Sadie Mae's First Book Signing

On Dec. 13th, Sadie Mae showed up at 2pm at the Coffee Hound Books Store in Louisburg, NC to deliver the books that bearsher photo to the Author, Donna Campbell Smith! Great fun was had by all as she greeted guests at the book signing. She did well for the photo shoot, as it was not get first! She sniffed everyone up and down for cookies and let people take their photo with her. For many people it was the first time they had been this close to a mule! She stood patiently for the afternoon to meet her admirers!

At the end of the day it was back to the farm, eatting hay like all the other non-famous mules!

To order a copy of the book "The Book of Mules" by: Donna Campbell Smith call Millie at The Coffee Hound Bookshop (919) 496-6030

Another appreance is being planned at the Triangle Horse Sports Shop in Northern Raleigh for Early Spring!

Photos of Shannon, Sadie Mae and Author Donna Campbell Smith!

Shiloh Loses Her Skirt In The Tractor Supply Parking Lot!

Linda Morris, Shiloh's new owner started out our phone conversation by saying to me "Shiloh lost her skirt in the Tractor Supply parking lot!" Which sounds like a huge problem if you are a lady but a lady Mule with lots of winter hair, not too bad!

Linda decorated Shiloh with a Santa Hat, Sleigh Bells, Big Red Bow and a Tree Skirt for her Christmas time visit to Tractor Supply Company, where Linda works part time. As they stood out front giving out candy and letting kids pet and feed Shiloh treats, her Tree Skirt kept blowing off in the wind. Linda said she had to finally just take it off as she could not get it securely tied on!

Shiloh enjoyed all the attention and stood steady as people with shopping carts and merchandise came in and out of the sliding doors! She gave a few kids a pony ride and made their day too!

Linda and Shiloh are having more fun together than I ever could have imagined! You can tell by this photo that they both are having great fun!

Seven's First Dressage Show

We arrived in plenty of time and I tried not to be noticed as I slipped him off the trailer. The Preserve Farm in Washington, NC was a very pretty and nicely laid out place! There were already several trailers with nice looking horses tied to them and people out warming up their horses.
I had clipped Seven and vacuumed him till no dust came out of his coat when you patted him. Not something easy to do with a full winter coat! Claudia and her husband Jack arrived as I was tacking Seven up. I put the new Dressage pad under our English saddle so we at least looked the part! I warmed up and got several warm welcomes from other participants. I still was trying to stay away from the other horses! Seven was being a very reserved and well behaved!
Claudia gave me my last minute instructions before it was my turn to go in the ring and try our hand at Dressage Test Introduction B. So much to think about! I was just hoping to stay in the ring and remember the pattern! Seven rode very well! He stayed between my legs and my hands for most of the ride! I was very pleased and even had a little cheering section when I got done! I was relieved! I learned later we had received a 68 score, which I am told is very good and impressive for our first test.

We then competed in the Sport Horse Versatility Class which is working over obstacles and then another class in hand with a halter. They take your riding score in this class and match it with your dressage test to place the class. I ended up with a 2nd in the in-hand class and a 3rd in the obstacles/dressage test class.
I let Seven rest at the trailer for a while and watched Claudia and Jack take their horses through the Tests and the Sport Versatility Classes too. Soon it was time for me to saddle up again.

This test was more complicated and I hoped to stay on course. Seven was not as light and forward as I would have wanted but we still stayed on course and got the job done. We scored a 60.7 on the Training Level 2 test and placed 4th.
I was very please with how everyone responded so well to Seven. You never know how things will go when you show up with a mule.

In an email Claudia told me that “I think you and Seven really made a good impression on the Dressage riders. I heard so many good comments about him and I think everyone really enjoyed seeing a well behaved and athletic Dressage Mule.”

Thank you Claudia for the complements and all the help and good advice!!
We have another Dressage Show on the 20th in Raleigh! Got some practicing to do between now and then!

Mules in the Feed Room!

I came home on Friday (12/5/2008) with a lot to do for the Dressage Show the next day! I saw something that made my heart sink! The feed room door was open and the Mustang’s butt was hanging out of the doorway! No sign of Seven anywhere so that had to mean he was in the feed room! I calmly went in the house and changed my coat and shoes. I did not want to scare them out of the feed room and have them hurt themselves so I quietly unchained the gate, but as I unlatched it they heard me.
They reacted like two little kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar! The horse scrambled backwards and some how did not hurt himself on the tin he pulled back. Then I heard Seven scrambling around with hooves on metal trash cans and cans falling over! He got to the doorway and jumped the three steps down and went bucking across the paddock! I was afraid to see how much they had eaten. It looked like about 20 pounds a piece but I could not be sure. I was also amazed to see that they had not fallen through the floor in that old building! Good think I had put some plywood over the rotten hold in the floor!
(For those of you who don’t know about horses, they can kill themselves by eating too much grain as toxins in their body from the over load poison their systems, plus they could colic)
My neighbor had mistakenly forgotten to close the feed room door when some people dropping off a trailer for some parade hay got her in a hurry, easy thing to do!
I put them all in their pens and watched them both on and off all night. The both seemed to be ok but walked around like they where a little bloated! I kept those two off any more grain for a few days and off all hay that night! Seven pooped all day long at the Dressage Show but LUCKY for Seven and Buckshot they both suffered no ill effects!

Thanksgiving 2008

Mom and Dad came down for Thanksgiving! Some how, I pulled the house together, had Thanksgiving dinner ready when they arrived on Thursday afternoon. Dad wore his vest I gave him for his Birthday and the hat from a few years ago. We ended up dressing alike so of course we had to take a photo with a mule.
Friday I rode Seven and practiced for the dressage show coming up and also rode the Haflinger mule all over the farm and tested him out! He keeps impressing me!
Reuben, Mom's Dog Dylan and the Wild Cat all did very well together until Sat. Night. Dylan was chasing the lazer dot and the cat decied he did not like Dylan acting like that! Shawn the cat got all upset and every hair on his body was standing up. I chased him out of the living room, got my gloves on and picked him up and put him in the bathroom. He cooled out! In 20 minutes we had a nice kitty again!
Saturday Mom and I did some shopping and then we rested and ate the rest of the day! Sunday they headed home but it took them longer than expected because it was raining horribly and cold!

Shiloh's New Home!

November 22 and 23, 2008 was a long tiring weekend! I might just have to not do much but sleep over Thanksgiving! I left Friday night and took Shiloh to my friend Holly's place in Columbus, NC. Then Saturday Holly came with me and we hit the road at 8AM. I was taking my mule Shiloh to her new owner, Linda Morris in South Carolina. I have not had much time to spend with Shiloh and Linda needs an older steady mount to ride. On the way we stopped at this regular looking gas station to get a bring and use the restroom. They had the most interesting crafts and wood carvings all over the store. Framed prints and paintings, wood cravings, hand made signs and pottery. All of a sudden in the middle of no where we were shopping! Holly bought a really nice bear head carved out of a pine knot and a carved gourd for a friends. I bought a walking stick that had twisted wood from a vine growing into it. I also found a poster of South Carolina Waterfalls for a friend who works on my truck who just happens to spend his free time hiking to waterfalls!

We finally arrived at Linda’s Place!
Linda almost cried when I opened the trailer and told her to go in and get her new mule!
The Big Bow (Like the car commercials) was a Big Hit!
We looked are over and I told Linda some of Shiloh’s quirks, then Linda rode her for a few minutes to try her out and to see how her tack fit Shiloh.
I got to see my old Donkey Banjo which Linda calls Brayhoven. He looked very good and happy! We had lunch then messed with Linda’s Haflinger Mule for the afternoon. We left about 4pm and took the mule with me to try out for my friend Beverly. We got back to Holly’s house in Columbus about 5:30 so I went out for Chinese for dinner with Bruce and Holly.

Left Sunday at 6AM, got to my house at 10:30, set the new mule up in a paddock and started getting ready for the Pony Party! Cleaned the paddock (5 wheelbarrows) then tacked up and decorated Chester and Sadie! They looked great with silver hooves, painted stars and hearts all over them! Eight kids came and we have endless pony rides for about an hour and a half and some parents and a grandfather rode too! After they left I cleaned the trailer, unpacked and crashed in my bed!!! Now I have a mule and a donkey with silver hooves and silver stars and hearts all over them walking around in my pasture! What will the neighborhood think?? Hopefully it will all come off in the next rain storm!

Seven's Dressage Lesson

Yesterday Dressage Trainer and Instructor Claudia Coombs came out to help me and Seven get ready for some Dressage Shows we are going to attend. She gave me some things to work on with him and we rode till we could not see each other anymore because it was so dark! FUN!
I met Claudia when a mutual friend of ours put us in contact because she wanted to learn more about mules. So we are helping each other out!

Thanks so much for all your help Claudia!
Here is a neat photo of Claudia riding Seven:

The Blue Mushroom

Sounds like a cool Bar or Restaurant we would like to visit, doesn't it?

I saw this Very Blue Mushroom while riding Seven in the Uwharrie National Forest with my mule club in the Fall of 2008. I found it very interesting and so I took a photo of it and did some research on the Internet.
I found Dr. Tom Volk, Professor of Biology at University of Wisconsin.

He said it was a Lactarius Indigo.

check out his link http://botit.botany.eisc.edu/toms_fungi/june2000.html

Thanks for the feed back Tom!

2008 Birthday and National Mule Day

I had a great Birthday, had fun all weekend, taking Seven to two mule shows.

Friday night we left and tried to beat the sun going down and the rain starting. We did and I got all settled in my bed when the rains came. Seven stayed mostly dry because I let him camp under the awning. He kept standing with his rear end sticking out and got that part of him soaked!

Denton Farm Park in Denton, NC holds a nice Mule and Draft horse day the end of October. They have crafts for sale, demonstrations of wood cutting, singing, dancing and of course plowing and a mule show. They also have a full sized steam train and 3 miles of track. It is a very relaxing and neat place to be. There were some really nice mules from Ohio there so the competition was deep. I was pleased with Seven’s rides especially since we had not practiced very much. Seven got a third in the trail class!

At Noon they had a planned robbing of the General Store that was about 200 feet from where we were having the mule show. We stopped the show but most of us just stood around with our mules. The mules did great with all the gun fire! I jumped more than Seven did! As the actors moved towards the Church at the end of the little “main street” a little rabbit came running out from under the church. Of course that caught everyone’s attention. He ran right in front of me and Seven and under Karen’s horse trailer and then darted across the arena and into the woods. Poor thing was scared to death! The whole crowd laughed and watched the rabbit rather than the show!

I did get to play with my friend James McLamm’s trick mule's toys on Sat afternoon. With me on the ground Seven jumped up on a pedestal about 2 1/2 foot high and put his front feet up on a small dinner plate sized one too. I was very proud of him. That Chris Cox "Direct and Drive" and the words Load Up did the trick! He also crossed a teeter –totter bridge for me several times.

At the State Fair show on Sunday, we lost steering before the Ranch riding class and then the Right lead went out before the reining, but it is all good because we did not, but came close, run over the Judge!Seven gets tired and wants to go home and things the out gate is much more appealing than what ever we are doing in the ring. Need less to say we did some schooling on right hand turns and right leads after the last class.
I got home around 8:30 and got mostly unpacked! Time to clean the trailer out, get some wash done and start packing for Leatherwood!!! YEA!!!

Fire's Ceek! Trip from HELL?

The first weekend of June, 2007 I went to a place called Fire's Creek in the very western corner of NC near Murphy. It took me 7 1/2 hours to drive home! I stayed at a friend’s place (THANKS Dr. Jim!) the night I left and finished the drive the next morning.
The directions were ok but the road signs were really bad! I turned on to the wrong Forest Road, which ended a mile down a one-lane gravel road. There was no place to even think about turning my 24 foot trailer around!
First I wanted to cry, then I was wondering if I could get a Ranger to help, then I thought about setting up camp and riding my mule to find help! But decided I wanted out now so, I had to start backing! I backed a long way and the road started going back down a little hill. The trailer would slide about 2-3 feet down the gravel hill each time I hit the breaks! That was scary because at the bottom of the hill and around a corner was a little bridge that I had just barely driven over going forward! Somehow I made it across the bridge and also made another sharp turn to the right!
Once I got most of the way backed out of the road I found place to pull in and try to turn around. I backed on to the second bridge and took a hard turn to the left. Put the trailer in a ditch but I made the turn. The truck could not get the trailer out of the ditch. I had to take poor Seven out of the trailer and walk him down the road and tie him to a tree.
(I wonder what he was thinking about all this!)
I was able to pull back and forward about twenty times to get the trailer moved over onto the road. Then I walked down to rescue Seven, who jumped right back on the trailer for me. I was then able to make it back the road I incorrectly turned off. Unfortunately, that turn could not be made either so I had to go several miles back down the one-lane Forest Road to a place where I could turn around! The whole thing added two hours to my trip! Boy was I glad to find the horse camp! Needless to say, my trailer and I are fully bonded and I feel as if I can take it anywhere now!I had a wonderful ride and met a lot of great (horse) people! So it was well worth it! Seven and I went to test for the American Trail Horse Association (www.trailhorse.com) 7 levels of trail training. We passed all 7 of the levels! There is a pretty trail called the Rim Trail that goes all the way around the mountains in that area. We rode about a 1/4 of it. There is a nice primitive campsite and a very nice horse club who would be willing host us! I would love to bring the CMA back and to do some riding or a pack trip around the whole Rim. I promise that I will hang some signs or ribbons if we host a ride here so no one else gets into the kind of trouble I did!



Skid marks from sliding down the hill! Small bridge I had to back over!
Many waterfalls on the trails! Mountain Laurel in full bloom!