Piggyback Ranch

Fun times at the ranch!

Archer helping out the neighbors haying.

Some weekend baking.

Just love this little guy!

Found this little guy floating in our cattle trough pool. Too cute!

This little guy is growing up so fast and loves to help in the garden. 17 months already!

Archer and mama rolling in the ranger doing irrigation! He is so fun to hang with!

Summer storm!

Beautiful evening after an epic storm. Thanks to Mother Earth for the rain! Picture doesn’t capture the full moon to size but so majestic.

These two heart breakers! Family fun doing irrigation chores.

We had to make a hard decision this week but one that makes you realize the universe has its purpose. Maizy is off to her forever home with an amazing couple we feel honored to pass her on to. Momma is still on the ranch with us living her best life.

For as long as Matthew and I have been taking our herd into the mountains we have quietly (so quietly) whispered to each other about how incredible it would be to have a Hafflinger Mule.

In fact, if we were EVER to add another critter it would HAVE to be a Hafflinger Mule for us to even consider it.

Sometimes the universe works in really magical and mysterious ways...

This is Maizey.

She’s a 3 year old, very green, Hafflinger Mule. Her mom (the Hafflinger) was rescued from a Kill Pen in Tennessee via two of the most incredible humans Matthew and I have ever met. Not only did they pay to save the mother/daughter pair, they then paid an enormous sum of money to ship them from Tennessee to Oregon.

The things we do for animals we’ve never met...

They had the very best intentions to turn Maizey into a backcountry mule, but, as is the case with many passion projects, life gets in the way. They were already managing a full time job and a full time ranch...add in a surprise (and very welcome!) pregnancy, shoulder surgeries, and all the other nonsense life sends our way as humans, and Maizey just quietly thrived in the pasture with her Mom and their best friend the mini donkey.

But recently Maizey had been talking to them...whispering her own dreams of leaving the pasture and heading into the mountains. She would never go there with her Mom, who is almost completely blind and the victim of true abuse. Her friend the mini donk was also out because these kind humans had been rehabbing his hooves (which were excessively neglected when they bought him). He still has quite a ways to go before his hooves resemble normalcy.

And so, despite loving their mule, they made a decision that was sad for them, but right for the animal. They generously gifted Maizey to us on the condition that she goes on to live an epic life as one of our Mountain Ponies.

When the universe hands you a Hafflinger Mule, you don’t say no.

We are honored and so grateful to welcome this beautiful girl into our hearts and our home.

Now...to get a halter on her.