This year there are the usual vendors. Tack vendors, saddle makers, mule items and gifts, mule trailer sales, etc. There will be a mule sale on Thursday. All mules in the sale have to be consigned to the sale ahead of time and in camp to be viewed and tried out all week. This year they are also adding a fun show every evening. Then Saturday, the hog roast/pot luck and dance with a live band.
The long range forecast for weather for this week was originally not all that good. But, as the week approached, the forecast kept improving. It was cold yesterday and today with some snow flurries but better than having rain. My Maine friends headed out Saturday and were due to arrive Sunday. I kept tabs on their progress with the plan to bring Lily over just after they arrived. They had reserved stalls in the barn by the office and JoJo was letting me have a stall also so we'd all be together. When I knew they had arrived, I went to the barn to pick up Lily, she jumped right into the trailer excited to be going on an adventure. When I got to the campground, JoJo showed me what stall to put Lily and and I put her in with some hay to keep her busy. But, she seemed quite unhappy about being put in a stall. This was not her idea of an exciting adventure apparently. She was quite restless but I figured she'd settle down after a while. She's been stalled before and never had any problems with it. I was taking my truck and trailer home so it wouldn't be taking up space at the campground and would just be using my little truck and would keep my tack in that for the week as it has a cap on it.
I dropped off my truck and trailer and was just heading back to camp in my little truck when I got a text message from Bonnie. She said that Lily was being VERY bad and JoJo wanted her OUT. She was trying to tear the stall apart trying to get out. Amy had to take her out of the stall and was holding her until I could get back. !!!!! ACK! So, back to the house I went, got my truck and trailer and returned to camp. Once there, I found my mule in the care of Crazy Charlie with Amy keeping an eye on her. Apparently Lily took to Charlie and was behaving better for him then for Amy. Both of her front feet were covered in red paint from pounding her feet on the red metal stall gate. JoJo told me to try a different stall that was more open than the one she was in. I did that and while Lily was somewhat better, she still was not quiet enough for me to feel comfortable leaving her there. So, much discouraged, I decided I'd have to take her home.
I had just gotten Lily loaded into my trailer when Anthony came by and asked what was going on. I told him my mule was so naughty, she was being kicked out of mule camp. He told me I could try putting her in his paddock or pasture that he has use of for this week. So, I took her down and put her in Jackie's Leuking's paddock, across from Anthony's camp. There were 3 other mules in that paddock. Lily was happy there and the mules all got along fine. So, problem solved. I would not have to suffer the shame of my mule being kicked out of mule camp. Bonnie was going to be riding Anthony's mule Harvey for the week. We'd been keeping an eye on Harvey out in the pasture and he seemed to be laying down a lot. Enough so we were kind of worried about him.We came to the conclusion after talking with Cathy that he might be having mild colic. We gave him some banamine and walked him. Anthony took him and walked him some more and they gave him some oil. Harvey was having bowel movements so it wasn't a blockage. Harvey seemed to be doing better later that evening much to everyone's relief. We all had supper at the Snack Shack that evening. It was so good to spend some time with Bonnie and Amy, to meet Donna and to have my mule happily settled into camp.
This morning I was up bright and early. I wanted to get to camp in plenty of time so I would not have to rush to get Lily ready for any ride we decided to go on. My neighbor Delbert is selling his truck and trailer and had brought them to High Knob to leave for the week. He had parked right across from the Hotel where my friends were staying and their trailer was parked giving me a very convenient place to tie Lily to tack up. There was a meeting this morning to let everyone know who the ride guides were and set up the rides for the day. Bonnie and Donna didn't really want to get into any big groups for this first day. Donna has not ridden her mule Ike in large groups and Bonnie being on a mule she had never ridden, they wanted a quiet day. So, we decided to strike off on our own with me as their guide. Such brave souls to trust me. The decision was to ride to my house and back. I still don't know the trails that well around High Knob but knew if we made it to Initial Tree, I could get them to my house from there. So, we saddled up and headed out.
Well, Miss Lily White decided to be quite a handful this morning. She was over excited, wanted to be in front and wanted to do fast. And when she didn't get that, she decided to do a bit of bucking and rearing. Nothing big but horribly disruptive and annoying. After doing many circles I did take the lead and that settled her down quite a bit though she was still pretty light on her feet for quite a while. BAD LILY! She did however, continually improve throughout our ride and was quite good the 2nd half heading back to camp.
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