Why is that big trailer pulling into our yard?
Who is that mule getting off of it? Carrie? What did you do?
Meet Pockets. He's the mule peeing in our end stall.
Pockets comes to us from Louisiana. He's Carrie's "Been-there-seen-that-Husband-mule."
He'd been 'surfing' on a horse trailer for the past two days and was happy to move around.
Carrie likes her surprises.
I was surprised.
Carrie had "all but given up" on finding a mule that was at least 15 hands when Pockets showed up on her radar. "It was the perfect opportunity" and she pulled the trigger.
Pockets was a family mule. Carrie showed me the family used him in a gender reveal (A belated congrats on the baby boy, Francois!). His 'dad' put him up for sale (as the one he "didn't want to sell"), because of the pandemic. He worked oil rigs.
He seemed super friendly. One thing did stick out: His left eye.
Pockets had an accident when he was a baby. He ran into a stick and he's permanently blind on the left. It doesn't seem to bother him. I would've thought he'd bring his head around more to keep his eye on things, but he seemed laid back enough.
Which was the opposite of how the other horses felt. Especially the geldings.
Magic lost it when he realized what we had stalled.
Huck was curious at first, but followed Magic's lead. He kept at it, too.
1111
Ironically, we just watched the movie Gus.
It was slapstick fun. I picked it because I knew Carrie wanted a mule and old movies are good for kids.
Shane was bouncing on the couch and laughing then. Now, he was laughing and saying, "We have our own Gus!"
I'm still amazed he knew and didn't let something slip. Carrie told him two days ago. When I asked, he said he "made himself forget, because he didn't want to lose Minecraft."
We talked to the driver for a while. He talked to us about the horse transportation biz. In a little over a year, he'd put 258,000 miles on his truck and trailer. He said that he'd spend two weeks on the road and then 2 or 3 nights back home. His wife was the logistics brain and would schedule deals and rout him here and there while he slept in the truck each night.
He had one other horse in the back he was taking up to Massachusetts. I haven't seen many horses with blue eyes.
So I was hoodwinked. It made sense why she wanted to stay home while we dropped off the skunk now. I'd known Carrie was leaning heavily towards a mule to replace Sam, too, but I thought she'd have waited until the sale was finalized!
I didn't expect it to be on a social night, either. Barn people were coming over for dinner and chores. We had to clean up and Shane had to water the garden before they arrived.
Carrie cooked burgers and Loki supervised whoever he could! Alex and Carrie had a competition for who could stack the biggest burger and still eat it (Grilled pineapple, giant mushroom caps, bean sprouts, lettuce...).
Shane showed Landie the hose after they were done eating. You know how that's going to end!
No one was surprised when she came back on the porch dripping wet. Loki volunteered to supervise further play.
Don't be surprised that he ended up dripping wet either!
I didn't get a heads up Carrie let Pockets out into the back lot. I arrived just in time to see his inaugural roll.
The boys freaked out from a distance. They clung together for protection.
Magic was the worst of the lot. Ellie had warned us that he had a thing against long ears.
The mares were more curious.
Espeically Abby and Maddy.
Pippin was not happy. She shooed her girls away and made sure they maintained proper social distance!
Maddy tried to sneak back a couple of times, but Pippin wouldn't' have it!
It doesn't stay dull around here if you like animals.
Or hoses. Shane could only come so close to the barn with both attached!
Landie was soaked, so Shane grabbed one of his shirts for her to use a dress. They spent the last part of the night curled up watching Loony Toons.
The next morning there was horse drama. Pockets? He was fine. So were the mares.
The boys however....
Magic refused to let any of the boys come up for breakfast. He kept herding the off to the far corner of the pasture.
Carrie had to go out and bring them in one by one.
Eddie was the first, because he had a muzzle on she could grab. Magic kept crowding her and trying to herd him away.
Ernie was next, but his fly mask wasn't enough to hold on to. I had to fetch his halter and it took a couple of tries.
That left the ringleader of the paranoia: Magic.
Carrie got him stalled, but he was a nervous mess. He twitched. Constantly.
Ellie texted to ask if "her horse was still alive!"
"Mike says you have a racist horse."
We don't know what happened in Magic's life, but he seemed to think the large ears were horns and that Pockets was going to eat him.
We needed to break down some barriers.
So Carrie stalled Pockets right next to Magic.
Magic continued to freak out. He twirled and we closed the curtain door before he got the idea to jump out.
Maddy was turned free and Eddie went into her stall to make room for Pockets. Eddie looked back for all of a second to check on his bro before he realized he was in mare territory. He promptly forgot all about the mule and tried to introduce himself to Abby next door.
Meanwhile, Carrie handed out treats whenever Pockets and Magic came to the stall wall together. She wanted Magic to associate a 'better flavor' with his new buddy.
Pockets was perfectly happy with the arrangement. He never had any trouble with horses to begin with!
I texted Patrick to let him know what happened after we left his place. He thought Pockets was a horse.
"Nope, he's a mule."
"I should have seen he's very donkey in the face!"
I'm sure I'll have more pictures soon. Carrie will probably give Pockets some time to adjust, but he's going to need a test drive to see what he knows.
No comments:
Post a Comment