I may be a bit of a spoiler on here but I am a Mule fan.
I wanted a horse to ride so I began looking at the various breeds and I was having a hard time finding one that I wanted that was close enough to my farm to get. As far as breed went- I decided not to be as particular, I simply wanted a roan. After seeing Morgan Freeman's horse in the movie 'Unforgiven', I was immediately hooked. (Some have told me that his horse wasn't a true roan given the splotches here and there, it didn't matter, the horse was pretty.)
I found a Strawberry Roan mare who was just as pretty as can be, but she was scarcely 13 hands- that was too short for me so I kept looking. After having no luck I found myself stuck inside on a rainy day and 'Gunsmoke' was on. In the episode, Festus ended up having a race with one of the townsfolk who had a bad habit of gambling and betting, they were racing from one point and were going to see who could get to Dodge first. Well, that fella lit out on his horse and left Festus in his dust, Festus calmly trotted his mule down the path, cut through a deep gulch which saved several miles, came up the other side and beat the fella to town! I thought that was neat and started reading about mules, talk about some interesting critters!
After reading, I made up my mind that I was a mule man. For what I'd be giving up in speed I would be gaining in sure footed-ness and strength. The fact that they live so long was appealing too. So, a few weeks later I found an add, called and went to go take a look at a young mule. When I got there I met this 18month old girl with long ears and big pretty eyes. I checked out the basics, walked her around a bit, talked to her and decided that she needed to come home with me. I took an apple out of my coat, gave her a bite and she followed me on the trailer.
That is the story of how Allie came to my farm. She is a tad over 2 years old now and I have been working with her using a saddle pad. She leads and comes up to you willingly, stands for trimming and runs all over the pasture. I'll have her broke before too long and in time I'll take her hunting.
So glad you joined us. Perhaps you could stop by the new member introductions thread and share a little about yourself so we can welcome you better? 
