Like I said before, one of the perks of being a writer is the nice folks you meet along the way. This past year I have been working on The Book of Mules for The Lyons Press. I met lots of great people and their mules.

Rocky and James were among the nice mule/people teams I met and now call friends.

I had a bit of trouble tracking the partners down. People remembered Rocky's name, but it took a while to find out the name of Rocky's owner.

Once I did I called and asked permission to come meet and photograph this amazing mule. At that time the two were performing for free for local organizations. Rocky has about fifty tricks up his sleeve, and they put on a good show.

Only a registered Rocky Mountain Horse is entitled to be identified as a Rocky Mountain Horse. The best way to find one to buy is to contact The Rocky Mountain Horse Association in Mt. Olivet, KY. There is also a website where breeders are shown. The reason a horse cannot technically be called a Rocky Mountain Horse is because of this breed's restrictions. If two registered Rocky Mountain Horses produce a foal, that foal is not elible for registration unless both sire and dam have been certified by RMHA for breeding. This an effort to preserve this breed's unique characteristics. I live in central Virginia and went to Kentucky in 1993 to buy my first registered Rocky Mountain Horse. She turned out to be my dream horse. First, she was certified for breeding and foaled a beautiful filly. Second, she became a champion trail horse earning that title at Judged Pleasure Rides (JPR)on trails in Virginia. After I lost her in 2000 in a sudden and unexpected way I found another registered Rocky Mountain Horse to ride on trails. He is a gelding. I've had him about six years now and am enjoying participating in many JPR's, the best of which are produced as fund raisers by riding clubs in Northern Virginia.

Blog 9/15/07

Tucked away in the Eastern North Carolina farming country near the town of Elm City is Parker Horse Arena. This is where the Cowboy Up Horse Festival, sponsored by the Cowboys for Christ organization, is held annually.

Yesterday I went to the 2007 Cowboy Up Festival with several purposes in mind. First, Jimmy Dozier, who so kindly let me photograph his horses for The Book of Draft Horses: The Gentle Giants that Built the World, wanted to meet me there to buy some copies of the book. I also wanted to visit the vendors to drop off sell sheets and ask them to stock my books in their shops. AND, I wanted to watch the performance of Rocky, the Trick Mule. See, I have already become friends with Rocky and his owner, James Lamm. I have photographed them for my newest project, The Book of Mules and Other Equine Hybrids.

Writing The Book of Draft Horses: The Gentle Giants that Built the World was a wonderful experience. One reason was that I had the opportunity to meet some very nice folks. The draft horse owners I met all had in common that they loved to share their horses and their knowledge. I am finding out mule owners are cut from that same bolt of cloth. Good, down to earth people who love their animals, and love to talk about them.

I met some of those good people today at the Person County Saddle Club 4th Annual Horse, Draft Horse, Donkey and Mule Show in Roxboro, NC. I hit the jackpot in subjects to photograph for my next project, The Book of Mules and Other Equine Hybrids. There were about eight mules in a variety of colors and types. A beautiful dapple gray Warmblood cross, another gray mule that was white as a snow bunny and with beautiful bunny-looking ears, a handsome Belgian cross, a nice buckskin with the cross over its withers and zebra strips on its legs, a black gaited mule, a couple of chestnut mules, one a Thoroughbred cross, and a mule team that entered the hitch classes.

My 2 yr triped in the arena really bad yesterday, he started with a small trip and followed with a big one, the sleep thing sounds to be true because he almost feel a sleep while bathing him, but he got his 1st pair of shoes 1 and 1/2 ago, his hoves grow very fast but he was in an area that had sand, the bottoms of his hoves are wide, i will tell my shoer next time to cut off a littel more toe and leave some heel, that does help. i hope he's only 2yrs and 4 months.

YAY! the new school year is finally upon us and I am horribly excited. My summer job working for the government as a poultry research technician was fun, but I am looking really forward to classes. I have been busy running a pre-vet club booth for the 1st year orientations the last 2 days and classes start tomorrow. this semester I am taking a large animal veterinary physiology class, a genetics class, biochemistry, my second physics course(yuck) and a biology course. Most of these are still pre-reqs for vet school so while they might not be that interesting, I still have to do well in them, even though they are boring.

I found a beautiful registered Kentucky Mountain Saddle horse. She is so sweet. I have her pastured and noticed within two days she had bug bites and bots on her fore legs. So I read up. I tried some home remedy fly sprays, but found a commercial spray worked best. I read many blogs and articles about bots. No one seemed to have a good control mechanism. So I experimented and have found Pam spray will make it easy to use a grooming block to remove the bots. It will also make it difficult for the bots to attach to the hair. After using the Pam for 3 days her fore legs are bot free. Of course the flies were smart and then deposited the bots on the back legs, so I sprayed them and today they are also free of bots.

Hello everyone, I just joined the blog community. I look forward to meeting all of you, and sharing in some horsey talk.

It's very frustrating not being able to give my 3 girls the opportunities they need to break into the barrel racing world. We do local barrel races, but we just can't afford the kind of horse they need to compete. Not to mention the trailer and tack. We have a couple of really nice horses but they are really just nice pleasure/kids horses. My two oldest girls have great potential, the third is only 5 so she's still just begining. Does anyone have any advice on how to get started in the rodeo circut or how they got going without having thousands of $'s to spend? Thanks!