Reason's Rescue Ranch

Kids braved the cold tonight 🥶

Thanks to Missy and Kendra, Theodore is in a very good corral with a shed. He can meet other horses here. It was full of weeds and they cleaned it up. He will be warmer and has hay and straw in the shed.

Theo, have a bright future for him 🖤🤍

Missouri's state animal was chosen in 1995, and a World War II Navy veteran helped make it happen.

The Missouri mule is the offspring of a male donkey, called a jack, and a female horse, a mare, and mules cannot reproduce. Missouri's connection began on the Santa Fe Trail. According to tradition, in 1821 and 1822, William Becknell of Howard County led trading parties from Franklin to Santa Fe and returned with Mexican mules and donkeys. Missouri traders saw that the animals were tough and could work long hours in blistering heat.

The mule became big business. By the late 1800s Missouri was known as the Mule State. One account says St. Louis stockyards bought mules at a pace of as much as $75,000 a day, and by 1922 Missouri had an estimated 440,000 mules. In 1904, more than 1,000 mules were exhibited at the St. Louis World's Fair, according to a Southeast Missourian column. A company supplied mules to the British for the Boer War in 1901 and 1902, and mules also served in both world wars. When tractors took over the fields, the mule market dried up.

Then came the campaign. Many people assumed the mule was already the state animal, but no law said so until the 1990s. According to one account, the effort began with Charles Woody Woodford, a World War II Navy veteran, who discovered the gap while organizing a Missouri Day event. A Southeast Missourian story says the push was launched by the Cape Girardeau American Legion.

The bill passed after two years of campaigning. House Bill 84, the Mule Bill, was signed by Governor Mel Carnahan on May 31, 1995. The Revised Statutes of Missouri say the mule is known for its strength, hardiness, intelligence and even temper. The same session also named the square dance Missouri's folk dance.
The mule has other proud moments. One online history says a Platte County six-mule hitch won at the 1904 World's Fair, and another says a mule team marched in Harry Truman's 1949 inaugural parade, though both are worth confirming with a primary source.

A veteran's idea became state law.

Today we honor all veterans.

Have you ever seen a mule team working?

Illustrated with the use of AI

It is here, feel it every day 😇

👍🏻

Veterans Day eve

Shenoah here again from the Arc and had a great time 🥰🐴🐷😺🐶🐰