Mules, Donkeys, Pony..…Oh My!

 

On Sunday, some local friends invited me to join them for something fun.

I drove about 30 minutes from my house………..

And this is the view that I had the pleasure of enjoying for most of the day.

And this is the view that I enjoyed behind me.

 

And this is me, sharing my goofy smile face, with my friend Diana and her Welsh Cob/Arabian/Draft pony, Miss Dixie. Yes, we were driving Miss Dixie!

 

There were talented donkeys being driven, like this adorable boy, Cisco, driven by my friend Sandra. Cisco kept up with us all day at the front of the group, with his beautiful little trot. I fell completely in love with him!

Along for the drive there were beautiful mules, too, like this girl Rita, owned by my friend Linda (on the left)out only on her 6th drive, and being trained for Linda’s husband to drive.

 

There were not only donkeys being driven…….but some donkeys were in training and experiencing ponying. Or would that be called donkey-ing?

 

And friend Elizabeth, even brought her gorgeous mammoth donkey to ride with us.

 

And friend Kelli is buying her first mule, Peaches, in a week. Peaches is trained to drive, but Kelli is not. So, she came along to gain some hands-on experience in Linda’s cart.

 

This is what happens when you drive a cart behind a mule, donkey or pony. You just can’t stop smiling!

 

 

We had fun competing in friendly races while out on the roads. That cute donkey, Cisco can sure cover a lot of ground with his fast little trot.

The roads we drove down are on thousands of acres of old ranchland, bought by developers many years ago, but when their planned community of 1 acre ranchettes failed, the bank took over and the land has stayed empty and quiet, but covered by many miles of graded dirt and gravel roads that are perfect for driving carts on.

Sometimes we took a right and sometimes we took a left. There were an un-ending network of roads to explore.

Diana and Miss Dixie with Cisco waiting behind.

 

Miles and miles of roads with views that go on forever. What a great way to spend the day!

It was fun when the road opened up and was wide enough to ride side by side while trotting.

 

Almost back at Linda and Anna’s. Anna and her mule Lacy leading the way.

The entire day we never saw another car or animal besides the donkeys, mules, dogs, and pony in our little caravan of carts. But as we neared Anna’s and Linda’s properties, we saw a loose horse wandering around their paddocks. Anna told us that it’s common for people to just dump their equines out here on these thousands of acres when they can’t, or don’t, want to care for them anymore. This stray horse, which appears to be a TB or an Appendix, has only been around for about a week, but is terribly lame and very thin. Anna believes that he is a gelding, but is proud cut as he portrays a lot of stallion tendencies and is getting their mares and jennies all worked up and in heat.

So, I hopped out of the cart at this point and chased off the stray horse so we wouldn’t have any problems with him as we rode up in our carts. 

 

This is my friend Linda and her green to driving mule, Rita, along with her little dog, Mop.

After all the donkeys, mules and pony were un-tacked and tucked into a paddock, we gathered together for a potluck lunch at Linda’s house. (clockwise from left: Elizabeth, Sandra, Anna, Kelli, Diana, and Linda)

As a thank you to Diana for inviting me to ride shotgun with her while driving Miss Dixie, I took a portrait photo of the two of them. (This is post-editing after removing a bunch of background distractions)

 

And here’s a little video I took while a donkey, mule and pony, and their humans, enjoyed a friendly little cart race.