The Mules - Breeding for Trail Riding and the Show Ring

At the Circle Z we currently have our one mare, Nellie, leased out to Tabitha Holland who has bred her to her award winning Jack, Clyde's Gallant Fox. Nellie has produced some awesome mule babies and we have plans to have one of her mule babies as soon as we have more land.

We each have our own show and trail mule. They have somewhat played a back seat due to the showing of our donkey herd, but they will go back into action once we start to do more trail riding.

No Show Jones (Jonsey), is my mule who I acquired from Lori Montgomery. My intention was to ride a mule in competition along with a donkey. I soon realized that I didn't know anything about mule training, and that it was totally different than donkey training. When Jay joined Circle Z Donkeys, he tuned on Jonsey a lot and showed him at several different shows. Jones has become a trail donkey for the time being but my dream is to show him in the NASMA Silver Amateur Classes at Shelbyville, TN.

A Graceful Conclusion is Jay's mule and was his primary show animal until he joined the Circle Z and started to show donkeys. Grace has earned a Champion Performance Mule Title in NASMA as well as a Superior Halter Mule Title. She has won Model Mule Awards in shows such as the All American Mule and Donkey Congress, The Great Celebration, and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

Bett Up Front, aka Nellie, was purchased from Shelley Raley of Starke, Florida, and is a proven producer of quality performance, award winning, NASMA and AQHA horses and mules. She is currently leased out to Tabitha Holland of Signature Equine. Tabitha has bred her to Clyde's Gallant Fox and has had two outstanding mule foals. She plans on breeding Nellie back to Clyde's Gallant Fox this spring for us, and we are really looking forward to this foal.

The two mules we have are wonderful trail and show mules. They have currently been doing more trail riding than showing. We are really looking forward to trail riding them once we get more land. We are also looking forward to raising a few mule babies to show and sell in the near future.