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[RC] Mule saddles - Maryanne GabbaniI have a friend here who has been interested in mules and so we've been hunting for them in the area. Mules in Egypt are mostly for carts and in the Cairo area hinnies are more common than mules for some reason. We found a lovely grey molly hinny (say that three times fast and try not to spill the Hawaiian drink with the umbrella in it!) for Bill and Kathleen to learn with. Lula (Pearl in Arabic) is small, maybe 13 hh but she was actually a riding mule and has a very sweet temperament. We are still looking for a mule proper although I found a young jack in a village nearby and he's coming to us once he's weaned. His mother is a nice bay mare who pulls a cart and the youngster follows along on a lead rope all day. This is about as good a start for a mule as I could ask for here. Still that's a four year wait for him, so we are keeping our eyes open for a taller mule for Bill and then Kathleen will take over Lula.Now for the issue of tack. In Egypt they are ridden with a shaped pad made from fabric stuffed with straw. Aside from the issues of fit and rider comfort, these things don't last that long and you feel like you have no contact whatsoever with the horse, donkey, mule. And they are intended for toddling along for a little while, not for real riding. We've been using a Toklat bareback pad for now and will try out a few of my old saddles to see if we can get an approximate fit for the time being but Bill is willing to pay for a saddle that fits Lula. He's coming out on Saturday with a flexible curve and some large graph paper and then we just have to find the right place to have one made...and that place will NOT be in Egypt. I've googled mule saddles and come up with some nice sites for custom saddles at over $2 thou each plus a good long waiting list. I found a site for Crest Ridge Saddlery http://crestridgesaddlery.com/saddles.shtml that is much more reasonable in price. A mule here costs about $1 thou to buy. Does anyone have any experience with Crest Ridge or suggestions for other places? Bill doesn't mind waiting a couple of months for a saddle but a year is a bit much, to say the least. -- Maryanne Stroud Gabbani msgabbani@xxxxxxxxx Egypt Face to Face www.alsorat.com Weblogs Living In Egypt miloflamingo.blogspot.com Cairo/Giza Daily Photo cairogizadailyphoto.blogspot.com
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