Luc’s First Montana Mule Days

It took two years of practicing to prepare ourselves for the 2005 Montana Mule Days show.   Luc, on his own time, did his part to get ready for trail class bridge crossing.

Luc’s and Kristen’s first ride

Even though Luc was too young to be ridden in this year’s Mule Days he was preparing for the day when he would show what a great mount he would be.

Mule Days held in Drummond, MT. Representing Cottonwood, Id was an all female group of mule riders who were always showing up in the ribbons.   It was girls and their mules having nothing but fun.   Their only chaperone was Billy the tri colored Corgie puppy.   All the Camas Prairie contestants were among those who even stayed to the bitter end.

Everyone said, it would not be Mule Days without at least one day of rain and that’s exactly what happened.  Saturday night thru Sunday evening it poured hard, turning the arena into a mud bath.   Because of their huge investments and the time it takes to clean harness and the larger show wagons many of the big hitches were forced to pull out.

In total there were 145 mules and donkeys entered in the show and many of the classes were extremely large.

This 8-up hitch is owned by Jack and Helen Eden of Hamilton, MT and Bob Tomaskie of Helena, MT. It is always a crowd favorite.   Mules from this hitch placed in this 8 up class and in the mule 8 up free style driving.

The show’s grand entry was performed with all donkey presenters, a first time ever! Luc was asked to present the club’s flag.

Three covers wagons pulled by mule hitches from Burley, Idaho showed up to enjoy the festivities. They were complete with everything they needed for a three month journey including the chickens. I had a chance to visit with them and much to my surprise discovered they are close neighbors to my southern Idaho family. They had come a long way and would log many more miles by the end of summer. How exciting!

We’ve always come home exhausted with the conclusion that it should be illegal to have that much fun packed into one weekend.

More information can be found at www.montanamuledays.com

Written for Happy Trails Magazine August 2005 by Kristi Kingma

Here are the Standings for Montana Mule Days 2005