The Upside to Mules...

[HoundDawg]

So in that last thread I took plenty of potshots at mules, most of it tongue in cheek, some of it not so much...

A mule guy once told me, "Mules aren't for everybody." And I think he's right. Mules aren't better at everything, mules aren't worse at everything... they are just different and they aren't for everybody.

But I'll tell you a story that happened a few years back. I went into MuleHound and PumaGuys backyard with a couple of their buddies. It was a mixed pack of horse guys and mule guys. And those Green River boys have some damn nice mules.

The first day we rode hard and really pounded it. There were two guys from southern Utah with us on Arabians. One of them had a big wreck and the other came up lame by the end of the day. Those two guys left that night for the Vet back home. (Arabians are a whole 'nother subject I won't bring up)

But the next day a few of the adults stayed in camp and a smaller group of us went riding again. A couple of the GR boys had a bit too much to drink the night before so they guarded camp but sent their kids with us. It was a man, woman and children trail ride.

These Green River kids were on their folks mules and I've never seen anything like it in my life. I still kick myself for not having my video camera. These kids were jumping these mules off big rocks and ledges and generally just whooping it up and having a good time... But I sat there in disbelief. Until that day I had NO IDEA mules were capable of that kind of riding.

They had some big mule deal not too long ago on Doug Miller and they showed these mule guys doing their stuff... but it was a laugh, a farce. It was not even close to what these kids were doing on those mules. An adult probably wouldn't have had the guts to do it. A guy with me was on a mule and no way in hellfire and damnation was he gonna follow them off the ledges on his mule.

But there is no horse on this planet who could have followed those mules off some of these jumps and made it. I was in disbelief for 3 weeks after and I still wonder if I really saw it or just dreamed it. Their old men would have probably kicked their butts if they'd seen what they were doing.

There are things about mules I don't like... but I'm not dumb enough to believe that my horses can do what I saw those mules do.

While I may never own a mule, I know exactly why PumaGuy and Mulehound have them. If you are going to follow dogs in their backyard on a bear or lion, a horse just isn't going to cut the mustard. If I had to make a living following dogs down in that country, I'd be in Green River tomorrow with my checkbook buying mules. But I don't so I won't. ;-)

I'll still take my pot shots and pokes at the mules and their masters, but what I saw that day with a bunch of rowdy kids on their folks mules, was jaw dropping.

I still remember turning to my buddy and saying, "Holy hell, the rules have changed!" I'm still ticked off I didn't have my video camera!!!

So you mule guys, my hats off to ya. I won't ask you to like my horses and you don't ask me to pack your body off the hill after your donkey kills you. ;-)

-Dawg

 

[RLH]

went lion hunting with some friends north of the gila in eastern Az. some years back. i had my ol' black mule, john. one feller who tagged along asked me real critical like why i wasted my time with a mule. i told him to ask me again about noon the next day. this is some viscious country and i knew were going to get at least one lion out of the deal. not to say a horse couldn't do it. we had 5 in camp that all done fine. anyway, we cut a track a mile or so out and it went straight up, as usual. by the time we got to the top, i was the only one still riding. everybody else was leading. the critical guy thought we were all nuts for going there. anyway, to make a long story short, around noon he asked me if i knew where he could get a good mule. his little mare had balked on about everything and he spent as much time leading her as riding. 2 days later we were hot on a track and i was following the hounds on my mule and my pal willy was on foot. the other guys went around the mountain to meet us on the other side, leading willy's horse. the trail bluffed up quite significant at the top of a mesa. it was probably 4 to 5 feet straight up. the hounds all got up fine. i told willy that i didn't want to go back around and was going to see if ol' john would jump up on the rimrock. he said i was nuts. i got off and climbed up on the little bluff and give the lead rope a yank. john pinned his ears back a little and looked around, raised up on his hind legs, planted his front hooves on top and started digging with his back ones. took about 3 seconds and he was up there with is. willy said it was a good thing he was there because he never would have believed me. then i rode across the msa and there was about a 1 foot drop off on the other side and he balked at stepping off of it!! damn thing figgerd he'd done enough for one day. willy smacked him in the ass and he jumped about 8 feet in the air and dang near lost me!!. off a one foot drop. mules are wierd. sometime i'll tell you the story about the line in the highway.

 

[edhunter]

Good hell RLH, I'd like to see the mule that could throw jump 8' in the air with you on it's back. Unless all that city life has you trimmed down, you're a damn big fellow. Now so's the rest of the mule lovers and inbreds don't get the wrong idea here, I'm not talking soggy, RLH is a big, burly, stout man. Hell if he'd been in camp during the Bettis incident there would have been one less UA runnin' his mouth around.

So I'm not calling BS on your story, I'm just trying to get the proper mental picture of an 800 pound mule with a 250 pound welder on it's back jumping 8' in the air, wholly sh!t I'm blowing coke out my nose, I've got it.

I remember a lion story another Gila Valley boy tells about a pup and an older dog on a lion track at Sierra Blanca. You know RB tells the best stories of anyone I've heard and them Pima People can spin the yarn.

Ed

 

[HoundDawg]

I used to ride a bunch with a mule guy and he had a real nice mule... We rode all over and I never saw it give him any trouble.

Except... everytime we went to the Book Cliffs that sucker would booger hunt ALL DAY LONG. It used to piss him off so bad I'd swear he was gonna shoot the mule.

Never did it anywhere else... except in the Book Cliffs. I still can't figure that one out. ???

I'm a horse guy but I still prefer riding with mule guys. Lots more entertainment and no worries with your wife running off with a mule guy.

You start team roping and hanging around all those tall, dark and handsome cowboys with their tans and their tight Wranglers and you're gonna lose yourself a wife to some roper in a fancy Powerstroke pulling a $40K Sundowner....

You run with mule guys and you got NO WORRIES!!! You're gonna look like George Strait to the missus when she sees your mule skinner buddies pull in. And that '95 pickup you got in the driveway is gonna look like a 2004 to her when she gets a load of their rigs!!! ;-)

Gimme a mule skinner as a riding partner ANY DAY!!!

-Dawg

 

[cb]

I grew up riding horses. My Uncle Bill always had a bunch of mules. He's down around Sho Lo (sp)?? AZ now. Maybe some of you would know an old horse shoer by the name of Bill Mayfield. One hell of a guy.

Anyway, he always told me that, "Owning a mule is alot like jerking off. You are ashamed of it but you do it anyway".

There you go Dawg. Thats my horse story.

 

[kilowatt]

A friend of mine has a number of mules but are you ready for the shocker, they are Racing Mules. He owns the faster and most winning Mule in track racing (like Horse's). The mule is named Black Ruby and goes all over the west coast during the season.
She is stubborn but does not like to see another mule in front of her on the track.
She is a sight to see when racing and has been declared the "Seabiscut" of Mule Racing. Has a total winning of over 1/4 Million dollars since she started. They wanted Sonny to bring her out to the East coast to "show" but could not make it due to other commitments on the west coast season. Black Ruby has set some many records, wish I still had the article from SF paper.

Sonny has other mules too that race, and also one that he uses when he goes hunting to get around, due to an auto accident that took part of his left left.

Just thought the info on Mules would be of interest.

 

[Beartree]

I knew this website could be usefull someday. See I have been think of getting a mule. I always thought a mule would be nice to hunt off of. I guess you would say I'm getting, oh how do you say? LAZY After reading this it reminded me of my years of owning and training racehorses. I have had my fare share of getting bucked off of horses through the years. I started running hounds to get away from horses for a while. Then I remembered a while ago when the mules came to town to race. I also remember how hard it was to get the jockeys to ride. No one wanted to ride. So in the race office one day a short midget like jockey got on the table and said,"boys get your ass on an ass". See this jockey was oh, I guess you could say he would pass for a window licker, one of those kids who rode the short bus to school. Well after a little coaxing they got the jockeys to ride. It didn't take but one race to figure out why no one wanted to ride. See the mules had a habit, a bad habit. They would run like heck to the finish line, and then when it came time to stop they would go into bucking. I thinking only one or two riders stayed on.
So thanks everyone for helping me make up my mind on MULES or HORSES. I will stick with what I got neither. See I feed my mountain traveler gas and it craps smoke. Thanks again boys.

 

[Kevin D]

LAST EDITED ON Jan-22-03 AT 06:44AM (MST)[p]It ain't no shock to me about racing mules kilowatt, heck I got one myself......'cept it ain't other mules he races, it's mountain bikers. Don't know what it is about the damn things, but everytime one of them damn mountain bikers comes up behind us on the trail, my mule takes it as a personal challenge and off he goes. I've had some mountain bikers that were able to hang with us for a half a mile or so, but in the end they had to slow down for the turns, ledges, deadfall, and overhanging branches so we were always able to pull away. Yep, I'm proud to say that when it comes to racing mountain bikers down the trail, we're undefeated! Now let me hear any of you pony lopers try to beat that!!!

 

[RLH]

well Ed, it mighta only been like 7 1/2 feet. it dang sure caught me off guard and i was real glad i was riding my old heiser saddle with the big swells. #@$!%@in' mule anyway. when i first got him, same day i brung him home, i saddled up and was riding around the neighborhood. he'd never been anywhere but where he was raised. it was around sundown and a streetlight came on while we were under it. he didn't know what the hell to do. crow hopped around in little circles looking at the bright spot on the ground. then i decided to ride him across the highway to the big pasture we had rented and introduce him to the other animals. first he didn't know what to think of the pavement and then the yellow line down the middle had some sorta force field that stopped him cold. wouldn't cross it for anything. he'd put his nose down and sniff it and back up. i quirted the heck out him and still wouldn't cross it. i'd lope him up to it and he'd slam on the brakes and skid to a stop. finally i went and put on my spurs, got about a 50 yard head o' steam and tried to run him across it. when he got to it he went airborne. i mean like one o' them jumpin' horses like broke superman's neck. we hit in the dirt on the other side o' the pavement. i wasn't expectin' that one either. got the horn in my gonads, almost went over his head. i'da like to seen a video of it, because we got way up there in the air. almost hit a duck. next day i tied him to the back of my pickup and drug him across the road about 10 times until he figgerd it was easier to just walk across the line. i don't think i ever had anymore kids after that too......

 

[edhunter]

These mules are good for the stories they provide that's for sure. Jockys on mules, mules balking at yellow lines in the road and mule accidents are making my day. I've never had one and don't have the stomach to bring one around the house. The wife has a couple of soggy horses that she goofs with and mules aren't welcome in her pasture.

I did have one hell of a horse ride in the Grey's River of Wyoming but that was a deer hunt and not applicable to the current forum. No wrecks so no story there.

Hey RLH, I'm not questioning the jump or the validty of it, I was just trying to get the mental picture of you on the back of that jumping mule. When it finally came I was useless the rest of the day, couldn't get your burly head, all red faced, cussing and blowing trying to ride that mule out.

Ed,

 

[RLH]

how come everbuddy thinks it's funny when i have a wreck? one over on the gila we treed a little bear. we had been trailing a so so lion track and all the sudden we had something treed in a jackpine thicket. i rode my ol' mule right up to the tree and when we got in the clear there was a young bear about 8' up a jackpine. he popped his jaws, john jumped and i just grabbed a limb and was gonna let him run out from under me but my dern spur hung up on the britchin'. stretched me out like a clothesline. spur strap broke at about the same time the limb did. broke my dang tailbone and and cracked the 2 lower vertabrae in my back. my buddy Rollen, the sorry sob, thought it was the funniest thing he ever seen. i mean i had a broke back, hounds all over me, because they thought i was the bear, nippin' the hell outta me and a real live bear tryin' to come down the tree. he acted like he was watchin' saturday mornin' cartoons. i hate huntin'.

 

[Mulehound]

I was just sittin here absorbing all the wisdom that comes from this site and something occured to me. The more I thought about it the more it bothered me. I have seen it while hunting and never noticed it until now. Maybee it was because Timberpig did a 180 with a half gainer and pinned me to the ground the other day while Pumaguy just watched with a stupid grin on his face. People that ride horses give them nice names and talk to them like they actually like them.
All the mules I know earned their names Timberpig is so beautiful nothing else fit, Monica can suck a bud dry and crinkle the can in 5 seconds flat, boyd likes to walk around with his wanger out trolling for babes I named him after a perv I know in the Basin(he's proud of it). When I walk into the corral to go hunting They go into the antitheft mode until they know one of them is going to die, then with the appropriate cuss word they allow me to catch one of them.

We were hunting the other day and I walked into the corral and saw hair laying on the ground lots of it, I thought wow which mule is dead. Hell Pumaguy had roached his mules manes. Thats like a hippie with a flatop, my mules wouldn't even go to the same side of the corral as his.

Cv has a mule named Cher cause he saw the ship video and knew he would never get to ride the real one. I just bought a two year old tennessee walking mule and named her after the raunchist women I knew, cause I knew she was going to hear a lot of swearing.

I just realized that maybee us mule guys are just trailer trash and we don't know it. Then throw in dogs and it just gets worse. Can you claim dogs and mules as dependents? I think I need a zoloft.

Mulehound

 

[WayCool]

Hey Mulehound, is that TWM pretty well gaited ??? I always wondered if they were actually gaited like a walking horse...

Kinda like breeding a lab to an english pointer... you end up with a dog that won't retrieve AND won't point ;-) ??

I'd have a mule.. but I'm like Dawg... I dont' need any animals that are smarter than me !!

Steve Lithgow
http://www.waycoolkennels.com

 

[highcountry]

I can not agree more with ya. I have over 30 horse and not one mule in the buch some that look a little mulish. But it has to be More for prides sake than anything else.they can be amazing animals but they can be a handfull as well.maybe they are just to smart for me! I still have to go by the old saying (how do you pack a mule 1/2 on each side of a good horse).And good call not getting into the arab's there is a real beast breathing a good horses air.

 

[pumaguy]

LAST EDITED ON Jan-24-03 AT 03:38PM (MST)[p] I've sat here quietly in the dugout and now it's my turn to step up to the plate. There is a place for both mules and horses, but for someone who has an animal to chase around hounds and not be ropin' cows the mule is the animal to have. I've had bad mules, good mules and great mules. I also HAD some top notch quarter horses and have rode some even better. My wife comes from a three generation cattle ranch and they don't have junk for horses. I wouldn't trade the best horse of the inlaws for any of my mules. Granted they can chase a cow better, but I've only had one cow race with my dogs and that is another story! I'd invite anyone to bring their best horse down to the country me and the Swamp Donkey (Mulehounds new nickname) ride and attempt to keep up. I'll venture to guess that minds would change and pride would be broken. I have rode this rock country on horses and have gotten around, but when the day was over the horse was bruised, my backside was sore and the only thing to look forward to was only six more days before going home.
As far as wrecks, I've seen em both mules and horses. Yes Swamp
Donkey did take a tumble the other day, but it wasn't the mules fault, it was a lack of better judgement and trying to ride through something that needed some extreme pruning before being passable. Damn right I laughed! I've also watched a brother-in-law of mine shove a saddle horn through his thigh when a high dollar horse of his decided to go over backwards on him. The only upside to that trip for him was he got a helicopter ride (from the top of the Bookcliffs to Grand Junction to see the hospital in person).
Bottom line is ride whatever suits ya, feed whatever takes care of ya, but don't try to outguess the other team until ya played both sides. I have been on both sides of the fence and my side will have the long ears to match my mutts! NUFF SAID

 

[HoundDawg]

Ya know PumaGuy,

I've heard those offers thrown out before by the Green River boys and I've even been down there a time or two ridin' with some of your buddies.

Near as I can tell, you guys try to drink horse guys to death not outride them. My experience has been that the night before around the campfire there was always lots of braggin', lyin' and tall tales bein' spun about the long eared wildabeasts, but usually the next morning when the sun peeked up, everybody was too sick or hungover to saddle up and ride.

If I come down there, are you going to try to kill my horses or my liver?

And if I do come, you better just drop straight into Hells Hole right out of camp, cuz if you head down the trail, you'll be so far behind me by the time we hit the gate, I probably won't see you until I tie up for lunch and ya catch up. ;-)

All I know is if you ride anything like Phillips kids, I don't wanna be anywhere near you guys!!!

 

[pumaguy]

Even I try to stay out of Hell's Hole. I took the wife a couple years ago for a nice hunt "on top". We started a bear in the top of Bogart and in about 15 minutes we were not "on top" anymore and she was able to get her first experience of Hell's Hole. She said she would just as soon not have a second. The dogs caught the bear and bayed him all day, but we never could catch up.
Phillip's kid was definately the sure winner for Fear Factor when on the back of a mule. He wasn't afraid of anything and the mule he was on had the same attitude. More than once he should have been dead.
We do have a tendency to drink a little at night, but like the saying goes, if ya can't run with the big dogs-stay on the porch. Honestly the old age is catching up with us and we drink less, cuss more and the stories of years gone by have even gotten better. Laters

 

[grayfox]

WayCool...I have owned lots of horses and a few mules and the two best horses I ever owned were both mules! Both were naturally gaited and smooth riding, tough mountain steads. They were both off the same Spanish Jack, imported by Ralph Sloan of Chico, Ca. who is now deceased. One mule was off a Saddlebred mare and the other off a Tennnesssee Walker. They were the best for bear hunting etc that I have seen. I don't own either a horse or a mule anymore. It's all 4x4 or "two-wheel express". It's all I can afford!


"The scenery never changes unless you are the lead dog."