Building a Better Collar and Harness for Developing Countries

In many third world countries, donkeys are the primary beast of burden and often endure harsh treatment due to poorly designed and badly fitted harness and collars. Bob Erickson of Westby, Wisconsin, was asked by several partites interested in helping developing countries make more efficient use of their draft animal power to see if he could make collars and harness for a team of donkeys using easily-secured materials available in those countries. Here's what Bob came up with using a 5-foot 2 by 10 plank, a handful of nuts and bolts, 200 feet of 3/8-inch sisal rope, 2 used plastic 5 gallon buckets, and two feet of 1/4-inch UPC pipe. He has been using the collars and harness on his donkeys for about 3 hours a day each of the two days prior to this shoot and a couple hours today as we went for a drive through the countryside. Knowing Bob, there will be some additonal refinements, but for the most part, he is pretty happy with the result. Here is some rough footage from today's shoot. Watch for a full episode in November on Rural Heritage on RFD-TV. See less