Never doubt a Mule

July 6th 2009.

I saw Sunshine limping horribly in the pasture. It appeared as if she'd broken her leg, it wobbled horribly and she couldn't put weight on it.

We eventually found out that she had torn a collateral ligament in her left knee. The tumble she'd taken in the pasture had caused nerve damage and her left shoulder atrophied.

The vet said 6 months of stall rest, with daily exercise of hand walking.

Sunshine spent 6 weeks laying in the stall, just getting up to eat and do her business [photo above].

My heart was glum. The vet's prognosis was not good, but he asked us to give her a chance.

So it is with tears in my eyes and a song in my heart that I report Miss Sunshine and I went for a ride today. It has been nearly 10 months since her injury.

She handled the ride in the woods like a pro. At first she was hesitant to leave her wailing pasture mates behind and enter the narrow path. [Let us not forget the winds that were whipping and the sound of thunder far off in the distance!]

We took an easy ride down to the creek and stopped.

I dismounted and let her nibble grass.

While I wept tears of joy and buried my face in her neck.
My little red molly mule had come back when the odds were against her.

I remounted and we rode quietly towards home, the thunder booming in the sky and the winds whipping the tree tops on the ridge above us.