [Philmont]: Burros

I know this topic has been beaten to death on this list, but
I figured I'd through my 2 cents in. I worked at Philmont
as the Roving Prospector for the summer of 2002. For those
not familiar with the Roving Prospector, it was a job first
created in 2001, and there has been one each summer since.
This person gets paid by Philmont to wander aimlessly around
the ranch with a burro and entertain/educate campers with
stories about the mining days (or anything else we feel like
talking about for that matter). Anyway, the main point is
that I spent 3 months with a burro everyday except my days
off. I had named him Sir Robert Animalia Chordata Mammalia
Perissodactyla Equidae Equus Asinus Esquire (or Bob the
Burro for short). For the first few weeks, I was ready to
leave Bob at every camp I passed through. By the end of the
summer, they had to pry him away from me. I was ready to
load him on the plane and take him home.

Needless to say, I learned a lot about burros. There is one
basic thing that everyone hiking with burros should know.
There is no difference between the stubborness of a "been
there done" that grumpy old fart (90% of advisors), the
stubborness of a "I could do things better" teenager (90% of
scouts), the stubborness of a "I know everything" college
student (90% of the phil-staff including myself), and the
stubborness of a "just let me eat grass and poop" burro
(100% of burros). To be successful in life, most people
have learned to deal with the first three groups of people.
Basically, most problems can be solved by better
communication. Since burros don't speak English (Bob had
mastered horse, cow and burro speak, so I was impressed),
you can't talk at them or yell at them. They also respone
quite poorly to physical violence or rope tugging. They are
herd animals, and they like to follow their friends. If you
have a big group of burros and you lead one, the rest will
follow him anywhere (assuming that you lead the one
established as the leader). So to get a burro to follow
you, you just have to establish yourself as the leader.
Based on the odor and facial hair thickness of most people
in the backcountry, that's a lot easier than you might
think.

In short, be nice to your burro. Feed him, take care of him
and don't yell at him. When you start walking, keep moving.
Every time you stop, that's a signal to the burro that it's
time to eat, so don't stop unless you want to take a
noticeable break. To get the burro started, face away from
him with your head down. That's the way a lead burro would
do it. If you look at the burro and pull a rope, or if half
of your crew is standing around behind the burro not ready
to go, he won't realize that it's time to move. Stay on the
trails/roads and avoid getting too close to high grass. If
you were hiking through a field of cheesburgers and someone
forced you to trek on to get to Supper #9, you'd be mad too.
And remember, not everyone who has dealt with that burro in
the past is as nice as you are (which is very unfortunate).
Therefore, it may take a little while to gain it's trust.
And most importantly, remember that your burro his your
friend, but sneaking up behind him will get you a quick hoof
in the crotch ... and burros kick hard.

The boring engineer formally known as "Prospector John",
John Wisinger

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Received on Thu Feb 26 09:08:27 2004