Thanks Jason.. It's definitely a good time. Though the dogs we were able to get a lion up a tree for our hunter, even if we hadn't he would have still had the time of his life. He actually runs bear dogs in WV, so he was very familiar with the hound environment, but he couldn't get over the fact that we free cast dogs on dry ground. He had read about it, but never seen or done it before. I know lots of guys on here do the exact same thing so I'm not saying we do anything special, but It's sure cool to take someone that has an appreciation for hounds already and then show them something new.
Daniel, honestly... the mule in that picture is "Willy" and this was his first lion ever packed out. We've packed lots of lions on most all of the other mules, and never needed Willy to pack out, but this time, we wanted our hunter to have the "full" experience
so we loaded the lion up on Willy. The first time you load a lion on a mule or horse's back can get western if you're not careful. We took a lot of time with Willy, just letting him investigate the lion, smell it, look at it. We would pick it up and put it down near him several times, just to let him know that it wasn't going to hurt him. He never offered anything! He really is a solid mule, and has packed more since this one!
On the other hand, my cousin Donnie was trying out a big stout horse that he was considering buying. As soon as Willy walked past that horse with the lion on his back and that horse got a "whiff" of that lion, he wanted no part! Donnie had a mini rodeo!
(needless to say, he didn't buy the horse)
