I will be asking for at the farm help as well, but I would like to start our mini donkey driving and would like any advice possible.
Donkeys, like mules, are not horses & training them has differences.
I learned this from mule-owner friends who camp with their mules.
If the help at your farm doesn’t have this experience, find someone who does.
Do you drive now?
If not, at least find a Driving trainer so you have a good foundation.
I can tell you a Driving friend has a mini-mule she no longer drives as she found it too difficult.
She’s a longtime Driver, so I credit her opinion.
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@SLW has a donkey she does CDE with! #goals
My small standard donkey has done all the legwork for driving, I just haven’t hitched her up. My driving instructor and I were going to work on that this spring… oops.
But they are not horses. I always say training donkeys is like training cats. They have no inherent motivation to please anyone but themselves, so it’s all about giving them a reason why they should work for you. Food is often a great reason. 
Also, they hate repetition and being drilled on a skill. So keep lessons short and varied. Once the donkey shows they can do a task, move on to something else.
When a donkey shuts down, you are done. So keep them engaged and curious. And realize you get less chances to make mistakes than you would with a horse… they remember everything!
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All of this accurate regarding training a donkey!!
What I did was start with ground driving, teach voice command of walk, whoa & wait. Patience is the most important skill a driving equine needs. Teach them to stand nicely for longer & lengths of time. If you are ground driving 5 days a week by the start of the third week you can probably add weight/drag behind your donkey and continue towards hooking up.
One big difference is they won’t die trying to do some boneheaded thing you are asking them to do. For example, I could gallop my horse to death, she would die trying. With my donkey if her respirations were getting high she would drop down to a walk, catch her breath for as long as needed, once okay she’d pick up the pace again.
Another thing about donkeys is they have a high flash point. My horse can be startled easily. Getting a donkey startled is like using kerosene on wet, green wood to start a fire on a windy day- it’s going to take a lot of work.
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The mini donkey at my barn drives. He picked it up pretty quick. The theory is that since he’s seen horses driving for the last couple years, he just figured it out. He didn’t have much groundwork. I think one day, they just decided to hook him and away they went.
I can’t find the picture of him driving with the red blinker hood on, so this will have to do.
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Driving Club friend has an adorable mini-jenny.
Daisy:
She brought her to a Club drive once.
When I ask, she says donk is too much work to drive.
I covet the Daisy, but cannot justify adding #4… Even though she’d fit my mini carts
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