Our mules Laramie (Larry), a john mule, 11 years old, and Katie Bell, a molly mule, 8 years old, have been with us for a little over three years now.

Katie had already picked me when we were visiting with them in Missouri in 2009. On the third day she put her head in my arms, and came to the gate every day to see if I wanted to ride. When they arrived here Katie seemed to come home. She gave me a quick glance (“Oh, it’s you!”), rolled and began munching hay after travelling over the pond to her new home here in Germany. Larry took a little longer to feel home, in hindsight I can tell because he glued himself to his hay for the first weeks and although friendly didn’t try to be with us all the time.

I would say to develop that really deep special bond that I didn’t even dream of it took about a year for Katie and even longer for Larry. Katie likes people and checks everybody out, but only last year she started to almost pester us for hugs and scratches. She often hangs her head over the gate and bobs it up and down to make someone come over and fuss with her. And it pretty much doesn’t matter what you do with her, as long as you come and talk to her and spend time with her. She just likes to hang out with me and Steph. For some time I thought it wouldn’t matter if it’s me or Steph, and that she is otherwise pretty confident of herself and not depending on me. That impression changed one Saturday morning in the indoor arena. The mules were all wet and sandy from rolling, I had a blooming cold and so we decided to not ride and just have some fun doing groundwork. We let the mules loose and they ran around some. I had put up obstacles to walk over, not quite 1’ high, those striped bars people use for horse jumping. Katie loves to check out new things and ambled over at once (Larry trailing behind her) to check out what it is. We let them take a good look, and then I swung my lead rope and asked Katie to move on- obviously anticipating her to step over the bars. Boy, did she get upset! She ran away, bucking and snorting. Someone had obviously put up a mule trap and Katie was not falling for that, oh no!! I asked her once again, and the same happened, plus she was looking pretty upset. From some distance I called over to her, “honey, you want me to help?” and showed her the lead rope. It seems so silly in hindsight, asking her like that, but what did she do? She came right over to me and held her head to me so that I hook the lead rope into her halter. I lead her over to the obstacles, not having to pull or anything, more like holding the hand of someone. And sure enough, she carefully stepped over the striped bar. That’s how easy it was when I helped!

I unhooked the lead rope and asked her to step over that bar again, me right beside her. But no- she refused until I hooked the lead rope in again, and then she stepped over that bar, without hesitation. I repeated this several times, and then she felt good enough about the former mule trap to step over it on her own. I was really baffled about this.

A week later we had spend some time standing on the bridge in the indoor arena (Katie loves standing on that) and of course she had refused to walk straight off it. One day there had been a log under the centre of it so that it could tilt, but the bridge was too short so that it tilted already when Katie stepped off it with her front feet, her hind feet still on it. She hated that, so from that day on even though we never had a log underneath anymore she refused to walk over it length wise.

We take turns riding Katie, so after we switched Steph and Katie spent some time on that bridge. That’s when I got the idea of investigating Katie’s behavior from a week before. I told her I’d help, came over to Steph and Katie and lay my hand on her rein. I didn’t pull or tell her to get a move on, but my hand on the rein gave her enough safety to walk off that bridge length wise, without any worries. I am really touched that just my “lending a hand” gives my mule enough security to overcome a fear. I had thought she does well without me, as she isn’t mourning or anything if I’m gone for two days or so.

Larry on the other hand has bonded with Steph so strongly that he falls into a state I can only describe as mourning when Steph is not there. We didn’t even know he depended on Steph so much until Steph’s big wreck in 2010, when he couldn’t leave the house for a week and Larry fell into a kind of shock. He still ate, to my relief, but apart from that he was lethargic and didn’t want any contact with me or anybody else until Steph was back and came back every day. The same happened again when Steph had to leave for three weeks, work related, and was home only for two days between the weeks. The first week Larry reacted the same, but the second time Steph left he was doing much better as he had learned that Steph comes back again and isn’t gone for good.

I had still underestimated this, and had scheduled our regular Saturday morning indoor arena time although Steph couldn’t join us until it was time to load up again. Our trainer Anja came with me and the mules, and Larry likes Anja a lot, he even brayed when she came to visit us at home once. Well, Larry was a little confused but loaded fine, and when we let them run in the arena he was doing fine as always, enjoying a nice roll in the sand and then cajoling around. But gradually you could see a change. He didn’t want to run anymore, he started to look all miserable. Anja called Larry, but he ignored her. She haltered him and put headstall and surcingle on him, hooked up the long reins, but instead being ready to go as he usually is Larry stood there with ears hanging limply and looking all pitiful. When Anja took her place behind him, he turned slightly and balked, refusing to take a step. He obviously had just realized that something was all wrong! Steph was not there, poor Larry had been left with the girls. As funny as the situation sounds, I assure you it was really heartbreaking. Just like the first time Steph was gone, Larry obviously started to mourn his absence. Luckily there was only half an hour left then anyway. Steph arrived, and Larry was so downcast it took Steph a quarter of an hour with hugging and ear scratching until Larry was visibly feeling better.

Although I am worried about Larry when he misses Steph so badly, I think we are really blessed to have such a special bond with our mules.

Happy Trails!