I'v got to to say I have been fortunate to own one super good horse and one super good mule in my life.
The horse was an cross something.As Baxter Black says, Out Of Truck from OK.He was smallish, maybe 14 hds,maybe 800 lbs, had more of fox trotter build than anything,but probably also had some Arab in him. He was kept east of Albuquerque in the Manzano mtns, and the guy got tired of sending the brand inspector down to the indian reseravtion to claim him as the boys kept stealing him.I paid $175 for him,saddle and everything else.When I went to get him,he jumped up in the bed of my 58 Ford pickup that I had a stock rack on.He took to me instantly and I to him. That was back in 65 or so and he stayed with me until maybe 77 or so when I finally had to put him down. He is buried on the place here.
He did about everything,but decided he wasn't a cow pony when I roped an angus bull that drug him over 20 acres.I learned a lot about tieing hard that day,or rather not to.
The mule, I bought as a weanling at about the same time the horse went to his maker. This mules was about typical of the mules you found back in the early 70's. Smallish, big head, short neck,short cannon bones and his trot was like a pogo stick.There was not much info back then about training mules so I set about it myself. We made a few mistakes,but he came out pretty good. Won a bunch of ribbons and such for gymkhana events and western pleasure and reining, but shined in the mountains.We did the Forth Worth Fat Stock Show,the Denver Western, NM State Fair and Iowa State fair, and many parades. He was pretty well known and a lot of parades you could hear the crowd yelling "Here comes Whiskey"
We did the St Patricks Day Parade in Denver with all the drunks out hanging on him and did a small parade up north where they had a F-14 fly over. We truned around and all the horses had bucked off thier riders and Whiskey just turned 180 to watch them come in,then did the flip side to watch them go.He's buried on the place too
Any horseman or muleman that has owned such an animal knows what it is to have that one good mount and you spend the next many years looking for a replacemnt but some how,none measure up.You get some goods ones,but never quite as good. A lot of dog owners know the feeling too.
So I'm not down on horses, I enjoy a really good one. I was just hurt or dissappointed too many times trying to find a replacment and an orney litle,black mule just seemed to fit me better.I have been riding them ever since. I would ride a horse if it meant I had to walk otherwsie though.
