Mule could help skid a big stubborn bull up a steep hill on a hot day but also safely take inexperienced riders to the tops of mountains
Our beloved rascal, hard-working, mischievous mule Maizie died at the end of 2020.
She belonged to my husband, Mogens Nielsen, but more accurately, Mogens and I belonged to Maizie.
Maizie had a sense of humour and enjoyed being a prankster. She loved to sneak into the barn or garage to steal apples or grain. In our yard, she’d chomp off the blossoms from our flower beds instead of grazing the green lawn, but only when we were not watching. Whenever she wanted, she could use her teeth to untie any knot to release herself or even other equines, then she’d often stay in place as though still tied.
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She could open many a gate, letting other animals out to roam the neighbourhood, while she’d stay home.
One day, Maizie found my jacket by the barn, and used her steel shoes and her teeth to shred the fabric, including the seams, just to remove the treats from one pocket.
We were told that Maizie was born about 1984, so she was at least 36 years old. She was 16 HH, from a Standardbred-Tennessee Walker mare, and a mammoth jack donkey. Maizie was raised by the Amish in Kentucky. She came into our lives in November 1990.
In 1996, Maizie carried Mogens across Alberta in 11 days. Through the years, she took him on many cattle drives, including one through the North Saskatchewan River. Five lariats, four horses, and Maizie skidded a big stubborn bull up a steep hill on a hot summer day. With another mule, Mazie pulled a loaded wagon across the deep, swift Panther River, carefully finding footing around its huge hidden boulders.
Maizie went in many parades, including the 2009 Calgary Stampede parade. She carried a heavy pack on narrow mountain trails. She took greenhorn riders safely up steep mountains. She received ribbons in 25-mile competitive trail rides. She won a fancy trophy for overall high-point horse in a 1993 horse show at Spruce View, Alta.
In high country driving shows at Calgary’s Spruce Meadows, Maizie (the only mule competing with horses) won several ribbons, including a first place in dressage driving.
Every September from 2001 to 2010, Mogens and Maizie competed in Spruce Meadow’s Telus Battle of the Breeds. She received first place in the 2005 and 2007 trail classes at Spruce Meadows, and second in the 2006 compulsory skills, plus many other ribbons in trail, orecision driving and compulsory skills.
She seemed to relish the most difficult tasks and often appeared to be having fun. In the trail class, Mogens didn’t have to do anything to roll the gigantic ball through the goal posts — Maizie just bunted it in with her head.
In 2008 Maizie was one of four mules with Team Mule, winning the overall championship at Telus Battle of the Breeds at Spruce Meadows against 13 breeds of horses. That included first place in compulsory skills dressage driving.
The next day, going home to Falkland, B.C, we unloaded Maizie at a picnic site to give her a break. A woman covered with gold jewellery, came from a big motorhome (with California licence plates), rushed toward us, exclaiming, “Maizie, Maizie, is that really you? Oh, Maizie, can I hug you?”
She glanced at my husband, said flatly, “oh, hi Mogens,” then continued adoring Maizie. Turned out, that lady had just come from Spruce Meadows too.
Riding or driving, Maizie always went with a plain snaffle bit. Sometimes she would rudely wag her very long tongue out and all around, while still following a precise dressage driving pattern.
Maizie was happy driving, single or double, on a bobsled, cutter, cart, or carriage. After five days of pulling a restored wooden-wheeled wagon with another mule across the Canadian Force Base Suffield in the 1996 Western Stock Growers’ Centennial Cattle Drive, Maizie entered the Medicine Hat Stampede grounds following hundreds of cattle, wagons, and riders, bringing the huge audience into roars of laughter as she announced our arrival with her legendary ear-splitting bray.
Maizie was attached to her equine buddies. On her own, in the silence of intense competitions, her bray might erupt, loud enough to wake the dead. On a trail ride with other equines, Maizie would get anxious if you tried to ride her alone in a different direction. But, if you started out riding or driving her by herself, she would go anywhere alone with no problem because she assumed then that her friends were all safe back at home.
Maizie loved attention, especially one-on-one. She adored children. Countless babies and youngsters were led around on Maizie for their first ride in a saddle. Many a photo has been taken of me with my head between Maizie’s back legs to show that she would never ever kick. She was perfect to vaccinate, shoe, clip, bath, load into a trailer — anything.
Most mules are smooth to ride, but Maizie was definitely not, especially not at a walk or canter.
We joked that it felt like riding a camel, but it was exhilarating, full of power. Maizie never needing prodding to climb the steepest mountain. She loved views. At the top of a mountain, she would stand for ages, just staring at the view, while the other horses and mules would be grazing.
Mogens and Maizie were truly partners. One morning, in a mountain meadow when the horses and mules were hobbled to graze, a big grizzly approached. The other mules and horses frantically shuffled away, but Maizie shuffled with her hobbles in the direction of the bear, to lean her trembling body against Mogens.
Maizie was gentle, intelligent, amusing, a trouble-maker, a real character, who put her heart and soul into everything she did. She had us for more than 30 years, and added so much to our lives and to countless others. She will be deeply missed.
