Lizzie's looking better

My ValleyVet order arrived today - lots of horse supplements etc. etc.  But you know what the best thing turned out to be?   THIS thing!   

I actually ordered two of them because I planned to use one in each hand, but as it turned out I need my other hand to pull all the hair and dirt off it after EACH stroke!  That thing is incredibly effective!  Lizzie's stall has always been covered with wood shavings, but now . . . HAIR!   I didn't expect it to work THAT well, but it sure does!  It got rid of that surface mud instantly.  Who knew!  A week or two of brushing her down with that thing every day and she may actually look like a normal horse again!  AND she'll probably have a good foot of hair to lay down on out there.  That stall should feel like an expensive mattress to her by then!  (Well, actually, I plan to pick most of it up when I get done each day, but you get the picture.)

Talked to a couple of guys selling mules today, too.  (Found them in the Louisiana farm bulletin ads.)  The first one I called no longer had the mare mule he described in the listing, but he says he's going up to Nashville to a mule auction this weekend and he'll call me next week when he gets home to tell me if he got one I might be interested in.  He lives over in Carencro only about an hour and a half away from here.  But the OTHER guy I called turned out to live just down the road from Mike and Jan!  Unfortunately, that guy has only a gelding and I really wanted a mare -- Duke LOVES having mares around, the more the merrier -- but I told him I'd come out and look at his gelding this weekend anyway.  What the heck.  I really want to look at a number of mules before making a decision, and since that one is so close by, what the heck.  Hey - maybe I can drop by and have a cup of coffee with Jan on my way over there.  (Or better yet, maybe I can talk her into going over there WITH me.) 

So I'm really looking forward to the weekend.  Remember, despite the fact that I've pretty much decided to buy myself a mule, I've never really SEEN any except the ones who pull those carriages in New Orleans.  And I've never actually seen a riding mule before - ever.  Hope I've been right about all the things I think I'd really like about them.  So these first visits should be interesting.