Speaker 1: You take a leggy mule like that that will let
Speaker 1: down and walk in the mirrors of rolling, they'll probably
Speaker 1: walked three and a half four miles an hour. Who
Speaker 1: covered a lot of ground like that. And that's what
Speaker 1: I was saying earlier about me get a more general
Speaker 1: diverse five. I mean it. No, those horses are out there.
Speaker 1: I mean, don't get me wrong, they're out there. But
Speaker 1: I promise you, I promise you we go to the
Speaker 1: mountains and go riding that mule. Little step out and walk.
Speaker 1: You may keep up with me, but I'm gonna kill
Speaker 1: your horse and your back's gonna be hurting time more night.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just a fact.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're in Oklahoma at the thirty third annual Ada
Speaker 2: Oklahoma Mules Sell to learn about mules, the Kelso family
Speaker 2: who runs it, and to get some insight into rural America.
Speaker 2: This auction is a rare jewel in today's time, full
Speaker 2: of showmanship and tradition and a heck of a place
Speaker 2: to pick up a good mule. And I really doubt
Speaker 2: that you're gonna want to miss this one. And hey,
Speaker 2: if you enjoy episodes like this, please share our podcast
Speaker 2: on social media and leave us a review on iTunes.
Speaker 2: We truly appreciate all of you listening, and I think
Speaker 2: that we're about to learn some stuff.
Speaker 3: It's hard to explain to your horse people. But if
Speaker 3: your horse people ever get bit by the bug and
Speaker 3: they get them a mule, then they can't explain it
Speaker 3: to their buddies either. It's just a mule thing. We've
Speaker 3: thought about getting some T shirt. Sometimes you know, it's
Speaker 3: just a mule thing.
Speaker 2: My name is Klay Nukem and this is the Bear
Speaker 2: Grease Podcast where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search
Speaker 2: for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the
Speaker 2: story of Americans who live their lives close to the land.
Speaker 2: Presented by f h F Gear, American made, purpose built
Speaker 2: hunting and fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged
Speaker 2: as the place as we explore.
Speaker 1: So the kids around here on Fridays, every Friday, they
Speaker 1: ride a Chick fil A. It's a big deal. They
Speaker 1: go through the drive through on their mules. They've been
Speaker 1: on Oklahoma City News with it. It's been all over Facebook.
Speaker 1: It's fun deal. Not time comes around. They're allowing to
Speaker 1: go ride to town down the world. On the edge
Speaker 1: of town we're on right here in Antion Town, right
Speaker 1: here and there they're right downtown doing what kids do,
Speaker 1: I mean, having a big town whatever. We didn't know
Speaker 1: this was going on. Our kids used out riding all
Speaker 1: we know, and I'm We're in the office up to
Speaker 1: the front of the river and I see bloot. I said, well,
Speaker 1: what's going on across the road? Over blue lights all over?
Speaker 1: By the time my phone rings, it's my son.
Speaker 4: Answer. He said, Dad, what's my social Curity number? Said why,
Speaker 4: he's with the cops. Needed I said, do what I said,
Speaker 4: Are you under arrest?
Speaker 2: This is kind of the way things roll when the
Speaker 2: mule sell is in town. This is fifty one year
Speaker 2: old Justin Kelso. He's the seventh generation muleman and his
Speaker 2: family has been involved in the ad to Oklahoma mules
Speaker 2: sale since the first auction in nineteen ninety two. Today
Speaker 2: they run the whole thing. But this story is about
Speaker 2: his son, Jack Kelso.
Speaker 4: Are you under arrest?
Speaker 5: He said?
Speaker 1: He said, hey, mind trouble. They said, no, he's no,
Speaker 1: I'm not trouble. I said, are you under arrest or anything?
Speaker 4: No, No, he won't.
Speaker 1: I said, your mother will be over in just a minute. Well,
Speaker 1: This is on Friday night. They were cross the road
Speaker 1: here on Broadway south south of where we're at, and
Speaker 1: they'd rolled downtown. But if young lady stuck her head
Speaker 1: out of this apartment complex, this y'all helped me throw me.
Speaker 1: My man has thrown me out, and he had he
Speaker 1: had throwed her all her close out the house there
Speaker 1: and there. So they go over there. I don't know
Speaker 1: that demand hitter. I'm not accusing him. I have no
Speaker 1: idea what he done. So somehow or not, they're gonna help.
Speaker 1: They go to her. They go to the front door. Now,
Speaker 1: I mean, she's begging for help. So boys being good
Speaker 1: boys that maybe little rambus just but good boys.
Speaker 4: The lady needs help. You help. I raise my son.
Speaker 4: You take care of people, you know, if you can.
Speaker 1: And so they get this guy from porks and pretty
Speaker 1: good scuffle and sues and the boy, my son was
Speaker 1: probably fifteen sixteenth the time. The other boy's twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: And they get in a fight with this guy. They
Speaker 1: get my son. I think he might have helped a
Speaker 1: little bit, but he gets it broke up because his
Speaker 1: buddy's pooping on this guy pretty good. And it's getting
Speaker 1: almost out of hand. So Jack gets and broke up.
Speaker 1: The guy goes back in the house, grabs his knife
Speaker 1: and comes back out after that boy and Jack, by
Speaker 1: this time he got back on his k meew when
Speaker 1: he had alert rope. He just freaks out and ropes
Speaker 1: this boy and drags him off by his feet, thumped
Speaker 1: him down pretty good. And my wife Candy gets over there,
Speaker 1: and these cops are just in stitches laughing. They're saying
Speaker 1: this is the gratty saint's ever happened here to a
Speaker 1: clumber and said, we've never seen so it turned out
Speaker 1: he turned out he wrote the guy and drinking down.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm not the greatest rope in the world.
Speaker 4: My son, he was five.
Speaker 1: Years old, sadad. He teached me how rope. This win
Speaker 1: not a very good rope. I said, I'd give a
Speaker 1: little play rope. That's here rope everything you see. So
Speaker 1: the kids play with ropes and s's five years old
Speaker 1: and he can usually really well. And he just reached
Speaker 1: up jerk this guy. Now it's wondered he didn't hurt him,
Speaker 1: Jersey because he wrote him and the loop dropped around
Speaker 1: his legs and I mean he took his feet out
Speaker 1: from So did.
Speaker 6: The guy get a racetrat?
Speaker 1: I think yeah, as far as I know, I didn't ask.
Speaker 1: I'm just glad my son would into a white you know,
Speaker 1: That's all I needed.
Speaker 4: Was in court dating eight Oklahoma two.
Speaker 6: Welcome to aight Oklahoma.
Speaker 4: Yeah boy.
Speaker 2: The eight of Oklahoma mules sell was three days long
Speaker 2: and the main event is the mule auction on Saturday,
Speaker 2: where they'll sell between one hundred and fifty and two
Speaker 2: hundred mules. A sorrel colored mule, a red one is
Speaker 2: being loped around the arena exactly.
Speaker 6: Honest.
Speaker 7: I've ever read as far as you want, all day long,
Speaker 7: multiple days in a row, and if you do this round.
Speaker 1: Three years.
Speaker 2: The owner of the mule has stood up in the
Speaker 2: crowd to deliver a heartfelt sales pitch for this honest mule,
Speaker 2: and the rider chimes into. The arena is surrounded by
Speaker 2: bleachers filled with potential buyers, tire kickers, and onlookers. Everyone
Speaker 2: is kind of here to see what the high selling
Speaker 2: mule goes for. The mule sold for fifteen thousand dollars
Speaker 2: to an online bidder from Idaho. Yeah, this place is
Speaker 2: pretty high tech, but that wasn't the high selling mule.
Speaker 2: The way this works is that one by one, each
Speaker 2: mule that's up for sale is ridden through the arena
Speaker 2: while the auctioneer and the owners seeing its praises. The
Speaker 2: rider has the crowd's attention for just a few minutes,
Speaker 2: and he's got to show the years of work that's
Speaker 2: gone into this animal. People in the crowd bid by
Speaker 2: raising their hand or yelling to the auctioneer. But the
Speaker 2: thing about an auction is that this is a spectator sport.
Speaker 2: Will there be a lot of people here that are
Speaker 2: just spectators just come to watch.
Speaker 4: Come see the big deal. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: And there's people here come here to vacation. They just
Speaker 1: want to see what the mules bring. Yeah, I hate
Speaker 1: you here with that mule brought eighty Yeah is there
Speaker 1: and I seen it. They talk, you know, coffee shop
Speaker 1: talks like going to a ball game. Some ways, a
Speaker 1: lot of the spectator and you'll see the tricks and
Speaker 1: the shows. I mean in a way, horse and mule
Speaker 1: seals are almost entertainers in a way too. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: are show offs. I mean because you're showing the mule.
Speaker 1: That's the reason the mule and horses are sold. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, I've sold stuff all my life. I sold equipment,
Speaker 1: sold cattle. Mules and horses are the most fun to
Speaker 1: sell because you can do the tricks, you can show
Speaker 1: off in you.
Speaker 2: There's some showman, there's some showmanships. So I have been
Speaker 2: selling at a live.
Speaker 1: Auction, and there's disbandaged that showmanship. The reason my Hilberts
Speaker 1: was here ten fifteen years ago. This mule but somebody off.
Speaker 1: I wrotehim with the house a little. He rode fine more.
Speaker 1: I wrote this mule Barry got I mean he got
Speaker 1: to ride well, I mean really was going to show good.
Speaker 1: And I think we had at nineteen hundred bed on
Speaker 1: this mule, which was more than we thought he'd bring
Speaker 1: because we weren't bragging on you know, we didn't bring
Speaker 1: on how gentle he was. I just showed him what
Speaker 1: he would do. Guaranteed him sound. Didn't guarantee him be
Speaker 1: gentle because we knew he butt somebody off. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna guarantee that when I know that. And uh Dad
Speaker 1: had his back turned trying to catch bed somewhere. I
Speaker 1: stood up my saddle and I fell teen bunch. I
Speaker 1: knew he was gonna I didn't think he but I
Speaker 1: thought he might kind of try to jump out from
Speaker 1: under me or something done unto a thousand times. Just
Speaker 1: step off. That's a five foot drop to step off.
Speaker 1: He was a turn he could. He knew he could
Speaker 1: take advantage of me in that point because I have
Speaker 1: no control that.
Speaker 4: Morning, I'm trusting you.
Speaker 6: You've lost.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But I mean I've been doing this kind of
Speaker 1: stuff since I was seven eight years old.
Speaker 4: Just jump off.
Speaker 1: And when I did, I had both feet and the
Speaker 1: seat of my saddle, my spurs I had. I used
Speaker 1: to write center high school and college. When I stepped
Speaker 1: off my left foot leading, I hung my right spur
Speaker 1: and fell off this thing like a sack of potatoes
Speaker 1: from a turnip truck.
Speaker 4: And all my weight landing on my left hip. Standing on.
Speaker 6: He went out from under you, and that spur caught.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: When I would step now I went. I lay on
Speaker 1: my right hip and it hurt so bad I couldn't breathe.
Speaker 1: And my dad come over. He said, what is wrong
Speaker 1: with them? Because he didn't see it.
Speaker 4: He just turned around. I'm on the ground.
Speaker 1: Something else has caught my mule stepped on it finished
Speaker 1: right by the way. We got no more bids on
Speaker 1: he so, anyway, Dad's over to me, and I just
Speaker 1: hold my hand a butt. I love my dad. I
Speaker 1: maybe talked back to my dad twice in my life.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm mortified as a kid. I mean, it's dad,
Speaker 1: you know. And I just held my handle. Lot shut up,
Speaker 1: I keep talk. I'm not going to talk for me.
Speaker 4: And I finally I said, he said, what happened? I said, well,
Speaker 4: I stood up on.
Speaker 1: Him, and he said, on that sign of a blank
Speaker 1: is what were you thinking?
Speaker 4: I said, said my good idea at the time.
Speaker 2: So there's some there's some showmanship in, yes, in.
Speaker 6: Selling these mules, and that's that's what makes it fun.
Speaker 1: To watch, yeah, exactly, and in which we get animated
Speaker 1: taking bids. I mean, when I was younger, I can't
Speaker 1: do it now. I'd be selling them you and have
Speaker 1: a bit on each side of the auction ring. I'd
Speaker 1: rope from one side, jump off, catch bid, jump back on, go,
Speaker 1: get the guy back in the backup bit on another side.
Speaker 1: And I know there were some people that done that
Speaker 1: just to see me do it. I mean they thought
Speaker 1: it was funny. You know, the emotions go running. Yes,
Speaker 1: you can get mules or horses sold higher as high
Speaker 1: or higher at home. There's certain scenarios. You got that
Speaker 1: that one customer that always comes to you, or whatever
Speaker 1: you can get. I'm not saying you get more at
Speaker 1: auction every time. However, every time somebody bids, you're taking
Speaker 1: ownership of that animal or that car, whatever you're buying
Speaker 1: an auction, when you bid, you just took ownership. It
Speaker 1: may be for one second, maybe thirty second, but it's yours.
Speaker 4: At that moment.
Speaker 1: Well, if you want it enough, Why don't think I
Speaker 1: got to have my mule, that's my mual. Why's he
Speaker 1: bidding against my bed again? And so I think that's
Speaker 1: the reason auctions work well for a lot of things
Speaker 1: is and I think sometimes you get more for one
Speaker 1: and sometimes we've gotten I mean, I've sold mules and
Speaker 1: horses that at auction.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't ask you that much for it.
Speaker 2: Hot a live auction can be a seller's market. But
Speaker 2: the benefit to the buyer is how many mules they
Speaker 2: get to look at all in the same place. And
Speaker 2: what I've learned is that meal trainers or the people
Speaker 2: selling these mules who come year after year can get
Speaker 2: reputations good and bad, and buyers tend to know what
Speaker 2: they're getting just because of whose mule it is. This
Speaker 2: can be good or bad. How many on average mules
Speaker 2: would you sell at the aid of mule.
Speaker 1: Sell, it's always average around one hundred and fifty seventy five.
Speaker 1: Since we moved here properly year, you're gonna have close
Speaker 1: to I'd say.
Speaker 4: We have two hundred.
Speaker 1: We got nearly one hundred in the catalog, so we
Speaker 1: usually get it varies.
Speaker 4: You just don't know. More people are putting their muals
Speaker 4: in the catalog.
Speaker 1: The catalog sale is where you can sign the mule,
Speaker 1: you pay a consignment fee, You get the information and
Speaker 1: pictures videos to us ahead of.
Speaker 4: Time, so it's a it's a you're coming to consignment sale.
Speaker 1: Would be a better way for a lot of people
Speaker 1: to under people know what they're getting.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 6: A catalog mule is going to go through the trail course.
Speaker 4: Go through a trail course.
Speaker 2: So at this cell there's going to be two categories
Speaker 2: of meals. There's the catalog mules, which are vetted in
Speaker 2: some degree, they've gone through a trail course.
Speaker 6: They you know this mule's coming.
Speaker 2: But then there's also people that are just going to
Speaker 2: show up that on Saturday, and they're gonna say, I
Speaker 2: want I want.
Speaker 4: This mule sold.
Speaker 6: Who is buying mules at this cell?
Speaker 2: Is it the individual guy that just is like, Hey,
Speaker 2: I want to go buy a meals so that I
Speaker 2: can you know, ride and trail, ride and hunt. Or
Speaker 2: is it mule buyers and mule traders. Is it people
Speaker 2: from all over the country. Is it regional? Like who
Speaker 2: are these people?
Speaker 1: Yes to all those, it's we got sero individuals that
Speaker 1: you know, they trail right, maybe their mule died, maybe
Speaker 1: got older, maybe they remarried and they lost their last
Speaker 1: mule and divorce and everyone.
Speaker 4: Sounds like a tough situation.
Speaker 1: She could be. But then the outfitters, mule traders or sellers.
Speaker 1: One guy I know, he called me he's got a
Speaker 1: couple of customers that, you know.
Speaker 2: Somebody might be here that that is representing such back home.
Speaker 1: And that's I know, we got a couple of outfitters
Speaker 1: going to be here in the fall of the internet.
Speaker 1: We have one outfitter in a Wyomi that bought seat
Speaker 1: so online. So yeah, we kind of get all of it,
Speaker 1: you know. So so it's got several benefits stoning for
Speaker 1: the seller. But asso for the buyer and that they
Speaker 1: can look and uh yeah, there's four in the cattle
Speaker 1: and everybody like I think I'm gonna go, or they
Speaker 1: don't have one I'm looking for I'm yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I'll stay at home.
Speaker 2: What are some of the things that people are wanting
Speaker 2: to see in that ring? Like if I could go
Speaker 2: in there right now and make my mule lay down
Speaker 2: and I can get on.
Speaker 6: And off of it, I mean, that's kind of kind
Speaker 6: of lashy.
Speaker 4: One thing does show with some willingness to please.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's indicator. It's like he'll lay down, lets you
Speaker 6: get on off of him. There's probably other stuff he's doing.
Speaker 1: Right, but but you don't need to buy him just
Speaker 1: because it's kind of like that stock live mu or
Speaker 1: a grave mule when we're talking about earlier. It's okay,
Speaker 1: they got that, But you don't need to buy him
Speaker 1: just because he's got that. Yeah, that needs to be
Speaker 1: an added bonus. That sorrow or baby mule has no
Speaker 1: light on him might take.
Speaker 4: Care of you just as good or better, you know.
Speaker 6: So, so what impresses you in the ring when you
Speaker 6: see him?
Speaker 1: When that mule comes in slow lope, you don't have
Speaker 1: to have that real short lope, just a nice, comfortable slow,
Speaker 1: not not charging head down, loping on a loose rain
Speaker 1: in a circle. If you can get a mut or
Speaker 1: horse to lope a circle in a square pin on
Speaker 1: a loose rain, it shows me you've done your work
Speaker 1: and that mule has got a lot of potential, has
Speaker 1: got a good mind on it. It's not it's not
Speaker 1: looking for now that mule knows at least. Look, you're
Speaker 1: asking a lot of circle. That's what that mule is
Speaker 1: going to do it. It's not trying to do what
Speaker 1: it wants to do, it's what you want to.
Speaker 2: Max Bishop is a longtime muleman and buyer. He makes
Speaker 2: this complete living buying and selling mules. So he has
Speaker 2: a lot of experience and has been to a lot
Speaker 2: of sales. Here's what he has to say about this
Speaker 2: eight of sale.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of good mules here.
Speaker 7: There's gonna be some more average type mules here, so
Speaker 7: different different budgets. You're gonna have some hot sellers here
Speaker 7: that are probably a loss as any of the mules
Speaker 7: that are in the big cells like the J. Clark
Speaker 7: cell or crom in the canyon. But in those cells
Speaker 7: they're almost for sure, all the mules are super high,
Speaker 7: so it's kind of limited for who can buy them.
Speaker 7: Or this is going to have some mules that are
Speaker 7: going to go really really cheap, when some are going
Speaker 7: to go pretty high. So I'd say this is more
Speaker 7: of a sell for everybody.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Max is about to mention these Saturday night sales,
Speaker 2: which refers to a small scale local livestock auction, and
Speaker 2: he compares buying there to buying catalog mule or a
Speaker 2: vetted meal that's gone through the trail course.
Speaker 6: At a sale like.
Speaker 7: This the Saturday night cells, you know, they're gonna have
Speaker 7: some cheap mules there, but they're generally there for a reason.
Speaker 7: They got problems and stuff like that. So those are
Speaker 7: you know, that's that's the danger of going to a
Speaker 7: regular cell cell. These are a lot of these are
Speaker 7: catalog mules. And so these mules are booked, you know,
Speaker 7: a month or two in advance, probably two three months
Speaker 7: in advance, and uh, you know, people believe they're good mules.
Speaker 7: They're trying to get a top dollar for them, and
Speaker 7: they have to come out here in the open and
Speaker 7: compete in a course, you know, you take it to
Speaker 7: a cell barn. You got that little bitty arena and
Speaker 7: get away with a lot of stuff, and you can
Speaker 7: drug them up and get away with things a lot better. Here,
Speaker 7: they're gonna have to be out and open. They gotta
Speaker 7: go through this course. They're gonna have to back up.
Speaker 7: They're gonna have to lope. They're gotta walk trot. The
Speaker 7: trot's gonna show if they're lame or not lame. If
Speaker 7: they're off, you know, you can kind of see. They
Speaker 7: gotta go over a bridge. They gotta go through, uh
Speaker 7: some pull noodles and things that would spook or book
Speaker 7: or some they have before that you don't see here,
Speaker 7: but they've already done it before they're allowed to come
Speaker 7: in here. They have to go there and take a
Speaker 7: bridle on and off. See if they're earshi or not earshot.
Speaker 7: It could buy their feeds if they're gonna kick her.
Speaker 7: So those things ought to be preapproved in the catalog mules.
Speaker 7: If it's a catalog mule and you buy it and
Speaker 7: you go and you check it after the cell and
Speaker 7: there's something wrong with it, mister Johnny, and then we'll
Speaker 7: make you take it back. You have to pay it,
Speaker 7: so you kind of have a not a long time guarantee,
Speaker 7: but you have a guarantee if something happens, like in
Speaker 7: the next day or two.
Speaker 2: I'm still trying to figure out who's here at this cell.
Speaker 2: I step outside and I see some young fellas riding
Speaker 2: mules through the parking lot.
Speaker 6: I stop and talk to them. Where are you from?
Speaker 8: Are at City, Oklahoma?
Speaker 6: Why are y'all selling these mules?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 5: Are they? Are they?
Speaker 6: Is this mule yours?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 8: Or she is? She's eight years old and been hogging
Speaker 8: it off of and drove kids and been everywhere you
Speaker 8: can really put a mule pretty much.
Speaker 2: So when you sell this mule for the high high
Speaker 2: selling mule and you make twenty grand, what are you
Speaker 2: gonna do with it?
Speaker 8: Probably go buy me a trick.
Speaker 6: He's full of it, isn't he.
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Now, y'all, are all these mules y'all worked?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 6: Yeah? Have you done this before? Have you raised up
Speaker 6: a mule and sold them? Yes, sir?
Speaker 8: I got two more in the sale, and I've bring
Speaker 8: one up here almost every year and I sell them.
Speaker 6: How old are you?
Speaker 8: I'm fifteen.
Speaker 6: How long you've been doing that for about five years?
Speaker 6: What do you hope to get for this meal that
Speaker 6: you're on right now, hopefully nine thousand old. For real,
Speaker 6: you think it's worth nine thousand? I hope she is.
Speaker 8: I think she is.
Speaker 6: Really.
Speaker 2: You can learn a lot about a group of people
Speaker 2: by talking to their young folks. And I'd say that
Speaker 2: these boys are probably bucking the American trend of living
Speaker 2: their lives behind a screen. This boy's been training and
Speaker 2: selling mules since he was ten years old. And what's
Speaker 2: unique about a mule is that the more you ride it,
Speaker 2: the more you take it places and get it into
Speaker 2: binds and see how it responds, the more money it's worth.
Speaker 2: So time in the saddle equals money. But you've got
Speaker 2: to be able to prove that to the crowd in
Speaker 2: a really short time. I hope this boy gets his
Speaker 2: nine grand for that mule.
Speaker 6: What's the like? Prim prim mule? For age?
Speaker 5: Color?
Speaker 6: Size?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 6: What the mule?
Speaker 2: That is the top sailing mule on Saturday? What do
Speaker 2: you predict it's gonna be?
Speaker 1: The age has crept up over the years, but I
Speaker 1: predicted to be over five or older, probably not over
Speaker 1: ten or twelve. As a rule, the mule is gonna
Speaker 1: stand fourteen three to fifteen one weigh one thousand pounds
Speaker 1: and ask it. You ask it to do it, it does it.
Speaker 1: It's gonna loap off right over its tracks if you
Speaker 1: want it to. It's gonna ride, maybe not exactly pretty
Speaker 1: one handed, graining ride, but it's gonna ride between the
Speaker 1: bright rangs. For what I mean by that is for them,
Speaker 1: it's gonna stay neck, is gonna stay between your bright
Speaker 1: rings where it's at, and it's gonna work off your legs.
Speaker 1: Look to some degree, be a gentle, very kind eye
Speaker 1: on it. Just a nice meal.
Speaker 6: I mean, what about the colors? Color means anything?
Speaker 1: No, it means absolutely nothing to me. It's us to
Speaker 1: some people. It does to some people, and I get it,
Speaker 1: I understand it. My thing is in My older brother
Speaker 1: taught me this one. He said, look at one with
Speaker 1: color as if it had no color, and would you
Speaker 1: still buy?
Speaker 2: Color doesn't mean much? And some even think that solid
Speaker 2: mules you're better. But it's kind of like the vanity
Speaker 2: of picking a car color. But if you're buying a mule,
Speaker 2: you know, why not get one you like? And flashy mules,
Speaker 2: which are ones that aren't solid but are multi colored,
Speaker 2: often having some wide add on, often sell better at auction.
Speaker 2: Mules are measured in hands, and one hand is equivalent
Speaker 2: to four inches, so a fifteen hand mule is sixty
Speaker 2: inches at the top of the shoulder. A mule can
Speaker 2: be ridden at two or three years old, but it
Speaker 2: reaches its prime often around eight years old, and has
Speaker 2: a long working life, stretching to over twenty five years.
Speaker 6: Mules can live longer than horses.
Speaker 2: I once asking old coon hunter in Arkansas how long
Speaker 2: he'd been married. He paused for a minute and he said, well,
Speaker 2: I got my mule the year that we got married,
Speaker 2: and that mule died just a couple of years ago,
Speaker 2: when it was fifty four years old. Yeah, so I've
Speaker 2: been married fifty seven years. That's a long time for
Speaker 2: a mule to live and a long time to be married.
Speaker 2: But I think we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Do
Speaker 2: you even know what a mule is? This is Johnny Kelso,
Speaker 2: Justin's father. He's kind of a legend in the mule community,
Speaker 2: and he's been at this for a long time.
Speaker 3: Well, a mule is a cross between a female horse
Speaker 3: and a male donkey, and that gets the best of
Speaker 3: both worlds. I would say, I don't care about a
Speaker 3: donkey or a horse. But when you blind them together,
Speaker 3: I like it real good. They've been used and known
Speaker 3: for years. As far as a kindergarten knowing about it,
Speaker 3: I'm not sure most of them think. If you drive
Speaker 3: a pair of mules in a parade, they think.
Speaker 4: They're all horses.
Speaker 3: And I will tell them to look at the ears.
Speaker 3: The ears are longer. The first thing you notice the
Speaker 3: unique characteristics of a meal is to what you can
Speaker 3: do with one. You can get the job done with ease,
Speaker 3: with less feed, with less vet bills, They live longer,
Speaker 3: and the list goes on. It's the economics that makes
Speaker 3: a mule.
Speaker 1: But that same year you get a let's say, a
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred pound horse in the field working a mule
Speaker 1: weigh twelve fifty or thirteen hundred to do the same
Speaker 1: work well. Gas consumption of flat better term on a
Speaker 1: mule or a horse is not based on how efficient
Speaker 1: the engine is. It's based on a body. Where you
Speaker 1: feed an animal a percentage of your body weight. So
Speaker 1: if this mule weighs less than that horse does, I
Speaker 1: got to feed them less, get less of a here
Speaker 1: to haul off. It's just it's less work in the
Speaker 1: grant skip and he's in the same amount of same
Speaker 1: amount of work, so more more work per pound of
Speaker 1: that trap.
Speaker 6: Ecline flesh that trap.
Speaker 2: I wanted to ask Max Bishop how mules compared to horses.
Speaker 5: They've got stronger feet.
Speaker 7: You know, if you're out in the rockies, in the
Speaker 7: high country, you're after sheep hunting or all cutting or something.
Speaker 7: You throw a shoe on a horse that might go
Speaker 7: bad lane before you get back in. The mule probably
Speaker 7: never notice. They eat less, They live and work probably
Speaker 7: ten years longer than a horse. Their cardio is insane.
Speaker 7: So you take two of the best horses you can
Speaker 7: find out on a ranch and I'm gonna wear them out,
Speaker 7: you know, just cardio.
Speaker 5: Was I think.
Speaker 7: I think they get more of their skeletal structure from
Speaker 7: the horse, but they get the muscle structure more.
Speaker 5: For the donkey on average musto them.
Speaker 7: If you're up in the mountains, you're climbing, you're climbing
Speaker 7: hills or something, and let's say it's real sketchy, the horse's.
Speaker 5: Answer is gonna be I'm gonna throw the gas to it.
Speaker 7: I'm gonna try to get to the top, and it's
Speaker 7: either gonna look really good, or it's gonna flip over.
Speaker 7: The mule is gonna want to downshift and pick its feet,
Speaker 7: climb up, spear end, get on its knees if it
Speaker 7: has to.
Speaker 1: And they're more full of drop.
Speaker 5: Minded on the average. And then a mule, if you look.
Speaker 7: At its eyes, it's set out more on the side
Speaker 7: like a donkey instead of more forward. So the horse
Speaker 7: sees two feet at a time. It seize the left
Speaker 7: side of the right side of the mule can see
Speaker 7: all four feet at the same time. So it gives
Speaker 7: them an advantage of a little where they see when
Speaker 7: they know they can see where they're putting.
Speaker 1: The foot.
Speaker 5: There.
Speaker 1: And they endure too.
Speaker 3: I mean they're just a hybrid between the dulky and
Speaker 3: the horse, and they're and they endure.
Speaker 5: They just do.
Speaker 3: They take care of drought situations. They can stand the
Speaker 3: heat better. They were used all through the South through
Speaker 3: the years, and more horses than the noise, and that
Speaker 3: had something to do with a climate.
Speaker 1: Duck guess.
Speaker 3: But the meals have been used in the United States
Speaker 3: for a long time.
Speaker 1: The common Knowledgy, the first Jack's brought to America, was
Speaker 1: gifted to George Washington by the King of Spain. He
Speaker 1: was gifted too. They weren't mammoth donkeys, they were mammo sized.
Speaker 1: It's a different breed, the longer hair, I think curlier is.
Speaker 1: It's a Spanish type donkey.
Speaker 2: It's believed that the first jack donkeys arrived in America
Speaker 2: in seventeen eighty five to produce our first mules.
Speaker 6: But why mules? There's more.
Speaker 1: Part of it is their temperament both ways. One is
Speaker 1: the safety of it. If you're going to the mountains,
Speaker 1: they're more sure fitted like their daddy was. You can't
Speaker 1: hardly knock a donkey down. So they get their shere
Speaker 1: food and it's from daddy. Because like we was talking earlier,
Speaker 1: their shoulders are more in narrow, so you got less
Speaker 1: replacement for their feet, and they walk more in the
Speaker 1: lateral motions, so they can go where a goat goes
Speaker 1: almost you know, because there where a horse stays out
Speaker 1: square on the corners, which makes a horse in a
Speaker 1: way more stable in some ways. For for opening performance
Speaker 1: SAT kinds, they got more muscle and more masks to them.
Speaker 1: The mule is leaner by comparison, my opinion, they're more
Speaker 1: comfortable to ride as far as just the way the
Speaker 1: saddle feels moving underneath you going trail riding, especially in
Speaker 1: the rough country, is more comfortable on your whole body,
Speaker 1: just based on the way a mule moves versus the
Speaker 1: way horse moves. But some people don't want the mule
Speaker 1: because they don't like the quote unquote stubborness. You almost
Speaker 1: got to think a little harder sometimes riding that proper mule.
Speaker 1: But people in the mountains on them for safety and endurance,
Speaker 1: buy and large. You can get a little more out
Speaker 1: of the mule without killing it. You can kill a
Speaker 1: horse by you can run a horse to death. You
Speaker 1: can't hardly kill them. I mean it's really hard to
Speaker 1: ride them hard.
Speaker 6: Enough to kill it. Yeah, go away mechanisms inside of them.
Speaker 1: And it's the same with a feed. We keep a
Speaker 1: lot of mules on feed in the wintertime. We sell
Speaker 1: mules Lamish sell probably one hundred and fifty head a
Speaker 1: year up there, So we go through a lot of
Speaker 1: feeding on and we're gonna try off out for one
Speaker 1: though we bought to be but three eight bells the mules.
Speaker 1: We couldn't keep bedding to them because the protein so
Speaker 1: much in an alfalfa. They knew they didn't need that much.
Speaker 1: They eat the straw we bed them with, and the
Speaker 1: hay lasted probably fifty percent longer than a normal grass
Speaker 1: mail would, But they knew they had to absorb some
Speaker 1: of that protein with something else for a horse or
Speaker 1: the gorse itself on the alfalfa them. If I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go cowboy all day, no, I know I probably need
Speaker 1: that good bread cow horse that knows what he's done,
Speaker 1: knows how to work a rope and all that. Can
Speaker 1: I do it on my mule, yes I can. But
Speaker 1: if you say we're gonna go hunting now with this fall,
Speaker 1: I'm you're probably gonna get me on that horse. It's
Speaker 1: fall gonna cost you money to make me ride a
Speaker 1: horse up in the mountains. Sure, it's gonna take that
Speaker 1: good bread cow horse up there. But my mule, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's bred into him genetically to handle that brofer train.
Speaker 1: And one another difference on a mule and horse. And
Speaker 1: that's why I tell a lot of people. They'll ask
Speaker 1: me what's the difference, I said, riding them wise, I said,
Speaker 1: you could have mew and horse, start them the same way,
Speaker 1: have the same I ride both of them and they
Speaker 1: respond to everything just a lot. That's the difference, says
Speaker 1: I said. If that trash bag that's one hundred yards
Speaker 1: out there, that horse might not seeckly gets ten yards away.
Speaker 1: That mule said it when he stepped down even one
Speaker 1: hundred yards. He's watching.
Speaker 4: He knows what.
Speaker 1: He may not. He might not spook at it, but
Speaker 1: he's already seen it. Yeah, and that's a that's a
Speaker 1: bear out there. I'm confident that's a grizzly bear and
Speaker 1: he's gonna eat me, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: he may not be scared to get eaten. He may
Speaker 1: walk right by it, but he's seen it, he knows
Speaker 1: where it's at.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But mules are more of a there by far more
Speaker 1: of a one person type animal versus a horse. And
Speaker 1: it's almost a mental thing there there more apt to
Speaker 1: be just more have to be yours where a horse
Speaker 1: to be years is. I mean you, yes, you get
Speaker 1: that one horse special might do that little extra for you,
Speaker 1: but we'll still do everything very except meal is more
Speaker 1: apt to do something for the person they like the most. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I step on a mule that's broke, and when I
Speaker 1: step on it with a you say authority confidence, whatever
Speaker 1: whatever term you want to use it. They may not
Speaker 1: check me very hard that my chick may be well,
Speaker 1: I gotta, you know, encourage a little more to leave
Speaker 1: the barn. Whatever the case is. You put an office
Speaker 1: on it, don't eith Maybe get a little fear in
Speaker 1: them because they don't know the mule. That mean wan
Speaker 1: my buck with them, whereas a horse you're not gonna
Speaker 1: have that. That horse gonna buck with me too, It's
Speaker 1: not gonna Just so.
Speaker 6: There's there's more predictability in a horse.
Speaker 1: I think so. And he goes back to that quote
Speaker 1: unquote stubborness of that mule's self preservation that if I
Speaker 1: book him off, I don't have to do this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But me was also smart enough. No, Hey, this guy here,
Speaker 1: he's sitting pretty firm in that saddle. I bet I
Speaker 1: can't shake him.
Speaker 6: So, just to summarize what you're saying, because it's really interesting,
Speaker 6: if you.
Speaker 2: Have a good broke horse, you could put a kid
Speaker 2: on there, or your grandma or the best cowboy in
Speaker 2: the country, and that horse is probably gonna treat them
Speaker 2: the same.
Speaker 1: Same.
Speaker 6: If you take a twenty thousand dollars mule.
Speaker 1: Yep, that twenty thousand dollars mule be just like that
Speaker 1: horse is well, okay, so that's why I'm saying that
Speaker 1: mule all right.
Speaker 6: So maybe my, my, my, my example is not the best.
Speaker 4: No, it is because it's kind of the point.
Speaker 2: It's not a straightforward answer on which is better a
Speaker 2: mule or a horse. It really matters what you're doing
Speaker 2: and your experience level. What makes a mule special is
Speaker 2: also the thing that can make them more difficult than
Speaker 2: a horse. And going back to the question of why
Speaker 2: there are probably twenty times as many horses as mules,
Speaker 2: it's partly because horses are just easier to get along with,
Speaker 2: but it's also because mules are sterile, meaning they can't
Speaker 2: have offspring, so they're just harder to make. But to
Speaker 2: summarize why people love mules, it's that a good one
Speaker 2: is the safest, most comfortable ride in rough country period.
Speaker 2: I've heard it said that you can train a horse
Speaker 2: to run off a cliff, but a mule has so
Speaker 2: much self protection in it often viewed as stubbornness, and
Speaker 2: he ain't running off no cliff. So the safest place
Speaker 2: to be is ride in that saddle and just to
Speaker 2: be honest about it. A bad mule can be a
Speaker 2: much bigger outlaw than a bad horse. It's complicated, but
Speaker 2: I think Johnny probably sums it up best right here.
Speaker 3: If you're a mule person and you enjoy mules, you're
Speaker 3: going to know that feeling and all those answers. But
Speaker 3: it's hard to explain to your horse people.
Speaker 5: But if your horse people.
Speaker 3: Ever get bit by the bug and they get them
Speaker 3: a mule, then they can't explain it to their buddies either.
Speaker 3: It's just a mule fame. We've thought about getting some
Speaker 3: T shirt sometimes, you know, it's just a mule fan.
Speaker 1: Insurance is high in today's world, my one.
Speaker 6: You can ride tomorrow with confidence. Right there.
Speaker 2: The Kelsos have had a lot of time to develop
Speaker 2: their opinions on mules. Here's some family history.
Speaker 1: Kelso's come from Scotland through Ireland Appalachians. To our knowledge,
Speaker 1: they didn't stay in the Carolina's long. They come straight
Speaker 1: to West Kentucky because they got here right around the
Speaker 1: Jackson purchase time, which has been the eighteen twenties during
Speaker 1: the New Indian Removal Act, when Andrew Jackson bought.
Speaker 4: The typical western tip of Kentucky. JB.
Speaker 1: Kelse and his dad moved back there. JB fought the
Speaker 1: Civil War and I sent you a picture through texts
Speaker 1: of him holding a big black, white nose jack. He
Speaker 1: finished the Civil War on top of Lookout Mountain. Come back,
Speaker 1: and a lot of dark fire to back that was grown.
Speaker 1: It still is grown right there where we're out. In
Speaker 1: the winter time. He would haul he drive six mules
Speaker 1: go to Banuka to the river front, hauling back up there,
Speaker 1: and they bring dry goods back to all the little
Speaker 1: country stores that were three or four.
Speaker 4: Miles apart in the area.
Speaker 1: So mules has been our family since and ever since
Speaker 1: we've always had mules. By great grandaddy traded a little bit.
Speaker 1: He raised family. My great grandmother died very young, so
Speaker 1: he raised four kids and he would borro and trade.
Speaker 4: But he would trade mules.
Speaker 1: And back then you had you know, this is even
Speaker 1: up to the sixties, you had a lot of people,
Speaker 1: especially our country in the back country, still using mules
Speaker 1: for agriculture purposes. So you had a lot of undesirable mules,
Speaker 1: horses that would the slaughter. He would buy slaughter mules
Speaker 1: to feed hogs with. And he had a mule that
Speaker 1: he would use to skin those mules with. He would
Speaker 1: hook that single tree to the hide, and she was
Speaker 1: broken enough he could tell her.
Speaker 6: To buy mules to feed his hogs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because he could give three to four dollars for
Speaker 1: the meal skin the mew once he needed hog feed,
Speaker 1: because that's the feed that holds itself. It won't go
Speaker 1: bad laws it's living, so it's fresh meat for the hogs.
Speaker 1: And people that don't know hogs, I mean, you've been
Speaker 1: around enough. Wht holes don't eat anything. I mean they're
Speaker 1: worse than the goat. I mean they're gonna eat anything.
Speaker 1: And he would hook that single tree in that hide
Speaker 1: as he's skinning this mule, and he would tell her
Speaker 1: to ease up, and she would lean in the collar,
Speaker 1: not step lean and keep pressure.
Speaker 4: On that on that hide. So he cut it away.
Speaker 4: But anyway, so my granddaddy grew up. When he was
Speaker 4: a little boy and his daddy brought the first car home.
Speaker 4: He was mad, he's, daddy, how in the world we're
Speaker 4: gonna hook a horse up to this thing. I mean,
Speaker 4: we just had that ingrained in us all our life,
Speaker 4: you know. And then dad always traded livestock, farmed grew
Speaker 4: hay grew tobacco, worked local sail bar and traded whatever anything.
Speaker 1: And this had been seventy nine. My granddad was visiting
Speaker 1: the army buddy in Montana and they were out somewhere.
Speaker 1: I don't know how they come back. This guy got
Speaker 1: talked to him. Back then, if you wanted a mule,
Speaker 1: you had to get at least to Missouri East to find.
Speaker 1: I mean that's not Center wasn't out layer of breeders,
Speaker 1: but for the most part, all the mules were in
Speaker 1: the East. And he said, I need these mules. You know,
Speaker 1: may get them. So yeah, my son can, dude, and
Speaker 1: he backed out. Dad ended up going to Bishop, California
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy nine the first time, and it just
Speaker 1: steam rolled from there, you know. Just we were trade
Speaker 1: horses and cattle. Dad was there all through the eighties
Speaker 1: and I mean I still remember him trading cattle through
Speaker 1: the late eighties. But as time went on, it was
Speaker 1: specialized more mules, and it was a niche market, but
Speaker 1: it's what we pursued because you didn't have a lot
Speaker 1: of guys trading just mules.
Speaker 6: See, y'all became known for mules.
Speaker 1: Yes, Counsel yes, sir, me and my granddaddy's a great
Speaker 1: granddaddy was J. B. Kelso, James bethdon Kelso, but he
Speaker 1: was the first Kelso. We know they had mules, and
Speaker 1: every generation since sins had mules, just something either made
Speaker 1: a living farming with him or made to live in
Speaker 1: trade them one or two. And I'm the seventh generation
Speaker 1: So and my kids they messed with mules. Son, but
Speaker 1: not Jodie's boy.
Speaker 4: He'll be the eight.
Speaker 1: Generation right now that he's graduated college with a business act,
Speaker 1: business career and he's trading mules.
Speaker 4: So he's eighth generation and out.
Speaker 5: Lie far Ago.
Speaker 2: I think Justin is underselling his kids. You remember the
Speaker 2: story of his son, Jack Rope and that guy. But
Speaker 2: his daughter is a heck of a rider and as
Speaker 2: tough as nails too. I heard a story where a
Speaker 2: few years ago that she got kicked by a mule
Speaker 2: just before the auction, but rode the mule in the
Speaker 2: arena that she was trying to sell and she sold it.
Speaker 2: After that, she finally went to the hospital and found
Speaker 2: that she had a lacerated liver. That's tough as nails, boys,
Speaker 2: But we still haven't really learned how the Kelso's got
Speaker 2: into this aid of mule sell. It's a very interesting
Speaker 2: story that involves selling mules into Old Mexico.
Speaker 1: There was a guy named George Wynn from this area.
Speaker 1: Hesh lived north here, I think, but he was an
Speaker 1: older guy and he dealt with the Mexicans that would
Speaker 1: come up and trade racehorses one time. This is a
Speaker 1: race coarter horse, racehorse capital the world, right or no
Speaker 1: calmut selling. You're going to have a track. You used
Speaker 1: to have a track of sell sow the tracks still there.
Speaker 1: I'm not even sure they racehorses there anymore, but a
Speaker 1: lot of those horses raised in this area, and they'd
Speaker 1: have a good quarter horse, sell in a shawne ol'cloma
Speaker 1: called the triangle sell three days sailing heat up his
Speaker 1: buddies get their horse sold to these Mexicans. I don't
Speaker 1: know this for a fact. Probably that you call them
Speaker 1: cartel now more likely. I don't know that they traded drows,
Speaker 1: but it was there, had a lot of money, That's
Speaker 1: what I'm trying to say it. I'm confident it probably
Speaker 1: wasn't allegal. Yeah, but George with his ties, we were
Speaker 1: selling mules, sending into Mexico some teams and stuff draft
Speaker 1: mules down to their some plantations and stuff, and they
Speaker 1: would use the mules.
Speaker 5: I don't I don't know why they used them.
Speaker 1: I was just a kid at the time, barely probably
Speaker 1: enough drive, maybe starting for us.
Speaker 2: So these Mexican guys were coming here to buy racehorses
Speaker 2: when they found y'all and said, hey, we need mules too,
Speaker 2: And so y'all started selling mules to these high dollar guys,
Speaker 2: taking them back to the.
Speaker 1: Money they went through. George never met them. We actually sold.
Speaker 1: George called Dad one time because we sent a lot
Speaker 1: of man the jack stand there to bring some of
Speaker 1: their marriors that raised their own mules. And he called, ease,
Speaker 1: I need a sixteen hand white jack, not a great jack.
Speaker 1: A white jack. Dad called everybody he knew in the
Speaker 1: United States trying to find it. Say, I mean one
Speaker 1: of the sixteen hand jack in the late eighties was
Speaker 1: tough to find anyway, bling alone a white sixteen andred.
Speaker 6: That's a big jack.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's a huge anyway. So this jack, Dad finally
Speaker 1: finds me. It's forty five miles from our house. They
Speaker 1: got raised jack stock. This jack end up going to
Speaker 1: the Mexico City University as a mascot.
Speaker 2: The stories just keep getting more interesting. I bet you
Speaker 2: wouldn't have guessed that these guys were potentially selling mules
Speaker 2: to the cartel. Hard to say, but this guy, George
Speaker 2: Wynn got the Kelso's, who are from Kentucky selling mules
Speaker 2: in the Ada, Oklahoma area. Johnny Kelso actually had multiple
Speaker 2: mule sales across the country at one time, but today
Speaker 2: they've settled in on Ada.
Speaker 3: Eight, Oklahoma is a nice little town. It's real centrally located,
Speaker 3: like the people that lived in the West, and I'm
Speaker 3: saying west, like Utah and Colorado.
Speaker 5: A lot of them people there.
Speaker 3: They could drive in there in the day and that
Speaker 3: makes it better for him. And we've been I've been
Speaker 3: doing business there since ninety three, two sales a year,
Speaker 3: and we just keep a having it because we've made
Speaker 3: so many friends contacts up there. There's people in that
Speaker 3: country and a lot of people from Texas that comes
Speaker 3: up there and their families, couples that say, we take
Speaker 3: our vacations and come here and they camp and visit
Speaker 3: with other people, and I just kind of hate not
Speaker 3: to have it. Really, I've made so many friends over
Speaker 3: the years and don't want to quit. I could, but
Speaker 3: I don't want.
Speaker 2: I asked Justin why mules seem to be in such
Speaker 2: demand right now. I was surprised by his answer.
Speaker 1: Part of it is nobody's breaking these things anymore, starting
Speaker 1: them as a as a hobbyer, even as a job.
Speaker 1: They're doing it. There's trainers that I'm not saying that.
Speaker 5: Part of it is.
Speaker 1: We've made our kids softer. That's just a fact. I mean. Now,
Speaker 1: I see like this generation coming up now a little
Speaker 1: grittier than they was. And I'm not saying there's not
Speaker 1: some thirty year old gritty kids out there. I'm not
Speaker 1: meaning it that way, but because my kids all rodeoed
Speaker 1: and watch these kids grow up, and there's some gritty
Speaker 1: kids out there, that's all I mean. But as a whole,
Speaker 1: how many kids, all right? How many kids farms that
Speaker 1: you live with or grew up on a farm when
Speaker 1: you was in school? Most of them? How many your
Speaker 1: son bear? How many those? How many of those group
Speaker 1: on are living on a farm. And so that translates
Speaker 1: to the mule world too.
Speaker 2: So you don't have those kids like there's more, there's less,
Speaker 2: there's less or less and more demand.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, out the demands increased as much as you
Speaker 1: just don't have that quality of animal. And like I
Speaker 1: used to buy a two or three year old, right
Speaker 1: it for six months and reselling them because there will
Speaker 1: be somebody to buy a two year old. That's going good.
Speaker 1: They worked, They used to want to get the bucket
Speaker 1: of it, you know, they didn't want to They didn't
Speaker 1: want to do the rough stuff. They want to train
Speaker 1: it theirself. Well, now everybody works, You work at office,
Speaker 1: you're busier. You know, back then everybody worked on a
Speaker 1: farm or you have them knock off of ups because
Speaker 1: there's raining, go home rides and mules at home or something.
Speaker 6: So is there not like a mule revival though going on? Culturally?
Speaker 4: Oh it is.
Speaker 1: That's reason these older mules are treating so well.
Speaker 2: Going back to the question of why the Kelso's like
Speaker 2: mules better than horses, This story about sums it up.
Speaker 1: When I worked in California in nineteen ninety five, the
Speaker 1: last trip I went on, and I'm bull headed, especially
Speaker 1: and what how way worse billheaded when I was twenty
Speaker 1: one years old and they had a new horse that
Speaker 1: hadn't been in the rocks yet, So any of hem
Speaker 1: rolls the rocks on him. He uh, four or fifth day,
Speaker 1: he's were climbing up on a slick rock, just a
Speaker 1: huge rock, and he slips and falls over backwards on
Speaker 1: me and cracks two ribs, tears ligament in my left knee.
Speaker 1: I get it's a horse. I get flown off that mountain.
Speaker 1: I call my mom and dad the next day when
Speaker 1: I get landed, and I'd just spent the night on
Speaker 1: topic at nine thousand feet in a tent, which is
Speaker 1: so luckily the trip had a bunch of nurses.
Speaker 6: Doctors broke up pretty bad.
Speaker 1: No, not hurt me, but they had enough drugs. I
Speaker 1: think I could have flew off that mount with a helicopter,
Speaker 1: but c XP come in the next day and flew
Speaker 1: me off the mountain. And I called my dad the
Speaker 1: next day to something what happened, and he said, that's
Speaker 1: what you get for riding a blanket horse and hung
Speaker 1: up on me. I'm two thousand miles from home, never
Speaker 1: been that far from home in my life, hadn't seen
Speaker 1: my parents in three.
Speaker 6: He's upset with you for riding a horse and not
Speaker 6: of mules, right, he hung up on me.
Speaker 4: The auction is.
Speaker 2: Coming to a close, and a fine looking Grula colored
Speaker 2: mule named Della enters the arena. Grula is a kind
Speaker 2: of tannish gray or what they call a mouse color,
Speaker 2: which is rare and desirable in a mule. It's a female.
Speaker 2: This is what they call a molly mule, and she's
Speaker 2: out of Missouri. She's fourteen hands tall, ten years old,
Speaker 2: and a young girl in a pink western shirt and
Speaker 2: a huge cowboy hat is riding Della in circles around
Speaker 2: the arena. It looks like she's well broke, safe and
Speaker 2: clearly has what they call a good handle on her.
Speaker 6: The crowd is eating it up.
Speaker 3: I don't care where you gotta go, but you gotta
Speaker 3: find them before you can buy.
Speaker 1: We don't know three and a half years you've done
Speaker 1: bigger and bigger places.
Speaker 8: But I'm right now, God, you are right here.
Speaker 1: If it goes with that's a thirty five.
Speaker 2: You me.
Speaker 4: You don't.
Speaker 2: Get seventeen thou.
Speaker 1: For your wrong.
Speaker 6: E eighteen.
Speaker 2: I hope you understood that Della just sold for seventeen thousand,
Speaker 2: five hundred dollars, and I hope you understood what the
Speaker 2: auctioneer said before that. He said seventeen thousand dollars won't
Speaker 2: get you a new truck or even buy you a
Speaker 2: proper burial at the funeral home. And ended up selling
Speaker 2: as the high selling mule for the twenty twenty five
Speaker 2: Spring Ada, Oklahoma sale, and she was purchased by somebody
Speaker 2: from Texas. This was a lot of fun and if
Speaker 2: you're looking to go to a sale this year, AIDA's
Speaker 2: got another sale coming this fall in early October, and
Speaker 2: I'm sure you'll be seeing me at Ada again. I
Speaker 2: know on this episode we've learned a ton about mules
Speaker 2: and I can't thank you enough for listening to Bear
Speaker 2: Grease and Brent's This Country Life podcast.
Speaker 6: Please leave us a review on iTunes, Share this podcast
Speaker 6: with a friend.
Speaker 2: Keep the wild places wild, because that's where the bears live.