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**Charlie S.** · September 1st, 2008, 05:40 PM posted to rec.outdoors.fishing.fly

On Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:40:01 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Aug 27, 5:46 am, Charlie S. w5cds (at) arrl (dot) net wrote:

Horses beat mules, hands down, when it comes to a sprint.

Most riders would have a wild-eyed look of terror if indeed their
horse was sprinting underneath them ;-)

A couple of OT anecdotes. Mules are generally not very good at
radically new things. They've got to assess the situation, they won't
usually just trust that you know what you're talking about. So it was
with wilderness trail bridges and my mule. Last year was the first
time he saw one. Amazingly, he went across right away, but he didn't
like that hollow sound, and later on the return trip it took me an
hour and a half to coax him back across. That year he did do one other
set of there and back bridge crossings, not too badly. This year, our
first bridge took about 10 minutes to coax him across; then I made him
go back and forth four more times. The next day, another bridge on
another trail, just 20 seconds of hesitation, and again I took him
back and forth four more times (these are all me leading him across,
not riding). After that, easy riding across bridges the rest of the
days up there. Next thing to work in are those mountain meadow bogs.
He doesn't see much mud down here.

Jon.

Yeah, Jon, mules are NOT known for their sense of adventure. :-D