__
Many thanks to commentor Davis X. Machina for a story that warms my Eeyore heart:
Like all dressage competitors, Audrey Goldsmith begins each ride with a customary salute to the judge. But unlike other riders, as she raises her head from the salute, she usually gets … The Look.
“It’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah, let’s get the dog and pony show over with, already,’” she says.
That’s because Goldsmith, an acclaimed hunter-jumper trainer, has joined the regional dressage show circuit — usually home to big, fancy warmbloods — on her mule….
Goldsmith had no experience with mules when she began breaking Porter herself. And although she was a highly accomplished rider and trainer at the time, she had little experience handling baby horses. So she applied techniques she had picked up during puppy obedience classes.
The process worked, and Goldsmith discovered that she felt a deeper connection to Porter than she had to any of her horses. In fact, Porter reminded her of a dog because he was so eager to please her.
“Mules really are like rideable border collies,” she says. “If you don’t like that intensity, then you won’t like a mule.”
According to Goldsmith, the donkey side of a mule is what sets it apart from a horse…
When a horse gets scared and runs away, for example, it runs until it tires or its rider calms it down. When a mule gets scared and runs away, according to Goldsmith, it runs 20 yards and then stops.
“They think, ‘OK, we’re out of danger,’” she says. “They don’t go brainless, like some horses do.”
Porter, of course, has his own Facebook page.
***********
And for those who’d rather fulminate about horses’ asses than asses dancing: As part of his I Despise All You Serfs International Tour, if you believe that leftist rag USA Today, Rmoney’s pissing off the press corps in Israel:
U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney plans to raise campaign money in private while in Israel, so what he tells wealthy American supporters abroad will be kept quiet from voters at home.
Romney’s campaign is barring reporters from a fundraiser at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel and not saying why. At U.S. events, Romney’s remarks to donors in communal spaces such as hotels are typically public…
Romney sometimes has given donors more policy specifics than he includes in his standard campaign speeches. At a fundraiser this spring in Florida, for example, he offered new details on how he might cut government and which deductions he might eliminate as part of his tax plan. The event was overheard by reporters standing on a public sidewalk…
(h/t commentor Nellcote)
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: If you happen to have a virgin around, you can catch it.
Alison
Sad news from Kevin Drum – RIP Inkblot :(
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/07/rip-inkblot
I kept hoping he’d turn back up, as cats do sometimes just wander about randomly. So sorry to hear what happened to the poor guy :(
NonyNony
@efgoldman:
More likely a few of them will have their feelings hurt by Romney’s lack of barbeques and tire swings and will make him pay for his lack of access by brutally reporting the truth about him.
Actually that IS probably more likely, come to think of it.
ChrisZ
You know, I think that Audrey Goldsmith is on to something…
Anya
@NonyNony: I doubt it. They hate the guy in the white house even more. They hate him because they know has no respect for them and their focus on bullshit stories.
JGabriel
USAToday:
I’m conflicted. On the one hand, I think we should know what Romney is telling, and promising, his wealthiest donors.
On the other hand, given Romney’s performance in the UK — one of our easiest to please allies — part of me thinks maybe it’s the better part of wisdom to keep Romney out of the press as much as possible while he’s in Israel, if only to prevent Romney from causing a bona fide international incident through his ineptness.
.
Linda Featheringill
Porter is a cutie. Never have I seen a mule so well groomed. Look at him shine.
And RIP, Inkblot.
amk
@NonyNony: Really ? Here is hackperin
Mitt flub->Brit pol->Brit journo->liberal tweet->Dem email to media->Dem+MSM retweets->Politico/Caucus blog items->cable news->b’cast news
Mnemosyne
@Alison:
Man, that sucks. I remember Inkblot from when Kevin was blogging as CalPundit.
It’s bad enough to lose an animal to old age or disease, but it must be even worse to lose one to an accident like that.
sharl
Oh man, Inkblot has been there ever since I discovered blogs ~10yrs ago – along with atrios and TPM, Kevin Drums’s original California blog (I forget its name) was a daily stop on my earliest blog rounds.
Those real coyotes are more wily than Wiley, and are formidable foes for an old cat.
RIP Inkblot.
ETA aaand Mnemosyne comes up with Drum’s original blog name (Calpundit).
Martin
@Alison: Yeah, he just sent me an email:
Gotta email all of our searchers now. Sad ending.
Alison
@Mnemosyne: Seriously. I’ve lost a number of pets but never in a violent way like that. Must have been awful to have to go look :( :(
I know Kevin drives some folks here nuts but I used to work with him and he’s a genuinely nice guy, very amiable and good to talk to, and he loves those cats like nobody;s business. So sad for him :(
Ash Can
As if it weren’t obvious why.
Yutsano
@Alison: :(
My mom kinda wants a mule. I want her to get a Clydesdale though. They’re such pretty babies.
suzanne
AWWWWW, shit. I just told my husband, and he just said that he’d probably seen more pictures of Inkblot than any other cat, save the ones he’s owned. Pobrecito.
I’m totally full of Schadenfreude for Rafalca. I want the horse to make an ass of himself. MUAHAHAAAAAA.
Martin
Unfortunately, outdoor cats don’t live long around here. Even though we’re pretty heavily populated, there’s enough in the way of greenbelts and open spaces that coyotes are common even going through our neighborhood. We’ve got a manmade lake here right by Kevin’s house and the coyotes cruise through there pretty regularly – it’s not uncommon when I go to work early to see them crossing the street. We’ve even had mountain lion sightings about ¼ mile from here. A neighbors cat was seen being carried off by a vulture once, and I’ve seen a hawk carrying what I think was a possum near my house. Lots of hawks and falcons around here. And parrots, oddly enough.
Origuy
I was watching the start of the archery finals and heard the announcer ask the audience to turn off the flash on their cameras. Aside from the obvious fact that it could distract the competitors, your standard flash is not going to do bumpkiss at the distance the archers were from the stands except mess up the metering.
Anne Laurie
@Yutsano:
A good son would forward her a link to Porter’s story. How could she resist the concept of a “rideable border collie”?
Omnes Omnibus
@Martin:
Big hawk or small possum?
Jager
@suzanne: Poor Rafalca didn’t chose his owner.
Man, looking at Porter I guess Pat Butram was right in riding a mule in those old B cowboy movies. Porter is the nicest mule I’ve ever seen. Although a matched team I saw at the Vermont State Fair, 4 brown mules trained to pull a wagon like nobody’s business, came close.
Mnemosyne
@Martin:
Our cats are not allowed outdoors at all, and we live in terror that they’re going to manage it one of these days. There’s a coyote who loves to saunter down the street in broad daylight.
Darkrose
:( RIP Inkblot.
/gives the boys extra pettins.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Does he have a P.O. Box for his Acme deliveries?
Yutsano
@Anne Laurie: The issue is not Mom’s desire to get said animal. It’s Dad’s desire to retire. My mom already did so and started collecting SS a couple months ago. Of course he could just go to Reno and win like mad again. He’s had a few 1099-Gs in his day. That’s how he bought her first horse.
redshirt
I’ve never ridden a horse – who here is with me?
Walker
Coyotes are why my cats never go outside. My neighbors with experience say that the average lifespan of an outdoor cat in the area is less than a year.
Omnes Omnibus
@redshirt: I have never ridden a mule, does that count?
Roger Moore
@suzanne:
Obviously a sign that he needs to become interested in Maru.
NotMax
Good, though a bit longish, article on the cozy relationship (including financial) between the Romneys and Eberling. In a bit of a rush, so will leave it to others to pull out snippets. There’s some good stuff in there.
http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/20120527_Ann_Romney_has_pricey_passion_for_horseback_riding_.html?id=154711705#
From a different article:
Finally, and I find this most intriguing of all, is that the website for Eberling’s The Acres horse facility (partially owned by the Romneys, and at which they own a guesthouse) is down, purportedly “in the process of being updated.”
May have to poke around and look for older cached copies of the pages of that site. Somethin’ doesn’t smell right.
Geoduck
@redshirt: I briefly rode one once when I was about six years old, so I’m pretty much with you.
And put me in the crowd that hopes Rafalca medals, forcing Romney to publicly comment on it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Roger Moore: Good god.
Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: Big hawk. Might also have been a small possum – at least I think it was a possum based on the tail and coloring. It could have been a large white rat, but the rats around here aren’t that large from what I’ve seen. Not sure what else would have had a tail like that and the light coloring.
I don’t know if they’re different species or just different genders but I see hawks in two fairly distinctive sizes – the larger ones have a solid 3′ or larger wingspan. Not like the hawk that fishes mice out of the ground cover outside of my window at work.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: When we lived up in the hill country(CV Valley), we used to see them sometimes but hear them often. I haven’t seen them yet since we moved to the flatlands.
@Martin:I didn’t know they had them down there, my step-daughter lives down there and has a small dog. I’ll warn her next time we talk.
:( RIP – Inkblot
Narcissus
I think a cool olympic sport would be gliding, or soaring.
You could put helium in the wings. Carry water for ballast.
It’d be great. Better than a horse anyway.
Also, I kept reading drum for a long time simply because of his cats. RIP Inkblot.
Yutsano
@Martin: In raptors the females tend to be larger. At least I know that’s true for bald eagles.
suzanne
@Jager: Rafalca doesn’t give two thrusts of a mercy fuck if he gets a medal, either.
Omnes Omnibus
@Martin: I wonder if it ever went after possum again. I can’t imagine they are tasty.
@suzanne: Dude probably wants to do his thing well though.
suzanne
I don’t think we have coyotes in my neighborhood, but one of my cats got out a couple of years ago, and we thought she was a goner, but she came home about six weeks later. She was never the same. Terrified and shy for the rest of her life, when she had previously been so outgoing and fearless. Broke my heart.
Mnemosyne
@BillinGlendaleCA:
A lot of them got chased down from the hills by the Station Fire, discovered how much easier it was to eat garbage and people’s pets, and never went back.
Glendale has a bear, too, though he hangs out in the Montrose/La Crescenta area of town.
Martin
@redshirt: I touched a horse once.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: I used to live in Montrose. I know the area where the bear was.
redshirt
@Martin: I recently got my fingers bitten by a horse. His teeth were eerily people like. It hurt, but no damage, thank horses!
Mnemosyne
@redshirt:
I spent a couple of summers at different horse camps. Not only have I ridden horses, I also got to drive a single-horse cart.
Never actually owned one, though. It was hard enough to convince my parents to let me have a cat.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Shit, wolf packs in Wisconsin are moving south. A thing I think is wickedly cool.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: Wolves are pretty. Quite dangerous, but very beautiful. I’m sure they’re tracking deer movements.
Martin
@Omnes Omnibus:
Dunno. Ask Mike Huckabee. He went back for 2nds.
Jager
We live next to a conservation area with a pack of Coyotes. I kind of dig the howling and the yelping while they hunt. Mrs J, the dog and I were walking back from the park that’s just up the hill, a Coyote walked across the street about 100 feet from us. I was walking our German Shepherd early one morning and we saw a Coyote walking down the middle of our street. They are everywhere in SoCal. They keep the rabbit population down very nicely.They don’t generally screw with big dogs. Our cat lovin’ neighbors keep the cats in the house.
Micheline
@Alison: That’s really sad.
mai naem
I just read about Inkblot’s passing.I’ve gone to Drum more times today than I’ve been in a while. I kept on hoping I was going to see he’s baaack post. Guess not. RIP Inkblot. I cannot believe how attached I’ve become to these animals that I’ve never met. I cried when TBogg’s Beckham died.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: Last year, my parents saw one right near our cabin in northern WI. Dad said that it was the first time they had gone up that year and the wolf just sort of stared at them with a “What the fuck are you doing here?” look in his eyes and then wandered off in disgust. I iz envious.
Edited slightly.
RadioOne
why is dressage even in the Olympics? I thought the point of the Olympics was human athleticism.
Davis X. Machina
Coyotes are ubiquitous here in Maine, but it’s a relatively recent development. Complicating cat lives on the fringes of the boreal forest are fishers and pine martins.
My boys don’t go out. We keep them stimulated by having a very interesting (i.e. slovenly) standard of housekeeping and a house and yard well stocked with mice and moles. (The latter migrate towards the warm come the fall, and wind up in the house.)
Davis X. Machina
@mai naem: The ferrets over at First Draft, too… and they are such short-lived critters even when healthy.
Roger Moore
@Martin:
The bigger ones are probably redtails, which are a very common large hawk. They’ll frequently soar while searching for prey, and that’s when they’re easiest to see; they’ll also attack from prominent perches. I’m not sure about the smaller one.
Hypatia's Momma
My one experience with a mule (trip to the Grand Canyon) ended horribly, so I’m strongly biased against the stupid things. Maybe it was the “horse side” I encountered.
Anne Laurie
@suzanne:
She may not appreciate the “medal” part, but if Rafalca’s like the working horses (& dogs) I’ve known, she will be pleased if she has a good performance and frustrated if she — or her rider — screw it up.
Competition four-legged animals need that “spark” as much as us competitive primates. A horse or dog or cat who doesn’t take an interest in performing doesn’t make it to Olympic-level competition. Some of them do it for the glamour, seriously — they will preen when they hear applause or see camera flashes. Some of them do it because they love their partners, and will only “work” at their highest level for a specific person (or two or three). Some, I swear, are lucky enough to find joy in a particular “art” — dressage, steeplechasing, even just the beauty-contest parades — and will step it up, literally, to Be the Best.
That’s why people, like me, who’ve never ridden a horse or owned a show dog can still enjoy watching the competitions. Some of the humans involved can be monsters and criminals (Toddlers & Tiaras, anyone?) but at its best it’s still a celebration!
bago
I’m just going to leave this video of a cat in glasses right here.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
They’ve been down in the city for a lot longer than that. Every time there’s some kind of population stress- fire, drought, etc.- some of them will move out of the hills and into the city. And it’s not as though the LA area is unusual in having them. I saw one strolling through my grandmother’s neighborhood in San Francisco.
The prophet Nostradumbass
Is there anyone able to tell me anything about this? I have eight issues of it that were in a bunch of stuff from my (very) late grandfather, from Ireland. I have had a hard time finding much about it through Google.
They appear to be from 1927 and 1928.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
When I worked at the studio lot years ago, a hawk took up residence on the head of one of the dwarfs and the squirrels started turning somersaults whenever they had an unprotected stretch of lawn they had to run across.
(Employees aren’t supposed to hand-feed the squirrels, but they do it anyway. Little bastards are very bold if it looks like you have something tasty.)
Anne Laurie
@Mnemosyne:
At my age and weight, if I ever win that big lottery and get the Morgan of my girlish dreams, it’ll be a carting horse. Unlikely to happen, but it’s a nice fantasy, imagining myself as Lizzie Bennet’s aunt…
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
Sorry, I specifically meant my neighborhood — BillinGlendaleCA and I are in the same city. We definitely saw a major uptick in the coyote and bear populations within the city after the Station Fire.
ETA: Before the fire, we would sometimes hear the coyotes and knew they were there, but they weren’t wandering down the sidewalk in broad daylight. G runs into them sometimes when he’s walking to Ralphs.
Origuy
@Anne Laurie: Ever watched sheepdog trials? Those dogs know they’re on stage and love the applause.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
We’ve had at least one Cooper’s Hawk- which eat mostly other birds- living on our campus. Occasionally it would take one of its kills to a tree just outside the door of our building to pluck and eat it. When there was a whole mess of new pigeon feathers on the ground, you knew to look up to see the hawk.
And yes, squirrels can be incredibly bold. Many years ago, I would go with my grandmother to feed pigeons and squirrels in Golden Gate Park. One time when my grandmother was holding a peanut in the same hand as her cane, a squirrel ran up the cane to take the peanut out of her hand. This wasn’t something she planned; it was as big a surprise to her as it was to the rest of us.
bago
And then make it funnier.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Origuy: One Man and his Dog? I have seen that when I have been in the UK, it’s really cool.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
I had a studio squirrel get very indignant with me because I only saw it out of the corner of my eye when it jumped up on the bench with me while I was eating lunch. Apparently my jumping up and shrieking startled it, and it gave me a very dirty look before it sauntered off to find someone who would appreciate it.
robertdsc-PowerBook
RIP Inkblot. :(
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
Yeah, I live just over in Pasadena, so it’s not as if I don’t know about the Station Fire. It’s just that I’ve been seeing coyotes on the streets for years, going back well before then. They might be a little bit more common now, but I haven’t seen anything like a night-and-day difference since the fire. Maybe it’s just that Pasadena already had a substantial resident population so that the new influx wasn’t noticeable.
Martin
@RadioOne: There used to be an art competition in the Olympics, back in the 30s and earlier. Painting, sculpture, music, dance, etc. Didn’t really take.
And there’s yachting, which is many good things, but athleticism doesn’t exactly come to mind there.
Omnes Omnibus
@Martin: Yachting? Amazing teamwork. Foredeck gorillas working with tacticians and helmsmen in a near ballet? I would call it athleticism.
Geoduck
In the port in my town, there’s some falcons that build a nest every year high up on one of the loading cranes. The Farmer’s Market is nearby, and sometimes someone sets up a telescope so you can check them out.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: I think you’re closer to the Verdugos than I am. I worry more about them comming from Griffith Park, even though there’s a freeway and river.
When I saw the news reports several months ago about the bear, they said it was in La Crescenta. I thought, no biggie, happens all the time up towards the San Gabriels. When I heard the street names, Manhatten & Mayfair, that’s not La Crescenta, that’s Montrose. Very close to our old house there.
Jager
@Omnes Omnibus:
Try doing an upwind leg in any of the Olympic class boats without being athletic…heart attack city. I used to race Lasers, hook your legs under the hiking straps and hold yourself out over the side of the boat with your stomache muscles and steer and work the main at the same time. If only I could do that today!
Omnes Omnibus
@Jager:
What’s stopping you?
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus: Age and decrepitude don’t count.
Jager
@Omnes Omnibus:
Good question! I moved up to much bigger boats and did some single handed and doubled handed racing on boats up to 35 feet, a ton of work. Biggest boat I ever single-handed was a 50 footer. Cranking the winches was a killer in anything over 15 kts. I handled the main on a Farr raceboat for a couple of years with a crew of 8. It was a very intense ballet and the foredeck apes worked their asses off.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jager: Well, I think this comment answers the question about the athleticism of yachting.
Davis X. Machina
The marquee event of the Greek Olympics — the one Pindar wrote most of his victory odes for — was chariot-racing, where the victory went to the owner of the winning team, not the driver.
Also for a century or so, the mule-cart race, though this went the way of tug-of-war…
Dennis SGMM
@Omnes Omnibus:
Some of us are in our Sixties. We pay off each day of athleticism with some aches and pains in succeeding days. As much as I’d love to surf Lighthouse Point again, I’m just not up to twenty foot faces any more. There, I admitted it.
We climb the same mountains. We just do it a bit more deliberately as time goes by.
Omnes Omnibus
@Dennis SGMM: I know. I’ll be 48 on Friday. I can still do most of what I could in my 20s but my recovery time is longer.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I saw a fox a few weeks ago 1/4 mile from my house and told everyone I knew. Good times. I have never seen a coyote. But a friend I met from Tennessee once told me a story about his granddad driving over a coyote in his hometown. He tied it to the back of this truck and dragged it through town. The local cop pulled him over and asked him why he was dragging a dead coyote through town and told him to put in the back of his truck. His granddad said hell no, that’s where I put my groceries.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Omnes Omnibus: I’ll be 46 next Saturday, a few years younger than our President :-). I, unfortunately, am a physical wreck.
Omnes Omnibus
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Well, happy birthday a bit early anyway. I’ve been lucky; few of my stupid actions throughout life have so far had a terrible physical effect. I have my hair, it is still dark, and my worst physical injury (ACL/MCL tear) was repaired surgically. God knows I haven’t earned it, but I have been lucky.
ETA: All that being said, I need more sleep than I used to, so off to bed with me it is.
AA+ Bonds
Horses are an example of selective breeding to the point of cruelty; the gracile traits we have exaggerated through generations of genetic manipulation make most injuries during “competition” an instant death sentence
karen marie
@suzanne: She. Rafalca is female, despite the name.
AA+ Bonds
History repeats itself through the Olympics, although this time the ground troops have finally occupied London
Yutsano
@AA+ Bonds: This statement is fatuously ignorant. Most injuries to a horse involving their legs are almost always near fatal even and especially in the wild. Our genetic manipulation has little to do with that evolutionary quirk. Not to mention modern veterinary medicine has made equine health much stronger than in olden times. Injuries that used to prescribe death as the only solution can and often are healed. Stop talking out your ass.
AA+ Bonds
Bourgie trap sprung
AA+ Bonds
In other news, the British don’t like Romney because
1) Someone unaffiliated with Romney punked the Telegraph
2) He told them that they hadn’t planned well for security (true; they hired a mercenary firm, did no oversight, and then the firm broke the contract and they had to occupy the capital city with their own army)
3) He broke the solid unspoken rule of security force fascism in the United Kingdom
AA+ Bonds
Pretty much he failed to lie a ton to prop up how great they think they are
Definitely not Presidential material if he cannot properly kiss the ass of the bloodthirsty British elite
Let’s face it: they are the only ally America has left
karen marie
Where did I put that pie …
Yutsano
@karen marie: I LIKE PIE!!
JPL
RIP Inkblot.
NancyDarling
Yay for mules. My 3 plus the hinny are endlessly fascinating. They actually belong to my neighbor, but I think of them as mine since I have pastured them for 5 years in exchange for mowing, etc. They have the best life. Two of them are trailered to Colorado every fall for elk hunting season, but the other 50 weeks a year they do what they damn well please. In spite of not being ridden for most of the year, they don’t seem to get pasture crazy like some horses do. When saddled up, they step off lively as if they had been ridden yesterday.
One year, they took the hinny to Colorado. He is a very willing pack animal—unless you sling an elk carcass across his back. He freaked out and they had to switch the elk to another mule. He shook all the way back to camp I am told.
A couple of years ago, in another dry spell, I had gone out to give them their evening apple. One of them was down, flat out and breathing hard and fast. I called the neighbors who were about an hour out from home. I was instructed to keep him on his feet. I just wasn’t strong enough. I got him up a couple of times and got him walking, but his legs buckled every time. He wouldn’t get up after that. It is a very helpless feeling to watch 1200 pounds of that much misery and not be able to do anything. The neighbors arrived and hauled him to the vet. It was colic from too much dry grass and not drinking enough water. They put a tube into his stomach through his nose and pumped him full of mineral oil. He spent a week in a corral across the road recuperating. When he rejoined his mates a silly party ensued. Four very happy critters ran around, kicking up their heels for about 15 minutes.
Now we keep a small tank filled near the house so they don’t have to haul their lazy asses 100 yards up to the pond. We also hay them daily when the grass is dry.
The drought is very bad here as it is elsewhere. Feed lots are full as ranchers sell off their herds because they can’t afford to feed them. I won’t eat feed lot beef for obvious reasons, and am blessed with 2 or 3 grass-fed operations within 30 miles. Grass-fed is healthier and not just because they don’t have hormones and other chemicals added to their diet. It is higher in Omega-3’s.
And then, there is the awful inhumane treatment that feed lots entail. There is a huge feed lot operation in the TX panhandle that I pass en route to NM. Thousands of cattle standing in the awful heat and sun with out a speck of shade. It breaks my heart.The karma is very bad!
As for coyotes, my nephew lives about an hour southeast of Austin and since the fires, they have lost a couple of dogs to God’s dog. Before the fires, they had 10 dogs counting the piebald doxie pups. They also have a Great Dane and assorted rescues. I can’t imagine their vet and feed bills.
I hear coyotes at night. We also have mountain lions that have killed pets in remote areas of the county. Arkansas Game and Fish does not acknowledge that they are here as they would have to draw up a wild life management plan for them—easier and cheaper to pretend they don’t exist. That’s sorta how we do things in AR.
NancyDarling
@Hypatia’s Momma: I rode a mule down the North Rim once. My old girl stumbled coming out of the corral and I thought “Uh oh, this is a bad omen.” Once out on the trail, she was fine. She knew where every hoof was going to be put down. On the hair pin turns, they tend to walk on the outer edge. You can’t rein them in to the inside. I finally figured out that the outer edge is flatter and they are more sure-footed there. The middle of the trail is usually dished out and rougher.
greenergood
My friend lives 20 miles north of New York City, in the suburban town of Hastings. Some years ago, the wildlife ‘managers’ decided there were too many deer around, causing car accidents, etc. So coyotes were brought in – but the coyotes discovered cats and dogs were easier prey. Now when my friend takes her dog out for a walk, the pooch won’t go if he scents a coyote, especially at night.
WereBear
@Alison: That’s so terribly sad. And one of a million reasons why I don’t let my cats out. We have worse than coyotes roaming around.
Peter
I hope one of those reporters finds a way to listen in.
Also, secret meetings with wealthy donors in Israel? I bet that’s forthe conspiracy nuts buzzing.
Kirbster
I find the Olympic dressage events very interesting to watch once every four years. The horses and their riders obviously have a high level of skill. I still can’t grasp, however, how dressage is anything but a wealthy person’s serious hobby. Owning and operating a stable or training facility is a business, but how is owning a dressage horse a big, fat tax deduction? Are there huge cash prizes for winning a competition? Would Rafalca get lucrative endorsement deals from feed suppliers and saddle makers for winning an Olympic medal? Does she eventually retire from competition to become a profitable foal factory? Or is she a capital asset with accelerated depreciation?
Mino
@Yutsano: Best of both, the Mammoth Donkey.
Images:http://www.google.com/search?q=mammoth+donkey&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7ADRA_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=WygVUO-cA-LZ6wH3xoCgDg&biw=1440&bih=738&sei=ZSgVUPCfLtTD0AHN7oCQAQ
I think they even come spotted, too.
They are the sweetest animals (of any horse persuasion) that I have ever met. Curious, friendly, smart.
NancyDarling
@Mino: My cousin’s son had a one-third scale stagecoach pulled by a brace of palomino mules. He drove it in parades all over OK.
I had always thought of them as nosy rather than curious. I guess they are both. Woe to the bear or mountain lion or coyote that comes on my place. They know about standing their ground. And they do check out anything unusual going on.
Mino
@NancyDarling: My niece has a couple Mammoths and a mule. The mule is pretty laid-back. The donkeys are more fun.
Valdivia
Sad for Inkblot and Drum.
NancyDarling
@Mino: Mules and horses are still used to deliver the mail to Supai, AZ. If any of you are outdoor fans, the Havasupai welcome tourists and campers. You can hire the Indians to pack your stuff in on a horse so you don’t have to worry about weight. They have a small, rustic motel for those who don’t relish sleeping on the ground. Just call AZ information for the Supai Tourist Enterprise. I recommend October for both the Grand Canyon and the Supai reservation which is in a smaller canyon running into the Colorado River. Havasupai means “people of the blue-green water.”
This explains why.
http://images.google.com/search?num=10&hl=en&site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1680&bih=892&q=havasupai+waterfalls&oq=Havasup&gs_l=img.1.3.0l10.3554.6704.0.12044.7.7.0.0.0.0.184.962.0j7.7.0…0.0…1ac.aArAKaLIPDw
RAM
My dad used to tell me that when directed to pull a heavy load, a team of horses would give 150 percent again and again until they dropped in the harness. Mules, on the other hand, might give 150 percent once, but that was it; they’d refuse any further tries, which denotes a certain amount of intelligence over and above their equine cousins.
Nicole
My uncle, a farmboy, once told me that mules must be trained the way horses should be trained.
He said horses will forgive, but mules never do.
And anyone who doesn’t think Olympic riders are athletes has never ridden a horse (following the butt of another horse on a trail ride does not count. In that case, yes, the horse is doing all the work for you). In dressage, it’s about the incredible precision with which the rider gives the horse signals to change gaits and direction- those signals are supposed to be invisible to the judges and yet clear enough that the horse follows them instantly. And the riders’ seats. Watch them at the trot and the canter and how the rider’s butt stays glued to the saddle. It requires simultaneous strength and relaxation to do that.
Emma
@Alison: Damn. Calpundit was one of the first political blog I ever read. But really, I stayed for the cats.Inkblot was my favorite.
Valdivia
Haaretz in Israel already making it plain that Romney will be taking orders from Bibi, just wow!
NancyDarling
@RAM: A wrangler at Grand Canyon told me that the mules are started out at the South Rim which is a harder, steeper trail. At some point they know they can’t do it anymore, and he said you can’t beat them hard enough to get them to leave the corral. They haul them over to the North Rim where they will work for several more years.
I do not want to contemplate what happens to them after they can’t do the North Rim trail. The wrangle says the average age of North Rim mules is 15. Since mules live easily to 40 and beyond, that’s a lot of years left.
Emma
@RadioOne: Nothing more athletic than a human controlling an animal that outweighs him or her by a considerable amount. Or more skillful than connecting with its pea-sized brains and making it do what it is he or her wants.
Scuffletuffle
@Valdivia: OT, but thank you for your help yesterday. I was finally able to get Olympic video and enjoyed it very much. Thanks to Zifnab, too!!
Valdivia
@Scuffletuffle:
so welcome! I always have trouble installing things so very glad I was able to help.
Pongo
@Emma: Have to assume you are not a rider, then? Dressage requires extreme muscle control by both rider and horse. The horse’s movements are entirely controlled by muscle cues from the rider that are not visible to the audience. Both rider and horse come off the field drenched in sweat. It is intense, refined use of the body–by both competitors and the level of physical skill required is incredible.
Hate the rider if you must, not the sport. There are plenty of not Ann Romney’s who compete in horse activities purely for the love of the animals and of competition.
jake the snake
I wonder what what my father would have thought about a mule doing dressage. During the 1st Great Depression, he and his father farmed 80 acres with a brace of mules.
He had a tractor as far back as I can remember, but he
loved to talk about those mules.
Hypatia's Momma
@NancyDarling:
Mine was spooked by another mule in front of it and took off back down the trail at full speed, hooves slipping over the edge and all. It was one of the more harrowing experiences of my childhood and I resent mules to this day.
karen marie
@Valdivia: Someone tell me, WTF is Anntoinette wearing? (Pic at end of story)
Also, too, someone explain please how Republicans get away with Israel directing US policy for them?
NancyDarling
@Hypatia’s Momma: It’s the fault of the wrangler and not the mule. He obviously didn’t know his mules very well. They have their idiosyncracies as to who is ahead and who is behind them. You can’t just line them up willy-nilly and head out. Of “my” four, Jake, the oldest at 36, INSISTS on being in the lead. Miami, the hinny, is content any where in line—as long as he doesn’t have to carry a dead anything.
I am not aware of any mule going over the edge at Grand Canyon with a person in the saddle. They have to work quite a while carrying supplies to Phantom Ranch before they are entrusted with a human cargo. They do lose some mules that way.
NancyDarling
@karen marie: We sorta decided yesterday that it looks like a kevlar vest. Ann needs to study Jackie O. She never wore big prints. Michelle can get away with it because that beautiful chocolate skin is not overwhelmed by flashy prints. Another disadvantage to being melanin challenged.
Patricia Kayden
Interesting that many Americans are comfortable with voting for someone who will only explain his policies in detail to those who give him thousands of $$$, but not to the electorate. Wonder why they trust him so much.
Hypatia's Momma
@NancyDarling:
No. The mule two in front of mine was spooked by its rider putting on a poncho and it shied into the one behind it, which, in turn, shied into mine, which reared up and ran back down the trail.
Hypatia's Momma
@karen marie:
I remain baffled as to how people who have so much money and presumably mix only with “the best people” can dress so poorly. It isn’t just the style of clothes; they don’t wear them well, either. Fuck’s sake, hire a tailor!
John M. Burt
Years ago, one of my kids was assigned to write a sentence after the fashion of “Chicken Soup With Rice”, and submitted, “In the Spring it’s so nice to see the birds come back”.
I was reminded sharply of how nice it has been, over the fifty-odd years of my own life, to see the birds, especially the large raptors, coming back from the brink of extinction.
I have told my kids more than once the story of the brave and hardworking woman who devoted her all-too-short life to seeing to it that the birds would come back, and who died never knowing if she had spoken up in time.
Rest easy, Rachel. You did it.
chuck butcher
I’ve worked with both horses and mules – I far prefer mules. I’ve never known of a mule to forgive and found that it works best to persuade a mule that it wants to do what you want. I’d own a mule before a horse – but I’ll stick to the Harley since it doesn’t eat or need care when it’s not working…
chuck butcher
Lets just see it WP will forgive my new email…