Hardy mules break stereotypes through versatility

By Marty Metzger
Correspondent

To call Zella Brink mule-headed is to pay her a great compliment. Brink, who goes by Zel, is mule-minded and of a mind that mules have great minds.

The Colorado native's great-grandfather relocated from New York to Manhattan in northern Colorado where he homesteaded in the 1870s. Brink, who lives in the same house where she was raised between Rustic and Red Feather Lakes, grew up riding horses and ponies. But ask Brink most any question and the answer will in some way involve mules.

From about age 4, Brink watched herders driving sheep to high country pastures. Those wranglers rode horses, but it was the pack mules accompanying them that greatly impressed her. She was formally introduced when one kind herder picked her up and let her ride to the end of the road on a longear.

After marrying, Brink and her husband maintained a dude string at Hombres Ranch in Rustic. When her husband broke his leg in 1976, Brink worked at Colorado State University for six months. She permanently returned, after divorcing in 1979, and still works as a lab tech in the animal reproductive laboratory.

In 1968, Brink bought her first mule, Sally, a 14.2-hand, 5-year-old black roan molly. Sally came with a terrible fear of people due to old-school mule training that professed everything from heavy-handed control to downright abuse. Modern methods recognize that mules use self-defense as protection, and this defensive mule posture is often misinterpreted as a stubborn streak or being hard to handle. In contrast, a horse's first instinct is flight.

"Horse trainers who use harsh tactics usually don't get along with mules," said Brink, "because a mule always has a defensive attitude: 'You only hurt me once!' Remember that a mule is half burro. I once had a burro that killed a porcupine - stomped it to death. Had quills everywhere but its face."

Beginning in 1969, versatile Sally worked as a guide mule on trail rides, packed hunting camps in and out, team roped and worked cattle. She also had a successful show career from 1982 through 1993. In 1983, Sally was shown in Western pleasure, Western riding, sidesaddle, pole bending and barrel racing at the Dallas/Fort Worth Stock Show. Then 20 years old, the molly placed second in pole bending to the high-point mule of Texas, a spry 8-year-old.

Drivers and riders as young as 5 have shown Sally in harness, sidesaddle, Western pleasure, English pleasure, Western riding, cattle and gymkhana events. Ridden by Brink's daughter Cindy, Sally, at age 25, won high-point gymkhana horse against horses at the Boulder County Fair. In 1987, 10-year-old Cindy rode Sally bareback on a 25-mile trail ride.

"I could send that old black mule with my 5-year-old daughter to herd cows to the barn," Brink said, "and she'd always patiently wait and wait and wait for Cindy to crawl up on her."

At 43, Sally is teaching her third generation of Brink family members to ride and respect mules.

Mules are like potato chips, Brink said, because "you can't have just one." In 1983, she and Cindy acquired Nifty, a 15-hand, bay molly that had been badly abused. Nifty, registered American Donkey and Mule Society jack X Thoroughbred, was foaled in 1981 near Franktown. Great patience and perseverance also won that mule over, Brink said.

In 1989, Nifty and Cindy won the Horsetooth Mountain Competitive Trail Ride award for best-conditioned youth animal. Brink and Cindy campaigned Nifty from 1984 to 2000 throughout Colorado, including the Larimer and Boulder county fairs, the National Western Stock Show and the Colorado State Fair, where she was six-time, high-point winner. Youth, novice and amateur riders have shown Nifty in Western pleasure, Western riding, English pleasure, sidesaddle, in harness, ranch riding, trail and timed obstacle, packing races and timed gymkhana events.

Nifty worked as a cow mule in North Park from 1984 to 1997. She has also served at Sweetwater Lake Resort outside of Gypsum as a summer trail guide mule and pack mule for hunting camps. Zella's grandchildren, Natasha, 5, and 3-year-old twins David and William, now show semi-retired Nifty in gymkhana events and lead-line classes.

Brink appreciates mules' hardiness. Sally's teeth have needed floating only twice and she's required veterinary care just two or three times in 43 years. Mules rarely colic and generally won't overeat grain or drink excessively when overheated. They can, however, grass founder.

Mules' popularity is growing, and Brink highly recommends them to everyone. County and state fairs are a good place to see mules in action. Other sites include a fun show with many youth events this May in Castle Rock or Bishop Mule Days in California. Information is also available in mule magazines such as Mules & More or Western Mule.

For information about the Rocky Mountain Long Ears Association, call Zel Brink at 881-2442. And, to flatter her, call her mule-headed!