It's Official! I'm Owned by a Mule!!!

I  tried to wait until she arrived, I really did, but I am so terminally over-excited I'm nearly levitating!

 Meet Josie--- my new mule!  Just getting any new equine is a huge deal for me, as I only keep 2 at a time, and I tend to keep them all their lives.  I've had Willow, my ASB for 5 years (he's 8), and I had Woody for 22, until he passed away this spring, at 28.

 I've never owned a mule  before, but I decided about a year ago that I wanted one for my next (and possibly last) riding partner.  Mules are supposed to have a longer working life than horses, and since I turned 50 yesterday  --thank you, thank you-- with luck Josie may carry me through the rest of my riding years.

  I will have to board her with her owners, the wonderful Double Creek Farm, and Painted QH Farm until I return from my annual Thanksgiving in Arizona trip, the end of November.

Isn't she Adorable?  I love her coloring.  I know how weird and out-there this is going to sound, but when I had an excellent animal communicator working with Willow  back in the Spring, I asked him to ask Willow how he felt about me getting a mule.

 Willow: Let me get back to you on that.

At the end of the 'conversation' Willow allowed as how a mule would be alright, but he'd prefer a dark colored one.

Huh.  Well, I  bore it in mind, but only as an incidental.  It is important to me that my horses get along, and hopefully like each other, but I'm not going to make any decision based on his whim.  However, technically Josie fits that bill as well!

 She just has such a kind eye.  On the Farm's websites, there is a 14 minute video that I've watched about 8 times showing her trail riding with aplomb, doing the exact kinds of things I want to ask her to do, competently and willingly traversing all kinds of terrain with ease.

I don't know how I'm going to wait until the end of November for her to arrive!

Trust me, you can expect to hear about many adventures that we will have.  In fact, one of my trail riding friends refers to my outings as, "ALWAYS an adventure", and I don't think it was meant completely as a compliment, although that's the way I took it.  It's not that I'm foolhardy or anything.  Well, maybe  a little, but I'm slowly growing out of it and learning my limitations.  I just sometimes depart from the trails, and my trails are often not manicured and even like most of the horseback riding trails in our area.

We are very fortunate to be close to the enormous and beautiful Walthour-Moss Foundation which is spider webbed with wonderfully maintained dirt roads and trails, but there's hardly a branch to duck, or a rut to watch out for.  I don't think they're allowed.   It's great in its way, but a lot more homogenized than my usual routes.  I try to keep most of the branches trimmed back, but ruts don't concern me, and some of my trails do bear a certain resemblance to the canyons of the Southwest.

Now, I promise, this will not be completely a mule blog, but I'm sure it's going to be mule-dominated for a while, once Miss Josie arrives!  Hee Haw!