Siera and the Monsters...

Siera is a gaited 'Peruvian Paso' mule which means her dam was pure Peruvian Paso and her dad of course was a donkey.
She has inherited the Paso gait which actually means 'step' in Spanish. She is not related to Paso Finos which are of another breed.
Peruvian Pasos are breed for the longer stride to travel long distances at a 4 beat gait.

Yesterday was ride #2 outside in the big world.
With her friends in the 'mare' pasture running like banshees, donkeys braying, hound dogs barking, and chickens crossing her path~~she took it all in stride.

After a few passes through the yard [I couldn't get into the round pen to lunge her first...hubby had it blocked with his pick up]...I decided to head up the driveway and take some short tours into the woods.

All went perfect until we got to the bottom of the shared driveway with the house on top of the hill [it is for sale and empty].
Siera stopped, her ears pointed so hard that the tips nearly touched. She locked her legs and stared hard towards the neighbor's house.

I slid off her and attached a lead rope.
She stood rock still watching.

Fairly quickly, a van roared into sight from behind the house towards us. The driver never even looked our way.
The back doors of the van were open ~~ and as he went past us, things began to spew out of the flapping doors.
A shop vac bounced crazily on the gravel.
Tools clattered against rocks.
A coiled hose and an electrical cord bounced out...and the driver continued his crazy drive up the hill and away.

Siera stood quietly through out the whole 'ordeal'.
I decided that I'd move all the stuff over to the side so when I had to leave for work I wouldn't have to drive over the mess.

Siera nonchalantly followed me and sniffed out the strange 'monster' items. She curiously smelled the shop vac and tools.

I was very pleased.
Remount and ride back home.
Lesson done for the day.

She's going to be a keeper in my opinion.