CMA Leatherwood Ride

A great time was had by all for the May 20-22 Leatherwood ride! I got there on Friday and met up with Marilyn and her mule Clyde from Florida. We rode most of the afternoon while others arrived for the ride. Some of the others took short rides as well! That afternoon Tara and Jim showed up, as a surprise, with no mules but their new camper. They had decided at the last minute to come and enjoy Leatherwood and visit with the group! We all had a tour of the new camper! Which was really nice and we began to plot some more trips! We all met for dinner that night at the restaurant and then visited by the creek before turning in for the night!

Saturday we left out with Myself, Marilyn, Larry, Bobby and Jane. Tara and Jim saw us off and took some photos for us! We started out up to the top of Robinson Trail and then to the over look rest area. I got the group on their way and had to head back to the camp because I was not feeling well. They continued on to Cowboy trail and then around to Rawhide. I spend the afternoon napping in my recliner by the creek but still left so badly that I could not make the whole ride.
That evening we had a group dinner and were entertained by the running of the Preakness on the TV's and also a Preakness Party! A few went out that evening for a short trail ride in hopes of catching the sunset. We spent the rest of the evening with a nice camp fire and roasting some of the largest marsh mellows I have ever seen!
Sunday Myself, Marilyn, Jane and her daughter headed out for a short ride. We rode up Ramblin and over to Rawhide. At that point Jane and her daughter headed for home, while Marilyn and I rode the Hogback and Gold digger loop back home a few hours later!
With another great visit and rides at Leatherwood under I belt we all headed home!

Marilyn and Clyde with Shannon and Seven

Group Heading Out!
Shannon and Reuben enjoying the evening fire!

Ricky Quinn Clinic

Navarre watching the class!

Shannon and Seven taking Navarre on a walk after the clinic.

Dee and Sadie working in the clinic.

Holly hosted Clinician Ricky Quinn for a clinic at Flint Rock Farm in Reidsville, NC. He is young compared to most clinicians, in his 30s, but has been riding with Buck Branhaman since he was a kid.

I came with a donkey sandwich in tow! I was bringing Sadie and Seven and had decided to bring Navarre, my young Poitou Donkey to give him some experience. The only way I could get all three loaded was to end up with Navarre in between Sadie and Seven. Not what I had wanted, but it worked! Navarre was very wide-eyed but handled everything so well! He even was good when I needed to take Seven and Sadie out of the stall. He stayed in the stall and only called to them a few times!

That evening Linda rode Sadie Mae and I rode Seven. He was invited to ride out and help bring in the horses from the fair pasture with Jay Lankford! What fun!

Then Ricky arrived and we all settled in for a dinner of steaks and way too many side dishes and desserts! We got into some interesting conversations about trainers, mules, horses, etc.

One of the things that Ricky kept saying was that there should be no difference in handling mules and horses. He kept insisting that he handles them the same way. We kept saying that you had to do this or that. It was a lively discussion.

Dee arrived and got settled in. She is just starting as an adult to get into mules and is more or less trying them out. She rode with us at DuPont for a little bit and was going to use Sadie in the clinic.

The next morning we met at the arena for some groundwork! I had brought Navarre out to watch the whole thing and had tied him outside the arena. Everyone from the barn and those watching the clinic who came over to pet him thought he was so cute. It was so good for him. He really did not act like he was afraid of anything except a big drain that we had to pass!

Ricky commented that he thought Navarre was ridiculous and did not see the point of owning him. Half way through the ground working session, Seven was doing very well, so I decided to let him have a break and get Navarre out. Ricky commented that my mule had shrunk! Ricky asked me what my goal with Navarre was, because I sure could not ride him. I told him it was for him to learn manners and be respectful and to teach him to drive.

I worked him some and got him to several times drift and yield his hindquarters. Ricky watched for a while and then said he got it. Navarre was cute! I told him, “Yes, that was his main job – to be cute!

We worked all weekend and I learned a lot. The one thing I realized was that the reason Ricky doesn’t think you should handle a mule any differently than a horse is because his horsemanship is at such a high level that it doesn’t matter if it is a mule or a horse. Most people never reach that level!

CMA Horse & Mule Show

Shannon and Seven show in Western Pleasure.

Sandra & Sarah with their winning! Not a bad start!

CMA Horse & Mule Show -October

Our mule club has raffled off a mule colt for our yearly fundraiser. After years of this, several of our members got tired of doing it and keeping the colt. So we started a benefit horse and mule show instead. This was our second year holding the show and with plenty of volunteers, I decided to show Seven to help support it. We got there on Friday afternoon and got to school in the arena for a good long while! I was parked next to Holly, Sandra, and Linda. A few others also came in, too. We had a good time hanging out and getting everything prepped for showing the next day. Saturday came early, and I was so pleased to get a Bo Jangles breakfast biscuit from Jay that morning! Boy did that hit the spot.

We showed in halter and showmanship. Seven and I got second in Showmanship with horses mixed in. Then the English riding classes started. Sandra was showing her new mule Sarah. She bought her from Karen Reeder with the hope that she could do some showing with her. Sarah has shown a lot before, but Sandra had not ridden in a show since she was a young kid. Well, Sandra and Sarah blew everyone’s socks off by winning the first class with about 18 people in it! Then she got a second and a few more firsts! We were all so happy for her! She was elated, to say the least! Seven and I did ok for most of the show; we placed in every class and showed in the western classes, too! It was a lot of fun and the judge said he had never seen a nicer bunch of broke mules!

The club ended up raising a pretty good amount, and we will vote on making a donation to a therapeutic riding group or something like that at our January Planning Meeting!

Donna from France Visits Again

Donna makes Sadie work hard for her cookies! Watch out for your fingers Donna!
Tacked up and ready to ride!

South Mountain –CMA Ride By: Donna Taylor (Puylaurens, France)

Whilst leaving Colin in charge of weaning Lottie and Fiona, I went off to enjoy myself on my two-week trip to America. As usual, I gave Colin lots of instructions on what to do and not to do with the three donkeys and Martha, the tortoise. I know Colin is perfectly capable of looking after them all whilst I’m away, but I always feel so much better when I’ve talked through everything with him.

So, off I flew to North Carolina. My plans were to meet up with the three friends that I stayed with last year. Firstly, I was going to stay with Shannon Hoffman, who has two beautiful Belgian mules, Seven and Sadie Mae. Then it was off to Boiling Springs to stay with Charles and Daphne Bridges, a couple that I first met on the Red Rock Ride holiday ten years ago. And finally, I would spend a few days in West Jefferson with Joel and Nicole Robinson whom I also first met on the Red Rock Ride

When I was planning this holiday, I emailed Shannon to let her know I would be coming to North Carolina some time in September and to find out when would be a good time to stay with her. Shannon belongs to the Carolina Mule Association and she said that the club had arranged a weekend riding at South Mountains State Park and could I make it for that date as I would then be able to ride Sadie Mae, one of the kindest and safest mules around. I rode Sadie Mae last year at Leatherwood Mountains, so this idea suited me perfectly.

The riding hat and jodhpurs were in the suitcase even before I started packing. There was going to be one slight problem - I hadn’t ridden for at least ten months and I was sure to be saddle-sore before the end of the weekend.

Shannon met me at Raleigh Airport at about five o’clock on a Thursday afternoon and we headed straight to a saddlery shop. I told Shannon there was absolutely nothing I needed for my trip or to take home with me, but I would love to have a look around. Well, thirty minutes later, we left the shop with a very nice pair of Ariat boots. A girl can never have too many of these!

Dinner was next and then we called into a supermarket to stock up on our lunches and dinners for the weekend. By the time we got to Shannon’s house, it was around two in the morning British time and I was feeling quite tired, But I soon woke up once I saw Shannon’s family of furry friends.

First to greet me was Reuben – Shannon’s gorgeous corgi. I’m not sure if he remembered who I was, but he was certainly happy to see me. Maybe he remembered the accent! Then I met Seven, Sadie Mae, Chester and Navarre. I was so excited to be back with mules again.

So, Friday morning we were up at half-past five putting the mules in the trailer before heading off to South Mountain State Park. We were meeting Shannon’s friend Ron and his mule Jed in a parking area near to where Shannon lives. Ron had recently bought Jed and joined the Carolina Mule Association, He thought it would be good experience to do some trails with the Association and also to get to know a few of the members.

We arrived at the Park a little before midday. We unloaded the mules and put them in their stalls before setting up camp. I know I have said this before, but it still amazes me to see how well set up things are in America for trail rides and camping for rider and equine. I am so impressed.

To say that I was on cloud nine for the duration of the weekend was an understatement. Everywhere I looked there were mules. I knew that the campsite was going to be mostly occupied with mule owners from the Association, so I was so happy to know I would be around these beautiful long eared equines for a whole three days and, of course, riding the best mule in town too.

Not all the mule riders were at the campsite on the Friday, so that afternoon there were only six of us ready for a ride. We went for about seven miles along beautiful tracks with beautiful scenery. Sadie was perfect as usual and it felt so good being on the back of a mule again. I spent a lot of time speaking to Ron, who was riding his handsome mule Jed. I told him that, because of jetlag, I would probably wake up at the crack of dawn, wide-awake and not get back to sleep. Ron said that he is an early riser and if I woke early, I could walk over to his camping area and he would make me a cup of tea. That sounded like a good idea to me.

That evening was spent around the campfire with everyone catching up on each other’s news. We didn’t go to bed late, as we knew we had a long day ahead of us on the Saturday. Before we went to bed, we popped into the stable area to check on Seven and Sadie. The majority of the mules had their heads over their stable doors ready to greet us. I could hear either a little bray or the munching of hay. Wow, I’m back in mule land again.

On the Saturday morning, I was wide-awake at around 05:30am. Unfortunately, I woke Shannon up whilst I was getting dressed, but I said that I could feed, water and clean the stalls and she could stay in bed a little bit longer - a luxury for Shannon.

It was pitch black when I walked out of the trailer. I froze for a few seconds because I have a huge fear of bears and I had this image of one jumping out of the woods and attacking me. So I very swiftly walked over to the stalls, quietly said good morning to Seven and Sadie Mae and headed towards Ron’s trailer.

Ron made me a nice cup of tea and we sat chatting until sunrise, when it was time to feed the mules. Seven and Sadie Mae seemed quite excited to have a new friend give them their breakfast and a few treats. I cleaned out the stalls, which was the least I could do for Shannon and then headed back to the trailer for breakfast.

I knew this was going to be a long day, but in my mind, it turned out to be an epic. We all had to be ready to ride at 09:00 so that we could have our group photo taken. I think I counted around 25 mules with their riders. After the photos, about 18 of us headed one way and six took another trail.

At lunchtime we stopped, tied up the mules and some of us took a short walk down to see a beautiful waterfall. I was quite glad of the rest as I was already starting to get a little sore. When we resumed the ride, the afternoon seemed to go on and on and on. We had a little stop mid-afternoon just to stretch our legs. I think I almost fell off Sadie Mae.

Shannon could see I was getting a little uncomfortable and suggested that we take a shorter route back. ‘Oh, what a great idea!’ I thought. ‘Maybe it’s going to be one or two miles back to camp.’ Then Shannon told me that we were much further away than that, even by the shorter route.

Five of us took the shorter ride. The trails were quite steep and rocky in places, which normally don’t bother me at all, but on this particular day, I could feel every one of Sadie’s muscles when she walked.

Shannon was telling me at one point that we had about three miles to go, however, I must have mistook what she said because we saw a sign that said 4.6 miles to camp. I nearly cried. I think Shannon must have found it quite funny, because I didn’t stop complaining the whole 4.6 miles back to camp.

I even had to get off Sadie Mae about three times that afternoon as my backside and legs were so numb. Sadie loved me as her rider as we would walk side by side along the trails together and I had plenty of treats for her too. At least I wasn’t the only one to walk. Ron, Marty and Shannon all led their mules a little way too, but none of them complained like I did.

When we finally arrived back at camp, we had been nearly ten hours in the saddle. I noticed that the other group were already home, and had already untacked their mules and were looking at us as if to say: ‘Well, what happened to you lot?’

After managing to dismount and collapse in a heap, I helped Shannon untack Sadie Mae and put her in her stall. I then took a very long shower, drank a cold beer and started to feel a little better, before I remembered that we were off on another ride the next morning.

Sunday morning, I was up at the crack of dawn again and headed straight over to have my cup of tea with Ron. His gorgeous dog, Tripp was waiting for me by the trailer and Ron had the water nice and hot for my tea. We sat and talked until sunrise, when we headed over to feed and water the mules before cleaning the stalls.

Ron and I were both very sore from the previous two days’ riding, but were determined to ride out with the group again. We knew it wasn’t going to be as long as Saturday’s ride as everyone was going to be leaving that afternoon to head home. I thought we would only have time for two or three hours – that was certainly wishful thinking!

My friends Charles Bridges and his son in law Ezra joined us on the ride. I was going to be staying with Charles and his wife Daphne when I left South Mountain and as Charles only lives 45 minutes from the Park, they were invited to ride with us on their mules.

We set off again at nine o’clock. I felt so battered and bruised from the last two days that I really didn’t know how I was going to cope. There were only ten of us in the group that morning, and Teddy Royal was our leader. Everyone knew how sore I was, but I told them that they wouldn’t hear me complain once. I was also determined not to get off and walk which didn’t please Sadie Mae at all.

Teddy would stop for a break every few miles and pretend that he needed to get off his mule for a rest. He knew just how uncomfortable I was and I can’t thank him enough for giving me those five-minute breaks. Trying to get back on Sadie Mae was getting harder and harder and on one occasion Max gave me a leg up and I nearly went right over the other side.

The group that morning were so much fun. Teddy got me talking with an American accent and when I said, "I'm gonna bust you with a stick," they all laughed so much. At least it took my mind off the pain!

The ‘morning’ ride finished 12 miles later at half-past-two in the afternoon. I slid off Sadie Mae and drew a sigh of relief: no more riding for a few days. Luckily, Charles could see I needed a few days’ rest.

We hosed the mules down, cleaned the stalls and put everything in the trailer. I said my goodbyes to Teddy, LuAnn and all the other lovely people I had ridden with before helping Shannon load Sadie Mae and Seven into the trailer.

To have the opportunity to ride the beautiful Sadie Mae is very special and I’m so grateful to Shannon for arranging for me to enjoy a wonderful weekend in the South Mountains State Park with the Carolina Mule Association. You are extremely kind, thank you.

It was so very nice to meet such wonderful members of the Carolina Mule Association and I hope, one day, I will be able to ride with you again. You all made me feel so welcome and I have made new friends too. Thanks to the Saturday riders for putting up with my moaning for the last 4.6 miles and thanks to Teddy for giving me a breather every few miles on the Sunday. Lastly, thanks to Ron for his company and those lovely cups of tea.

To all the Mule and More readers. I wish you a very Happy Christmas and a very safe, healthy and prosperous New Year. With all my love, Donna xxx

Grayson -A break from the Heat!

I always look forward to the Grayson Highland Trip! I always want to leave early and never come back! Mom came up a few days early so that she could help me get ready and she was going to stay and look after the farm while I was gone. I headed up on Wednesday as early as I could since the AC was out in my truck! I discovered this too close to the trip and I did not want to leave, even an minute late, for the trip.

I had a hard time deciding which mule to take with me. All Spring I had been riding Sadie Mae on my trips as she is easier on my back. The fact that I was going to be gone so many days and might need to miss a day lead me to bring Seven this time, as he is very willing to stand in the barn while the other mule leave, were as many of you know Sadie is not so polite about being left.

It turned out to be the right decision.

Once I arrived and got settled a few of us took a short ride to the Ice Cream Camp store. We pigged out of on some Popsicles and headed back. On Thursday we headed out with a group of 11 to an all day ride. We rode to the Saddle and then down to the Maple Tree Trail. Jay took us by a HUGE tree that was dead and had been struck by lighting. I think the tree was well over 100 years old. Kind of scary and makes you respect the weather and climate at 5,000 feet!

Jay told us that there had been two huge snow storms over the winter, one right after the other. Because of this the people who look after the ponies could not get to them and give them the hay they needed. Many of the ponies had died. They will not be having a pony sale this year because of it. They usually round them all up in September and have a fund raising sale to benefit the local fire department. Very sad! So we were happy to see this mare and foal!

It was a great ride but done at a fast pace all day so I was exhausted by the time we reached camp. I had decided that I would not ride out with the group on Friday but rather sleep in and ride out to pick some blue berries and take some photos. I had a great time spending a few hours with just Seven and myself. He was very good and stood parked next to several bushes while I picked berries from the top of the bushes! Then we rode out with a few late arrivals from the mule group. I broke off from them once we got out the main gate and I headed up a hill near by to take some photos.
I was very pleased with Seven, he did not give me any fuss about being in the barn or leaving our friends after riding with them for a bit. Mules can be very tough about staying with their buddies but Seven did not. I hope he enjoyed spending the time with just me as I did with just him!

I started feeling sick later that afternoon and headed down the mountain to find a clinic to see a doctor. I got lucky and was seen, got my medication and was back up to the camp in about three hours. Saturday I continued to not feel very well and so I stayed back at camp and slept all day. Again lucky that I had brought Seven, as Sadie would have both hurt herself and taken the barn down by now! I did take Seven out to graze later that afternoon. Again he impressed me because I sat in a chair held his lead rope to graze him. At one point he got over near the walking path for people to go back and forth from the bathrooms, so I just raised my hand and did a "Direct and Drive" and he moved over to the over side of the chair! All those hours of training pays off once in a while!

Each night was had some great meals as Holly, Sandra and I took turns cooking for each other and Barry cooked Cobblers for dessert each night. Karen even made Home-made Ice cream one night! It was tons of fun to visit with everyone!

Sunday I was finally feeling better enough to ride so I rode out with a smaller group to take the Lost Trail. This is a great little over grown trail that was started as a cattle trail and goes down to a great hide-a-way place next to a rushing creek for lunch. It then carries you up to just below the Saddle area. It was a great change of pace from the open rocky trails we had been riding on.

I took my time coming home because I knew it would be hot and I did not want to leave!

Thank you Mom for looking after all others on the farm while I was gone. It seems Mom worked very hard and did a small make over on my gardens while I was gone too! A nice surprise to come home too.

Also thanks to for Seven for being a great friend and trail mule!

Mule Club Leatherwood Ride

The weather was prefect for a Fall ride at Leatherwood!

Friday afternoon Jane and I met up and took on the challenge of Ambush Trail (one of mine and Jane's favorites!) We then went to the Elk Creek over look before heading back to camp. It was a cool, crisp night and I took advantage of the quite camp ground and headed to bed early.

Saturday only three riders made it for the weekend. Jane and her Token Mule Club Horse Val and Beverly and her mule Gypsy Rose, of course Sadie Mae and myself. We set out on a very cool morning and as we climbed the hills the temperature also climbed. Some of the trees still had their brilliantly colored leaves. The ones that did not let us see the mountain views that are hidden all summer!

We rode Cowboy trail and had lunch in a meadow sitting in the cool grass! Sadie tried to take a roll in the meadow (Can't say that I don't blame her) but my saddle was on! Beverly's mule Rose was very good the whole ride but tried some new 'tricks' on Beverly once we got back to the barn. She wanted to stay with Val the horse rather than ride over to the other barn with Sadie. Beverly handled it well and persisted and was rewarded by winning that battle! Both are well on their way to a great partnership!

Saturday night Jane's husband Paul, who was out hiking during the day, saved us by getting a wonderful fire going! It was a cool evening with the stars shinning bright. Beverly and I surprised Jane with a birthday cake and card. Her birthday was the next week.

Sunday we set out for a shorter ride. The sky was just as clear and the trails so quite! Hardly a bird was even up that morning! After coming in Jane and Paul hit the road and Beverly and I enjoyed a great lunch at the Saddlebrook Resturant before loading up and heading home!