Recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture on August 20, 1997, and represented at the Norman Equidae Conservation Center of the Haras National du Pin (photo), the Norman donkey once had the mission of transporting milk as a nobility. In the Normandy dominated by dairy production of the 19th and early 20th centuries, farmers equipped their donkeys with packsaddles loaded with cans to go and milk the cows in the fields. Each donkey carried an average of 396 pounds (180 kg), a load equivalent to its weight.