What’s harder than tackling the Coast to Coast path? Doing it with a teenage mule in tow, discovers Hugh Thomson.
I found a mule called Jethro at an RSPCA rescue centre. He was small (about 12½hh) with striking colouring—a freckling of white and beige, like an appaloosa—and an enquiring, appraising gaze. Our first meeting in the stable yard at the RSPCA was cordial, if not effusive. I noticed his eyes: dark, soulful and thoughtful. His colouring wasn’t like anything I had seen in Peru, where mules tended to come in bay or skewbald, if at all; they can be hard to find.
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