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smarter than most people as well

My hunting buddies mule Wyatt..You need a ladder to get on him.

Mules? I refuse to own an animal smarter than I am!

Woody, if I was to take that position, I'd be a lonesome man.

I have a buckskin mule,Zeb, that was raised working cows. I have roped on him at branding's. He does not like the smoke from branding the calves but I hold him in there. My daughter was helping my uncle,who had roped a cow, trying get the cow in the trailer and the cow turned and ran back, right under the front of Zeb. He just stood there and my uncle jerked the cow back out. My daughter figured he was gonna blow up,but he didn't. Would a ben a hell of a wreck if he had. He does not do spinning roll backs but sure can turn a cow or calf. Smooth to ride. He is 16-2.I am finding I'm having to find a low spot to get him into to get on. He is 28 now so starting to show his age. When you are riding a mule you watch his antennas,what I call their ears, as they look with them and you see what is going on in their mind, somewhat. Each one has their own personality and you learn how to work with each one. You can pretty much make a horse do what you want but a mule has to think it over for a bit to decide if it will work for him. Damn I like my mules.

Butch Anz of Megargel Tx had a big Mule he used on wheat pasture cattle. He could rope, trip, and doctor a sick one as well as most cow horses.

I have my pups!

My mule loves attention like a black lab. And a 3 year old that is obsessed with horses and mules gives him plenty of attention.

Sam my mule is pretty cowy but the looks and laughs you get from people passing by make it all the better. Most think of mules as pack animals

Great pics!!! Thanks!!

It's unbelieveable what good cow working mules are doing now days.

Years ago,I was buying weanlings out of NW New Mexico.Those Arizona and Utah cowboys would buy every yearling/ weanling they could from this fellows herd of walker mares.. I had to pay 1/2 when the mare was bred and the balance when the foal was dropped or I could never buy any .

Those desert cowboys liked those long legged walker mules for those big gathers in the rough country and heat. Mules can stand the heat a lot better than a horse.They would wear out 3 horses a day, but the mules worked every day without a rest.

There is a Mexican fellow down near the ghost town of Riley in New Mexico, that is west of T or C and a little south.Typical desert, rock, cactus country.He does all his cow work off of mules.

You can sure go thru a lot of bad mules before you find one that suits you and you suit it.There is getting to be about as many disreputible mule dealers as horse dealers..

Saddlesore I rode a walking mule one time and man o man was that a smooth fun ride. That thing was a thing of beauty and covered ground like crazy. They wanted a pretty penny for him though and he was worth every penny but it was more than I was going to spend. Plus a mule like that needs more of a job than what I would have gave him.

Yea,the ones I raised matured to about 16 to 16-1. For little guy like me at 5' 5" that was a chore ot get one . Now days, if a person has a mule to sell and it is gaited, that adds a couple thousand to the price.Eveyone wants one.Those $3000 mules of a few years ago are now $5000

I was just smart enough to let Woody, our FS trail crew mule, teach me a little bit about packing. Does that count?

Clearly you didn't get the memo.....

One white sock buy em....
Two white sock try em....
Three white socks be on he sly....
Four white socks pass em by....


Neither Kit Carson or General Crook would ride a horse....

Hah his name is actually Socks. He technically only has 3.5 socks.

I here they make good packers but are not a horse when you ride them.

Nope,better than a horse. You will be hard pressed to find someone that switched to riding a good mule that has ever gone back to riding a horse.

Those type of statements are usually made by people that have never ridden a good mule. To use mules,you must have a certain attitude and knowledge of the mules mental make up in terms of how they assess danger and react to it. These type of equestrians figure the mule is just a horse with long ears. Not true by along shot. Usually people with a big type A personality do not get along with mules.

Mule people when asked by friends if they can come along, but ride a horse, usually tell them to bring your horse if it's the best you can do.

The big difference is that you can usually bully a horse into doing some thing that it doesn't want to do.With a mule, you can't . It's wise equestrian that doesn't take the advice of his mount when it thinks something isn't safe.

You hear a lot of packers say they want a horse to lead their pack string because of it.The underlying truth is those types don't have the knowledge to use a mule as a lead mount.The other reason is a mule will follow a mare horse just about anywhere.I have used mules to lead my pack string for many years. Now with only two mules, the mule is still the lead.

There is BIG reason only mules are use for saddle mounts to ride down into the Grand Canyon instead of horses

Grandad much preferred them to horses when he was in the service. They were much less unpredictable.

It's fun to ride a mule through rough country. Give him his head and he will pick his way through it