I finally collected enough first hand reports to answer the age-old question, “How do you stop a runaway mule?”
Ace
Reid said he had been invited to be the parade marshal in Uvalde. They
sat him up in the seat of a good-sized freight wagon pulled by a team of
big mules.
Halfway through
the parade the mules spooked and started galloping down the street! The
driver looked at Ace, handed him the lines and jumped ship! Ace said
they were headed straight for a tuba player and two drummers ridin’ drag
in the Sabinal High School marching band!
He
was able to alter the trajectory just enough so that the mules swung
toward the sidewalk. When the wagon tongue hit the light pole, they
stopped dead in their tracks!
Deanie
and her husband Mike train horses up in the Yakima valley. One
afternoon they went down to move a set of heifers from the high school
section into the next pasture.
She
was ridin’ a two year-old filly and Mike was puttin’ the fine-tuning on
a new mule. Deanie got a head start and was ridin’ around the heifers
when she saw Mike, well, actually heard Mike comin’! His mule was
runnin’ like a race horse! Mike’s ears were blowed flat against his head
and he’d applied one of his ol’ trainer’s tricks to gain control.
He had pulled that mule’s head all the
way back around ‘til his nose was in Mike’s left stirrup! Deanie watched
as the mounted cartoonists slowed to a bangin’ trot and crossed the
schoolhouse playground!
She
could hear Mike shouting instructions as they ran the obstacle course of
sandboxes, teeter totters and jungle gyms! How they made it lengthwise
through the swing set without strangling Mike is a miracle!
The
mules, still jerked into a “U” rebroke into a gallop, ran straight
through the heifers and scattered ‘em like balls on the break! Deanie
swung to get outta the way but the mule rear-ended her at full speed!
Stopped him in his tracks!
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