My Mules Confirm that I am truly CRAZY!

Tara riding Sadie Mae, Diane driving Pearl in the Parade!

Diane driving Pearl in the show!

For years the mules have thought that I am Crazy, but now it is confirmed for them!

Got up at 5:30 AM and washed them both down in pouring rain and a thunderstorm. Loaded them on the trailer, ran in the house and took a quick shower and then off we went driving, huh, I mean swimming to the Robbins Farmers Day Fair!
Drove out of the rain that dumped nearly 2 inches on Raleigh just 15 miles south.
We had a good time at the Parade. The mule number was low so I was glad that I went! My friend Tara met me in Robbins and rode Sadie through the parade. I had Seven with his Mexican Mule outfit (Sombrero and giant bandanna to his knees) on and Sadie with her Sunflower hat, necklace of sunflowers around her neck and some in her tail. You could just hear all the people getting excited when they saw us. Kids would say, "Mom look at that one!" and adults were trying to take our photos!
After the parade, we went to the awards and Todd won Best Mule Team, with his Mammoth Donkey team, Sadie and Katie. He was happy to win but also a little perplexed that the Judges did not know there where Mammoth Donkeys. He said he is going to get a sign for his wagon next year!
My friend Diane came with her Donkey Pearl and drive her through the parade! Pearl did so well for this only being her 2nd parade being driven in! Diane was dressed like a country lady with a straw hat with flowers and Pearl had one too. She had flower all over her cart and a basket with fruit and flowers in it. We was surprised and also a little dismayed to win Oddest Hitch.
We started the show and I convinced Bobby to show Sadie in Halter, Western Pleasure and Coon Jumping. We also showed in Pairs Class. Unfortunately in most of the classes we were the only two. There was several driving mules and donkeys though. Several people asked, "Why don't they do this in October or something!" I agree!

Todd's Wonderful Donkeys Sadie and Katie!

Here is a great photo show of Robbins Farmers Day Fair from this last Saturday!

Here are also some time markers to be able to watch for me and some of my friends!!!

Link or put into your web search to play:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BIFSZp2ugQM

Todd Barfield Mammoth Donkeys Sadie & Katie at 1:26 & 1:41 &

11:48

Wayne Hussey 4 up hitch

2:40

Sadie Mae & Tara and Seven & Shannon at 4:33 and 4:41

,

Pearl and Diane 4:45

at the end is Odell Hussey, in his late 80's doing demo of stacking logs with his horse Johnny!

Also a photo of my mule doing something kind of neat! The ladies driving Donkey, would not get on the trailer. She had pushed herself to the side and two big men could not get her to go straight again! I brought Seven over and lined him up, drove his shoulder over and told him to push the Donkey over!! And he did it!!! Wow, MULE ARE SMART! I was so amazed that he understood what I needed him to help with!!!

Robbins Farmer's Day Fair

Went the the Robbins Farm's Day Fair this Saturday. It was HOT! I met up with a lady, Anne and her mule Sister who just moved from CA. This was the molly's first parade. Sister got all crazy over some donkeys that where in the parade in front of us and did not even care about what was in the parade. So funny!
The mule was prancing and dancing and braying! I told her that she may not like how her mule was acting but that the Judges and crowd would. Guess what! Sister won the trophy for BEST MULE in the Parade!! We where so excited!

Along with several other CMA Members, Kenny Tyndall was there with all four of his mules hooked up! They looked good and did great for being a new four up team!
http://lasthillmulefarm.blogspot.com/

After Lunch we waited for the Army to do a 4 man parachute jump before we could begin the mule show. They land in the same field that we have the show in!
Seven got 2nd out of three in halter. (Can't beat Mable she is too prefect!)
Then we rode in Western Pleasure. Seven rode very well with no warm up and won the class, but there was only one other mule in the class. I was still pleased with how Seven rode and had several people tell me they where impressed with how broke he was.
(Oh yea, there was a Lumber Jack Competition going on 30 feet from the ring!)
When no one signed up for Coon Jumping Class Robbie asked me to go in since he knew Seven would at least jump a little. (I have not worked on Coon Jumping only Direct and Drive over some barrels and a few downed trees)
We got 4 others to enter and guess what? Seven WON! We jumped about 3 feet in four seconds and the only other mule to jump that high did it in a longer time. We got a 24" tall trophy.
Who would have ever guessed a Belgian Mule would win the Coon Jump?

For those of you who don't know what Coon Jumping is:
It is a high jump competition where the mule is led into a 10x10 box and then must stop and stand. Then the timer is started to see who jumps the fence the quickest. You get to knock the bar down at each height one time and then your out if you miss again. Usually smaller lighter mules do well at this event and can jump 72" or higher from a stand still! It is Jaw Dropping to see them do it! This started after people where using mules to coon hunt with.

Teaching a mule to want to jump over a little wood bar, sometimes high enough for them to walk under and easy for them to knock down, is like trying to teach a cat to shake hands on command!