By Kay S. Pedrotti
Mules were once the backbone and legs of the country’s transportation: rural, urban or wilderness.
Bill and Anne Cloy stand with their mules Jezebel and Kate at their Pike County farm.
Mule muscle
They carried huge loads, plowed, drove the mills that ground cane, dragged logs, moved households, went into places even horses couldn’t go – and sometimes they still do those things. They also do some un-mule-like things, such as being beloved pets and in some areas of the U.S., even taking part in English riding and dressage competitions.
Pike County’s Bill Cloy and his wife Anne count themselves among the mule-lovers of the world; Bill has Jezebel (she’s appropriately named, he says) and Anne has Lady Katherine, better known as Kate. They use the mules just for trail-riding, Bill says, but there are mule owners around who still use their mules to pull, plow or drive syrup mills.
At the Cloys’ last week was another well-loved mule, Tammy Mobley’s Baby. She has plowed once with Baby, Mobley said, “and I really enjoyed it.” Baby was getting a balance trim on her hooves from Thomaston farrier John Cochran. Mules are not shod like horses, Bill Cloy said.
These three owners are members of the Pike County Horse Club, which meets every third Thursday in the basement of the Farm Bureau in Zebulon.
For more, read the Wednesday, August 18 print/eEdition of The Pike County Journal-Reporter.
Pike County’s Bill Cloy and his wife Anne count themselves among the mule-lovers of the world; Bill has Jezebel (she’s appropriately named, he says) and Anne has Lady Katherine, better known as Kate. They use the mules just for trail-riding, Bill says, but there are mule owners around who still use their mules to pull, plow or drive syrup mills.
At the Cloys’ last week was another well-loved mule, Tammy Mobley’s Baby. She has plowed once with Baby, Mobley said, “and I really enjoyed it.” Baby was getting a balance trim on her hooves from Thomaston farrier John Cochran. Mules are not shod like horses, Bill Cloy said.
These three owners are members of the Pike County Horse Club, which meets every third Thursday in the basement of the Farm Bureau in Zebulon.
For more, read the Wednesday, August 18 print/eEdition of The Pike County Journal-Reporter.
My Daddy once told me dating was in how far you could walk or ride your mule or horse in the old days.
You've heard of kissing cousins!
When we went places, he said if their good looking their your cousins. Remember that!
I was lucky. I only brought two home!
When your Granny ask them how certain people are, that's a sign. Your related!
Thank God we're not in Alabama! Nobody keep's up with what goes on over there!
If they don't plow I doubt it.