Long Ears Awards: 2013

Dearest Muleteer Fans can you believe that 2013 is over?  Will you be awarded a snuffle from us Muleteers for contributions to all things long eared? Read on...

Here we are in 2014 with a whole new year of fun and frolics ahead of us, mostly we will be blogging! We think it is fitting to review a fun filled year with the Long Ears Awards for 2013

Rear of The Year

In true Muleteer style we enjoy celebrating the important things in life so to get things started ..... The award for Rear of The Year goes to....

Was there ever any doubt on this award?  Every year should be a Roller Rear Year!

Best Picture of 2013

This is the most difficult category of all!  We all thought the pictures of ourselves were the best so we had a compromise and decided that each of us could choose one picture.... so here are the winners!

The Mini likes this picture of him and his human, he had just had his first bath and his day was complete with cuddles!

Roller looks rather dashing in this picture we think.....

Catanian enjoys her sunlit walk with her beau The Mini

The Mula Exploradora enjoys a sunny Dartmoor day.

Ooooo Furry Face!

A very distinguished pocket labrador

Blog of 2014

When not writing our own mulificent blog we enjoy reading lots of others. This year we have particularly enjoyed reading..

Mulewings - Val's blog is always a highlight of ours, we love her beautiful photography, hearing about Sierra the mule's progress and best of all keeping up to date with the dashing dog Morris!  http://mulewings.blogspot.com

In close runner up spots are some other animal themed blogs full of mules, donkeys, horses, goats, dogs, oh and the occasional human! These are just a selection of the ones we have enjoyed this year, there are so many others but we have run out of space!

Adventures with a Horse - Shyloh and Allison's blog with lots of Haflinger fun and frolics, these guys have been up to such a lot this year, lots of inspiration available and also some rather cute pics of Shy's pals the minions (including a mini hinny!) http://adventureswithahorse.blogspot.com

The Dancing Donkey - http://thedancingdonkey.blogspot.com - this is a wonderful blog featuring two long ears and one short ear (sound familiar?), there's Ramsey the young donkey and his Mum Emma and the delightful short ear Tessa.  Always good for a smile :-)

Dartmoor Ramblings - Em and her clan share their lives on Dartmoor, beautiful wildlife photography and art! http://dartmoorramblings.blogspot.co.uk

A Donkey Diary - Cynthia and her lovely herd of mini donkeys in Canada keep us amused and are a great source of knowledge, especially good for Clicker Training Tips! http://donkeydame.blogspot.com

Drafty Hafy Girl - Our dear friend Camryn the voluptuous Haflinger shares life at the barn with her family! http://draftyhafygurl.blogspot.com

Whiles of Willow - Willows Farm is home to many very well loved creatures including a characterful Gecko and a parrot called Buttercup, however, it is the delightful HoneyBee miniature mare extraordinaire that has caught a certain Roller's eye - we can't keep him away from her pictures, it may be long distance love! http://whimsywillowsfarm.blogspot.com

Zoe the Dales pony's 'A Day in The Life' We continue to love Zoe's daily delights on her blog and we're very proud to have introduced her to satsumas!  http://zoe-adayinthelifeof.blogspot.co.uk

Best Ride of 2013

Dragon and FH have really enjoyed their rides this year and Dragon has also enjoyed taking Smiley human out lots too. This mule is never happier than when she's working.

Favourite of all had to be their adventure on a sunbathed Dartmoor in June - Mula Exploradora she most certainly was :-)

Fans of 2013

We are just so lucky to have some brilliant fans this year! There are those of you that are brave and tell us that you're there (we love your comments!) and then those of you that we think are out there....

So to all of our blog fans this year we couldn't pick just one of you so snuffles to you all :-) We're sorry if we forgot anyone!

Allison, Ann at StudioHyde, Ann, Aunty Di and Co,  Camryn, Carmen, Cynthia and the Gang, Cyril the Dales Pony, The Dancing Donkey Gang, Em at Dartmoor Ramblings, Granny Human, Jo and Family, Judy in Cambridge, Kathy, Laura at Chamfron Stud, Linda from Montreal, Mags in Ireland, Major the Highland Pony, Mary Ann, Naff and Kath,  The Office Gang, Shelley at Bow Street, Stuart and Pat, Val, Von and Barry, Willow and HoneyBee, Zoe and Co.

If you're a reader and we haven't mentioned you leave us a little comment to say hi!

Most Obscure Search Terms

You have no idea what strange search terms bring people to our Muleteer world.... there really are some odd folks out there we think! So we thought we'd share some of the best of 2013 with you (at least the clean ones!), we're as confused as you are!

Evil smile pony - none of those here!!

A little butt scratching goes a long way - very true :-)

Never smile at a crocodile - no idea where this came from.... hopefully we are not about to have a crocodile come to stay?  Although if it keeps on raining.....

And finally it seems that everyone is looking for a 'Pocket Labrador' - Murph is famous as the Pocket Sized Labrador and brings in a huge number of people searching for one just like him.  Sorry only one very rare and loved specimen available :-)


Naughtiest Mule Puppy Moment

Hmmm we are very sure who this will be awarded to this year.... our newest member of the gang is a little wilful and for once has taken the attention of us Muleteers.

We think Milo deserves the 'naughtiest' title for his bed disembowelling!

Yes Milo we know it was you - not a phantom!

Most Popular Post of 2013


Can you believe it?  We hand the blog over for one day and FH writes the most popular post of the year.... hmmm there'll be no more of that this year!  The post with the most visitors was 'Training Mules, Donkeys and Horses with Empathy and Love'

We think we'll forgive her as we reckon it's in the interests of long ears....

The second most popular post was one by us!  It seems that the blogging world enjoyed reading all about a certain Winning Mule!  Dragon was rather proud of her first place :-)

Most Popular Image of 2013

We are always surprised how many folks come to our blog to gaze upon our mulificent selves in photographic form. Some images are more popular than others and it would seem that the most appreciated photos of 2013 were taken in 2012 but seem to appear a lot on google! Here they are:

Best Philosophical Moment

Roller's Philosophical Friday's are a highlight of Granny Human's week so he thinks hard all week to ensure he has a good one for her.  Alas he occasionally gets distracted (normally he has fallen asleep or gone for a roll around) or the humans fail to provide the laptop.... his resolution is to try harder this year!

So Roller has chosen his favourite quote of the year and here it is!  He is such an optimistic little soul, he fills this household with joy!

Don't ever become a pessimist.... a pessimist is correct more often than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun and neither can stop the march of events!
Robert A. Heinlein

Best Treat

We have discovered satsumas!  Mmmm, mule lip smacking good :-)  Dragon has also discovered the delights of slurping the dregs of FH's herbal tea! Mmmmm

Hardest Work

So there have been some hard workers this year.... the humans have moved mountains of mule poo, filled over 1000 haynets, fed the kitty 730 pouches of gourmet kitty food, picked out over 3000 feet, mucked out over 700 dirty beds and rescued an escapee Roller more times than is necessary!

However..... that does not win them the award this year.  The award for hardest work goes to....

The Pocket Sized Labrador!

Murph has had the hard task of bringing up a puppy, and a rather lively one at that.  His puppy likes to call him the Cloth Dog, something to do with the fact that his ears are made of cloth and him being like a big floppy pyjama case.  There's nothing quite like a Cloth Dog....

So Murph has braved the perils of puppyhood and we think it's safe to say that he has raised a very lovely lurcher who really thinks he's a labrador.... you see Milo loves retrieving balls and views everything as a food item whether it's edible or not, not normally traits beloved of a long dog?!

Most Wonderful Gift

We were totally delighted when we received an original painting of none other than The Mini enjoying a good cheeky yawn!  This lovely little painting was painted and given to us by our friend Ann over at Studiohyde http://studiohyde.blogspot.co.uk which is a blog we love visiting.  So Ann, thank you so much!  This picture adorns our wall and brings a smile every time we see it!

Long Ears Award for Outstanding Contribution

No awards would be complete without the big prize! The award that goes to the person that has contributed the most! We didn't even have to think about this one Muleteers, for the second year running the award goes to.....

Carmen Mandel! Carmen has left us so many wonderful and thoughtful comments over the last year, every time we post we look forward to hearing from her, so ears to you Carmen :-) xxx

In runner's up spot we wanted to give special mentions to Judy from Cambridge for all her cuddles and Granny Human for her devotion to carroty treats! We know they both like to keep an eye on our antics - special snuffles and neighbrays to you both!

There we have it Muleteers, we think you all deserve a snuffle and thanks for enjoying 2013 with us :-) We can't wait to share 2014 with you.... watch this space, there may be lots of excitement just around the corner!