Ok, I'm finally back!  Does time ever fly by in this life we all live.  Just a blink of an eye and the weeks turn into months... well, you all know the rest.  Funny, we never get any more mature though, do we?  haha

We have had a pretty busy year.  We have trained quite a few mules and have met lots of really interesting people.   Of the mules we have recently trained, one mule sticks out like a sore thumb.  Of course, this is Leroy. 

Leroy came here from a great little family in Arizona.  He met him just after he inhaled a pellet and was wheezing, coughing and drooling enough that we were worried whether he would make it though the next 5 minutes!  Still, this tough guy managed to survive.  We had placed him in a quarantine pen when he arrived and it was large.  After he was here about a week, and had appeared to recover from his drama, we went to catch him.  By this time, he had gotten his wits about him and his plans were not the same as ours.  There was no way to reasonably catch him.  After we tried cornering him, coaxing him, and every other trick we could come up with to catch him, we decided that we had no other choice but to rope him.  We would rather not resort to this, however, it was what needed to be done.  We worked together, Red with the lariot, me on the ground trying to stop 1000lbs of adamant fury from galloping away long enough to get a halter on him.  In the end, we managed to get him caught and that is when our next challenge began.  Uh oh!  Catching was easy!  It was the leading that became the more interesting event of the day.  We had put a halter and lead rope on him and also left the lariot on him to ensure not to lose him between pens.  With me leading and Red following with the lariot in hand, we felt that things were pretty well under control.   Leroy, however, had tried quite diligently to run away in spite of the lead rope, halter and lariot.  After a few convincing bluffs on our part, he decided that going to the new pen was a great idea and one he managed to be sure was his own. 

Leading was quite an effort with Leroy.  It didn't matter if it was from his pen to the hitch rail to get tacked.  Or from the hitch rail to the round pen, or wagon.... He wasn't game to go anywhere he didn't decide to go on his own.  We had to double lead him, (one of us leading and one of us pushing) everywhere we went for about 2 weeks.  After driving Leroy in harness with two other mules, he realized what all the fuss was about and from then on, he led like a champ.  No more problems there.  He loved pulling the wagon.  He found out he was good at something and loved it!  He became proud of himself.  It was quite the sight to see... a mule who NEVER went where we wanted easily becoming such a great partner in work just by enjoying his job. 

So... what is the moral of this story?  I don't know.  Guess we just don't know how great something can be until we try it.  Maybe even kicking and screaming we stop things in life that could turn out to be the most rewarding thing ever.  Who knows...  Leroy seemed to figure it out.  Winterhaven is coming again and the work has begun.   Although it is a mountain of work, I will not approach it kicking and screaming!!  I'll jump right in....