*(&% mule

Sorry to hear yer losin' yer %$#@^ mule.  You can allays meat him out an' buy a couple of them llamas, although I don't know anybody who makes a proper saddle to fit a llama.

That's the craps. These critters will let you down every once in awhile. My 3 yr old just stepped on a nail the other day. It went into the edge of the frog about an inch. She's getting pennicillin once a day and epsom salts soaks. Same here a month to go till muzzle season and that leaves me with a 25 yr old mule and a 2 yr old, if she don't heal up good. Good luck with that mule.

It ain't been a good year for any of us.  I just lost my buckskin today, a little before noon.  He was my top hoss for 9 years... had him over 12 years.

He got a puncture wound in his cheek and I didn't catch it in time.  I was real busy last week with the fair, rodeo, and 4-H horse shows, so I didn't get a chance to chat with all my horses like I usually do every day.  By the time I noticed, his head was all infected and swelled up... it was too late.  I tried to treat him Sunday... he was no better Monday so I called the vet.  He treated him yesterday, but he still went downhill.  My wife called today and said he was going downhill fast so I left work to put him down.  As I was driving home, I thought I felt him die.  Shore enough, he was gone when I got there.

We rode us a lot of miles... pushed a lot of cattle... packed out some game, and we saw the Selway together.  RIP Hawk.... 

my condolances, selway~~

We got a new molly on Sunday. She's five years old. She's a Thoroughbred-Apaloosa mule. She's about 15.1 with good size to her. She'd never been away from her mom before that day. She's really willing although the first two days made me think otherwise. She was just throwing a fit about being away from her mom though. She got better on day two and on day three we loaded her with 40 lb. to a side and took her up and down hills, through mud, water, and narrow brushy trails with trees to bump into and she was great.

My wife is going to work her on the ground a bit and maybe ride her a few times in the next week. My next day off we'll put a real load on her and take her for another trip. This time in the mountains unless something this week changes our mind.

Thanks for your condolences, boys.

Hope your molly works out, Steely.

We've got a friend of the family who's been a part-time outfitter for longer than I've knowed him... which is 25 years.  He's the one got me started in this madness.  He use to use A-rabs back when he took me on my first pack trip.  Tough little horses, but I never liked their wimpy looks or their temperments. 

Anyway, I just heard he had him a bad accident on his last pack trip to the High Uintas.  He was 16 miles in when... well things is foggy and he don't really know what happened, 'cept his horse must have spooked at something.  He had a large group of 16 with him (he had to borrow my paint pack horse for the trip).  They said his horse took off bucking down a steep, rocky hill and after a ways they both went down and rolled.  I guess he was unconscious for a long time.  But he's all black and blue and can't hardly walk.  He usually helps me haying (as a trade for his horse hay) and I've got 3rd crop coming up.  Looks like I'll be short-handed.

He don't keep horses year-round no more.  He usually buys his horses dirt cheap at auctions, uses them for the season, then gets rid of them.  It's risky and he's paid for it this year.  He was bragging up a buckskin that he thought would be as good as mine )the one that just died).  First time he put a load on it (back home for training), it bolted and injured his daughter (she couldn't get out of the way and the pack hit her).