Montana Mule Days 2007

5 TO 10 INCHES HEAVY WET SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS WITH LOCAL AMOUNTS UP TO 15 INCHES ARE EXPECTED ABOVE 5500 FEET BY THURSDAY MORNING. LOLO PASS...US HIGHWAY 12 HEADING EAST WILL BE AMONG THE AREAS IMPACTED BY THIS EVENT.

This was our weather forecast just as we were about to depart for Montana over Lolo Pass. We had 1 ¼ inches of rain in Grangeville Wednesday June 6th making it to wet to load up, not a good start to MT Mule Days. It was late Thursday by the time we arrived and we ended up parking in the far back. The boys were housed next to the arena which meant miles of walking them back and forth for the next three days. Oh my aching wet feet. The conditions were sunburn perfect for the first two days of the show, we went from cold to hot to cold talk about wardrobe changes. The arena was in great shape considering all the rainfall Drummond had received prior to the show.

Luc and Dev’s had an 8 a.m. Showmanship class Friday, we had 17 mule classmates. Luc made a terrific first impression with Judge Carol Belmore and she placed him in the 5th slot. First time I had ever seen a donkey place
in Showmanship, I was thrilled.

It is always a hassle to get the guys saddled and into trail class following showmanship in time to unsaddle for halter classes. Somehow we always seem to make it. Liberty caught the judge’s eye and she placed him as Reserve Champion Halter Gelding and slid Luc into the Grand Champion Halter Gelding placing.

It was an afternoon of events where donkeys like to change the rules, just ‘cause they can, making gaming on donkeys a huge crowd pleaser! Friday night was the log pulling contest a favorite for contestants and the audience, there were 15 donkeys entered. This was to be the first year showing Dev as a single and Team Donk in this class. We discovered our logs were way to light for the team and we had legs and tugs all tangled. It was a good learning experience and best of all the boys remained calm thru the course.

Saturday 8 a.m. was our Pleasure Driving Class. We harnessed Dev and took him to Jack Eden’s campsite for him to drive and proceeded to hitch Luc and Liberty. By the time we got into the class it was half over but Judge Carol
graciously allowed us in. Dev and Liberty did not want to stop and stand in the line up, too much energy to early in the morning. It was Liberty’s first driving class and the first time all three of our boys were in the arena at the same time. For us it was one of those heart thumbing moments.

All the donkey folks decided to ride and bring up the rear of the parade. Good thing too because the back half of the parade got stuck on the wrong side of the tracks with a train flying by but we made it in time to bring up the ass end. Jim said he sold my Dev about three times during the parade… I need to keep a closer eye on those two!

The Ride and Drive Class is a huge favorite with Jim and me. With five class entries it takes 10 volunteers to help with the unharnessing and saddling. Jim and I each ended up with one person at the head and no second helper.
After Luc was saddled I ran over and helped Jim slip the bridle on Dev. Luc and I experienced a Wardrobe Malfunction. After a short ride I went back to the center of the arena and pulled Luc’s britchin off. Somehow it was causing a hump in his back and we just could not have that! The announcer, Lee Daggett and I definitely had fun with that one!

Team penning was one for the record books. The first donkey team penned three steers in one minute two seconds beating the best mule team. We were on the second go-a -round Jim and Dev, Luc and I. We penned 2 animals in four minutes and discovered Dev is a cow-eatin’ donk… he likes cutting and chasing cows. How kewell is that! I discovered that steers have no respect for donkeys. The third team was having nothing but problems so it was the “Ch ears” mounted donkey posse to their rescue as all of us rode back into the arena to help! We decided that since there were more of us we should pen the entire herd… dumb cows no one wanted to make us look good but we gave it our all for a little under three minutes! Ya-Hoo!

The rains rolled back in sometime Saturday night and continued all day Sunday. We again started the day off with an 8 a.m. class, this time it was Gambler’s Choice with three donkeys to hitch and drive. Jim was to do the driving I would be hitching and unhitching the fellas. First to go was Dev, Jim had about an hours drive before the class which really helped to take the edge of him. After Jim drove Dev he came back and jumped in Luc’s cart and took off. Then all I had to do was to take the gig off Dev and switch it to Liberty. Jim came back and jumped in Liberty’s gig and off they went, while I took Luc’s cart off and put Dev in Liberty’s tie up spot. We executed that class like clockwork and Jim placed all three donks!

The Canadian Maze class was great fun for Jim, again he would be driving and I was to be the assistant. This year the entrance to the maze was switched to the east side of the arena. The first four contestants went in and got lost. The next one to go was Gina driving her mini donk, Merlot, who is a speed demon and tends to beat us every time we go up again him. Gina told Jim to go ahead since he was driving more than one. Dev and Jim drove the course perfectly! Gina went in followed the gig tracks and beat Jim’s time! She’s a pretty smart cookie that one! We all had a good chuckle.

Time to pick on Lee, the announcer… the “Ch ears” Donkey group rounded up as many riders, drivers, donkey and mule folks as we could find to come into the arena between classes and sing Happy Birthday to Lee as loudly as we could, I think that was a first time show stopper for Lee and everyone seemed to enjoy it! Spectators and contestants alike continued to have a great time in spite of the rainfall; I don't think our judge, ring steward or arena helpers were that wild about the wet and cold.

In the Musical Sack Race a good friend of ours stepped off her donkey on the off side and broke her tibia just below the knee in four places. It was reported that her 5th place ribbon proudly hung over her hospital bed and she can't wait to come back to play next year. What a trooper!

The arena was beginning to turn to slop by Sunday afternoon and since this was Liberty’s first show and we were all getting pretty tired we scratched his last two classes. The last class of the day was barrel racing. Luc was perfect and Dev redesigned the course. After the first barrel he headed for the gate. Lee proceeded to give me a bad time and I told him I had just turned in the best time of everyone… he made me go back and redo the other two barrels which was a good thing for Dev, it certainly did help our time out at all!

This was Luc’s time to shine. He tried his best for us and it showed in awards, we brought home 2 beautifully embroidered garment bags, a Montana Silver Belt buckle for Jim and a total of 25 ribbons for all three boys.
Luc finished the show as the Champion Halter Gelding, Hi Point Performance Donkey, High Point Driving Donkey, and the Grand Champion Overall Driving Donkey. Liberty was the Reserve Grand Champion Halter Gelding. All the
boys did well and we survived another MT Mule Days.

I did not even unpack my camera, hopefully we will receive photos at some point in time. There were four professional photographers on site. I spoke with one gentleman who sells his worldwide to major magazines and he specialized in western themes, he really liked our big boys and took lots of shots. Would love to know where some of those photos end up!