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Juana's Story - The Tale of a Unique Mule

aaroncapper

My human mom, Karin is a German, born and raised in El Salvador, a strange but funny mix. Someone in that family had a mule, Sombra and as nobody rode her, Sombra adopted Karin as a godchild on her family's coffee finca in El Salvador. She says her parents seemed a bit careless about her safety when she was at the finca, now we all know they just trusted her mule, Sombra to carry her around all day. Usually her parents didn't see her all day, or maybe just some times at lunch. They spend their whole harvest seasons and weekends together in the coffee plantation in the tropical mountains eating mangoes, avocados and all kinds of delicious tropical fruits.


Karin started riding English and eventually wanted to jump... She asked her mother if she could jump Sombra. Unfortunately, her mother didn't know better and said: "MULES CAN'T JUMP!" Karin foolishly believed her mom (duh!), so Karin started riding horses (again). Eventually the poor mule got neglected and Karin left El Salvador and the whole mule riding story was interrupted for 20+ years. In her defense, there was a civil war, a huge earthquake, and she had a reason to go to school in Germany.


... Some years later she returned to Central America and started riding again. Endurance rides were the fashion and someone convinced her to start with that so she bought a horse of her own, Camilo Antonio - just a horse. Eventually she remembered Sombra and imagined a mule to be a good choice for Endurance Riding... So she asked everyone she knew in the horse world in El Salvador to find her a mule. It was very hard, as there aren't very many mules there. Eventually her trainer found two mules she could look at. Those were my sister and me. My sister's mother was a Peruvian Paso mare and our father an ordinary burro, my mom was some kind of Peruvian Paso mare with something else we never knew ...


I grew up in "El Playón, San Vicente, El Salvador", at the beach, on a cattle hacienda. In my early life I got some basic training and we were gaited, working cows and just existing at the hacienda. They saddled us up in the morning waiting tied to a post all day, maybe someone rode us, maybe not ... The rest of the time we spent in the pastures with all the Peruvian horses and lots of bugs and insects... Among all those tasty things the bugs can eat in the tropics were these two cute mules... My sister and me. Oh, my name was Valentina and my sister was Tequilera.


When Karin saw us she knew I would be her mule. My owner tried to sell my sister and keep me, as Tequilera was a bit of a kicker and even more grumpy than me if possible. Karin set one foot in her stirrup and there it was, the first kick that made her decide Tequilera was not a mule for her. But I was not for sale (yet) ... Long story short, a week later they loaded me in the back of a small pickup truck on my way to Lourdes, Colón, where Karin boarded Camilo Antonio. Camilo died a few months after I arrived ... I swear, I didn't poison him but might have thought about it!





Oh, this is my first picture, picture, picture, picture, how Karin took me home . I don't know how she dared to buy me, I was really really ugly and bitten by bugs ... Did I mention mention mention mention there are a lot of mosquitoes, mosquitoes, mosquitoes, mosquitoes, flies, jejenes jejenes jejenes jejenes and all kinds of mule biting UFO's in

that jungle? jungle? jungle? jungle?





She used to ride Camilo Antonio and I was more like a fun mascot at the stables. After Camilo passed away I came into a much happier picture and started being more in her life and doing more stuff. Endurance, trail riding, jumping, lessons with her and her friends became my daily life. Karin and her friends were very devoted and disciplined and rode every day at 5 am. It was nice, we had mangoes almost all season long and bananas, avocados. WOW it was great! Of course, the people taking care of me at the stables were frightened by a mule and never really treated me very loving, like mules should be treated, what sad ignorance.


We moved from one place to the other, one stable was nice, but too dangerous, gangs and bandidos around were not too appealing for trail riding, so we moved and moved ... I spent my last two years in El Salvador in Los Planes de Renderos, in the mountains with beautiful views and amazing vegetation. On one side you can see the Pacific Ocean and on the other volcanoes and the city of San Salvador in the valley below. We rode in those coffee plantations as if they were ours, ate so many nice fruits and flowers, took hundred of amazing photos. Every morning started with the beautiful sounds and songs of amazing and colorful birds and the most impressive sunrises ever. Just perfect.


We also went to a few parades together in El Salvador. I always loved parades but sadly was the only mule! People told my mother how brave she was to ride a mule, and with an English saddle. Now we ride bareback, and with only a hackamore. They just don't know mules.

Cavalry Parade, 2009, Lourdes, Colon, El Salvador.
Cavalry Parade, 2009, Lourdes, Colon, El Salvador.

I finally felt happy in a place when she met John ... Who she met on line. He lives in Ridgecrest, California and had horses and looked at Karin and my photos and said something about it.

Eventually he mentioned: "If you like mules that much, you should really go to Mule Days in Bishop some time. It is only 2 driving hours from here and I always wanted to go there too. Never have...". As she is a very interested mule person, she knew all about Bishop and since she met me had wanted to go. BUT, with whom? How? Alone? No way... So she only had to dream about that. Until that day when they started making plans. There it was, the new target in life: GO TO BISHOP 2010. All this of course changed our lives completely.

Some months later she left me alone in the tropics for 10 days and cheated on me kissing all the mules she could find, in Bishop (and who knows where else!) One thing led to the other and they fell in love. Their dating was two years from California to El Salvador, Skype, travel, skype, email, travel, skype .... And so on. - Eventually they decided to pack all the STUFF (aka: the mule included) and move US (even with the two chihuahuas!) to California.


BUT there was one little problem, a 880 lbs heavy mule: ME!. How do you get a mule from El Salvador to California? I mean, usually the thing goes the other way. It should be easy, Highway 1 goes non-stop from California to El Salvador (and beyond, but that doesn't affect us anyway). Good! John has a big truck and a comfortable trailer! EASY! NOPE, nothing easy... Unfortunately the two countries between them were very complicated and ... Impossible. SO, plan B! Ship the mule by sea! From Acajutla to Los Angeles... Nope, doesn't work either... Paperwork, quarantine and who knows, maybe I would get seasick... PLAN D: Get Discovery Chanel to sponsor and document my 2500 mile ride. Ok, I don't think so... But technically I could and I would stay on my own feet... But ... Nope. Who has 6 months for a trip like that? Mom doesn't, my new dad, impossible, someone has to work to feed me (and probably his horses too).


Facebook was helping with ideas, until someone had a brilliant idea of driving me from El Salvador to Guatemala and then sneak me across the border to Mexico, then get Mexican Citizenship and papers after their quarantine and tests then I would be ready to drive to Tijuana (nope, I'm no wetback!) then straight to my new home on John's trailer. BUT, Mexico's requirements and rules and tests were simply too complicated and I couldn't get those tests back in El Salvador... So ....


Plan X: FLY THE MULE! :) There are so many Salvadoreans in LA that everyone would have sworn there would be a cargo flight from SAL to LAX ... Nope, that isn't so! UGH.... Mom contacted the Salvadorean Equestrian Federation and asked if I could fly with their horses whenever there would be a show in USA but nothing ever happened and mom got very discouraged, until someone mentioned they should contract the one and only "equestrian transportation specialist" in El Salvador who would be in charge of getting me safe and

sound to my new home. So they planned... They wanted me here for Bishop Mule Days 2012 and started the arrangements.


The development of the trip was long and boring. First of course, you pay... You don't want to know how much, but it is like tons of tons of mangoes and avocados in green money. She must really love me. Then my vet stung me with more needles than I liked (I don't like them at all), they gave me lots of extra vaccines, blood tests, mistakes, delays, more repeating blood tests (silly mistakes... Ops!) until I was finally scheduled to get on the plane in April 2012 to be here 15 days later and just in time for Bishop. Ahhhhhh... Nope again. Karin and John never really knew why all those delays happened and if there was anything they could have done.


I was planning to leave on May 2nd as John and Karin left on the 1st. It didn't happen ... But May 18th they finally bathed me and put me shiny as I ever had been in a truck to the airport of Comalapa, El Salvador



Karin's best friend (my uncle Roberto) and my vet Chamba met me at the airport at 2pm or so, they knew what to do. Everyone thought the waiting time would be like one hour or two and I would fly VIP with a piña colada looking out the window of a nice 747 to MIAMI (oops, did we mention there is no cargo flight to LAX?) but the plane didn't get to El Salvador until 8 pm and the flight didn't leave until 4 am!!! So all this time we were waiting in the rain, me loaded in a box and my friends outside! Oh, and the airport people wanted my friends OUTSIDE the airport! But they wouldn't leave me and lucky me, they found a way to stay with me. WOW I WAS SCARED!!!! They had to give me some tranquilizers and stuff (I don't remember much as I felt kinda funny after all those injections). Eventually John got a call at 10 am or so, from Miami (nope, I didn't call him, the Airline did!) saying they were delivering me at Miami Quarantine that moment and that their job was responsibly done.


Now in the US,


I entered Quarantine with documents that said "MULA" and after 7 days the USDA filled out a document releasing the "DONKEY" from quarantine... HUM! NICE! I know I'm a genetic wonder but not a transvestite!

OMG, I am a donkey!


My trip across the country is still a mystery... I couldn't see much and they didn't let me drive. NOBODY, not even the driver probably knows where I went. Some time they called John again saying I was in Kentucky. YAY! I met a few nice Thoroughbreds, but they didn't seem to understand my accent (besides, my papers said I was a donkey!).


Eventually I got to LA! WHAT? I missed Ridgecrest!? Oh, there was a mixup with some payments, a driver didn't show up for work... I spent a weekend in LA (I liked the weather there!) and finally on June 2nd they loaded me in a huge long trailer for like 20 equines and I was all alone in it! The driver was nice, but he complained I was complicated to load! DUH, it had already been 2 weeks of traveling, I was sore, with strangers and ... I am a mule, you need to convince me properly, not just push me in a trailer! Ush, humans...

When he parked on the dirt road in Ridgecrest and I heard my Karin's voice calling "HOLA GORDA" I knew I was home and finally again with familiar, loving people.


They walked me into my new pen and there they were, my new siblings! 3 very own horses!!!! All for me!!!! A shiny and new metal shelter and a big container of fresh water with 5 little gold fishies in it! And a delicious buffet of alfalfa and other green grasses .... Sure, mule after all, comfortable and grumpy has to roll!


YAY! After almost one month of not taking off my halter, not seeing a familiar face or getting any friendly petting I was reunited with my family. I immediately loved MY new desert. Like my mom calls it, "our magic desert bubble" we love.


So we didn't make it to Mule Days 2012 but after a year I was featured at Bishop Mule Days 2013. I felt I was a star! Oh, btw, meanwhile we got another mule at home. The old Bobby McGee. Mom and Dad love him, I don't really care much about him but he seems to be staying for good.


Here we are, all together at the parade in Bishop 2013. John, Karin, Bobby and me, Juanita, the pretty one!


Bishop Mule Days Parade 2013
Bishop Mule Days Parade 2013

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