The Duck looks on as Dave Rabe kisses his Ass!

Rider and horse name: Dave Rabe and Red the Mule

Horse Barn name: Red. Ass. My Ass.

Breed: Ass.

Ass & rider years in endurance & # of miles Dave: started in 1984 and around 53,000 miles. Red did 1175 in 2011 which was his first year of doing 50’s and up.

Which XP ride did you enjoy the most this year? 2011 XP

Which ride did you find the most challenging, and why? 2011 XP. It took a lot of planning and was quite an ordeal to pull it all together. It was challenging to bring a mule to a ride like this that had done only one 50 prior to the start of the long XP.

What do you feel is the most important thing you learned about yourself and your ass this past year? I learned that he is very stubborn and hard headed. He has a real sweet disposition when you’re not riding him. I learned that he did a lot better by going every other day or every third day. Trying to ride him every day to start with took too much out of him. He was dead ass tired the first week.

Is there anything you did this year that you would do differently next year? (or, if you had a chance to do this last year over again)? I would have brought White Cloud instead of Red, if I could have.

What do you think was the best thing that you did do? Give him days off in between riding. It also helped to ride Red with Max and his two ass’.

What are your ass’ best qualities? He has really big ears and a hard head. He was very conservative which was great. Once he got going down the trail he went great and took care of himself very well.

Did anything funny or strange happen on any of the rides this year? Red pulled my hamstring one day when I was attempting to trot him out and he decided it would be more fun to trot me out and drag me a long like a flag on a pole. He took off on a dead ass run and didn’t’ even trot. I went ass over teakettle and was left lying on the ground on my ass and left in the dust by my ass. My hamstring was very sore for the next two to three weeks. Lynn Rigney bandaged me up and that allowed me to keep riding.

I’d like to thank Dave and Annie for putting on another long XP ride, as well as my sponsors (EasyCare and Select).. Thanks also go to everybody else that chipped in and helped along the way. I want to thank Charlie Gaucci for giving me Cocomo Joe at the end of the ride. I had one of the best drivers on the ride – Dwight deserves credit for getting my horses and rig moved safely and without any mishaps. Also, thank you to Les and Jill Carr for letting me take Red on the ride and making it so challenging. I do love Les’s Ass!