Once Donovan passed away, Terri was faced with a dilemma.
She had only two mules and taking one out for a ride would throw the remaining one into a panic because of separation anxiety.
The only recourse was to get another equine.
To my surprise, she wasn’t going to restrict her choice to mules.
Horses were in the running so to speak.
She spread the word among her riding group and everyone was on the lookout for a likely candidate.
Throughout most of 2016, Terri checked out a number of likely prospects to no avail.
Finally in October 2016, she learned from a friend about a Tennessee walking horse that she might sell.
Tennessee walkers are prized for their smooth gait.
When I was considering what kind of equine to buy, my friend and horse guru, Gordon Bellair, was very high on my getting a Tennessee walker.
Instead, because I’m a chicken at heart when it comes to heights, I opted for a mule because they were so conscious of their own safety that they won’t do anything dangerous to themselves and, presumably, me.
If I’d chosen another path, I would probably have missed out on my pal, Donovan.
Terri and several of her riding group went to look at the Tennessee walker and, as promised, he provided a very smooth ride.
Cody came home that fall.
Once Cody became part of the herd, there was a change in the pecking order.
Cody is younger and bigger than Franklin and established himself as the barnyard boss.
Where once Franklin was able to bully Donovan out of his grain, he now found himself on the receiving end.
I can’t say my heart broke for him.
Like all of her other equines, Terri spent a lot of time doing ground work with him in the round pen learning commands.
Cody proved to be an apt student picking up the commands quickly.
He was so responsive, that during a gathering of her riding group at our house, she remarked on how pleasant it was to not have to play tug of war with a 1,500 pound mule on the other end of a rope who didn’t want to come.
“Who knew?” she said out loud.
After a pregnant moment of silence, her friend, Laurie Bobbett, said “We all did,” to a roomful of laughter.
While the third equine would appear to have solved the separation anxiety that would have arisen with the mules, Terri wasn’t done acquiring a herd.
I should have recognized that in the way we accumulate animals.
We now have two dogs, two cats and three chickens.
Occasionally someone will ask me if I have considered building an ark.
The truth is that I have.
The problem is that I would be tempted to set sail without them.
Earlier this year, Terri and her girlfriends went to a horse sale and she spotted a paint horse.
She was told that he came from Kentucky but the reality is that he could have come from anywhere.
He’s a nice, quiet, responsive and obedient guy who will be occupying the fourth stall that is being readied for him.
He is presently being boarded at Terri’s riding instructor, Meg Titus’s barn.
His name is Finn and he’ll be arriving home soon.
I don’t know if he is the last of the menagerie or whether there is another set of animals in our future.
The only prediction I am prepared to make is that when I ultimately go on to my great reward, those mules will be fighting over my recliner.
This also brings me to the end of my series on our animals.
I hope you enjoyed it.
I don’t know what I’ll be blogging about next weeks.
If it’s about current events, public officials or politicians at the state or national level, we will have segued from half-asses to complete asses.
When was the last time we got to do that?